If you’re used to working in the corporate world, the chances are that you’ve typically operated within well-trusted and well-liked companies. Unfortunately, as you may be learning the hard way within your startup, these trust levels aren’t a given. In fact, much like profits and longevity, consumer trust can be incredibly hard to come by.
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
The good news is that once earned, business trust is typically on your side forever, ensuring that you can enjoy reduced client turnovers, word of mouth, and a whole load of benefits besides. The question is, why don’t clients trust your startup right now, and what can you do about it?
# 1 – You’ve failed to get businesses on side
Too often, companies go straight for the jugular with customer focuses that fail to factor for the part other businesses play in popularity and trust. As a startup, though, the recommendation of reliable, well-known businesses is one of the best ways to get customers trusting you. In fact, recommendations like these matter so much that even techniques like SEO factor them through link placements. As such, you need to get businesses onside by getting your name out there, proving your worth, and also showing them why they could benefit from working with you.
Luckily, this is easier to do than ever before thanks to social media. By sharing another company’s page or generally commenting on their stuff, you can get your name out there. Do this enough, and you might just find that they start to return those recommendation favours.
# 2 – Your policies are all over the place
In a more practical sense, business trust also depends on your policies, specifically where data protection is concerned. Unfortunately, location-dependent data rules make it incredibly difficult to get a grasp on this to start with, leaving small businesses open to data breaches when they need them the least.
Make sure it doesn’t happen by seeking it consulting from day one that allows you to get on top with distributed clouds and other such precautions that ensure you provide geo-specific security without having to stress. As soon as customers see that you’ve taken these steps, you should start to move further and further towards their good sides.
# 3 – The risk of an unknown entity
Despite efforts elsewhere, the simple fact is that an unknown entity is always going to pose some risks. As such, you also need to provide consistent, trustworthy service that customers can begin building their trust in.
As well as focusing on general processes, seeking reviews is the best way to make the most of positive customer experiences. This way, people will be able to see much more of what you’re about, and whether you’re worth their trust. Which, if you’ve put your all into CX, you likely will be.
Even if you feel like you’re fighting a losing battle where business trust is concerned, keep at it. After all, once you win them around, you win them around forever.
