Introduction
In business world, nothing can undermine relationship between business operators and their customers than lack of trust. Every success in business operation is determined by the trust one has established with his or her customers. Building a trusting relationship between clients and business operators is not an easy task. The need for trust in business arises as a result of the need for interdependence between the client and the business operator. There is need for total commitment from business operators if they have to establish a trusting relationship with their customers. To achieve this, every business operator needs to have various qualities. Some of these qualities include being honest, showing competence in service provision, good communication skills, being willing to take risk as well as being creative in service provision.
Qualities of service providers needed to build a trusting relationship
To develop and nature a trusting relationship in a service providing business, it requires one to have various consistent and easy to be predicted by their customers. Providing inconsistent services would create a sense of incompetence among the customers making them fail to trust in the service provider. The service provider needs to ensure that his or her actions are consistent with what he or she says (Lewicki & Tomlinson, 2003, para. 2).
Honesty in service provision leads to increased trust from customers. Every customer would like to have a relationship with a person who keeps his or her promises. It is imperative to make promises that you know your business will be able to meet. Making sure that you have fulfilled all the promises reflects your integrity in conduction of the business. Effective communication in the business is imperative. Service providers need to be able to communicate accurately, openly and transparently. By being clear of one’s motives, it leads to elimination of fear among the customers. Service providers need to ensure that they are in a position to clearly explain their aims in whatever they do.
This makes it easy for customers to ascertain his or her trustworthiness as the provider is willing to work transparently and be monitored. In providing services, the provider needs to show concern of his or her customers. Customers can develop trust in a service provider when they realize that he or she is always sensitive to their needs, interests and desires. This can be achieved through adjusting the services to ensure that they meet all the customer needs. Providing your services in a manner that appears to respect and protect the values of your customers can also lead to trust. Providing services in a way that seem to contradict customer values may make them deem that the service provider is targeted to satisfy his or her interests at their expense thus leading to them failing to trust him (Lewicki & Tomlinson, 2003, para. 3).
Responsibility leads to business growth. Service providers need to be ready to take responsibility of any error that might arise as he or she offers the services. Accepting the blame and working hard to fix the problem would lead to customers trusting in your services. Accepting to take the blame reflects ones integrity in providing his or her services. Establishing strong ethics in service provision can lead to trust in the business.
The service provider needs to ensure that his or her services are aimed at meeting customer needs and not for helping him or her meet his interests. It is unethical for service providers to offer incomplete or unproductive services to customers. Making empty promises to customers is also unethical and may make them fail to trust in you. The service provider needs to inform his or her customers about the needs he or she can not be able to meet for them to look for other service providers rather than promising them that they are capable of solving their problems only to fail in future.
Service providers need to have good listening skills. This will help them in understanding all their customer needs. In return, they can be in a position to develop their services in a manner that they will be able to meet most of these needs. Being able to cope with the changing customer needs will lead to customers trusting in the service provider. Some may even be willing to get advises from the provider. When customers feel that all their needs are listened to and addressed by the service provider, they are readily willing to turn to the service provider whenever they are faced with some problems (Lewicki & Tomlinson, 2003, para. 4-6).
This is due to the trust they have built on the service provider. Being able to read the non-verbal signals sent by customers will help in ensuring that all their needs are addressed. In most cases, customers might not be in a position to explain all their needs. Some needs are reflected by the way they behave. Being able to read these behaviors would help the service provider in ensuring that his or her services meet all these needs. This would lead to customer satisfaction thus trusting in the service provider.
No business can succeed without operator’s courage. Service providers need to have courage and be action-oriented. This would make them have the will to take risk in addressing customer needs that other service providers fear to address. A customer is satisfied when he or she finds that all his or her needs are addressed. This makes them opt to deal with service providers who they feel to meet all their needs.
Having courage to take risk would lead to the service provider standing out thus many customers trusting in his or her services. One also needs to be creative. This would help in being able to change with the changing customer needs. Meeting customer needs in a different and effective method from the one used by your competitors would make one be preferred by customers. Most customers are willing to trust in service providers who are flexible and willing to come up with new methods for addressing same problems.
Strategies used to earn trust
There are various strategies employed by business organizations to earn trust from their customers. These include emphasizing on the quality of their products or services. Customers are willing to buy good product or service at higher price that is sold poor service or product at a lower price. By ensuring that your business always provides quality products and services, one can earn trust from the customers thus making them come back to the business. Good inventory management also helps in earning customer trust. A customer will not be willing to come back to a business where he or she finds some items out of stock. Managing inventory ensures that every item is on stack always thus making sure that the business meets all customer needs.
Excitements in the business lead to customers trusting in the business. This can be achieved through rotating merchandise to make the shop look attractive to customers. Ensuring that new products in the shop are placed in strategic places where customers can easily see them also helps in improving the trust customers have in the business. Customers are attracted by businesses that always surprise them. Ensuring that you have provided your customers with more than they expect leads to them building trust in your business. They are assured of always getting all they need from your shop. They will be willing to come again and again (Carter, 2008, para. 2-5). Placing products strategically facilitates in easing customer buying exercise making them like the shop. Their purchasing power also increases.
Importance of trust to a business-to-business salesperson
For a business-to-business salesperson, relationship built on trust is very vital as it determines the competitive advantage of his or her business. The level of trust that the salesperson acquires with his or her business partners determines the competing power of his or her business. This trust depends on the perceptions of other business operators with regard to his or her honesty and integrity in conducting business activities. A study has shown that trust is greatly related to turnover, sales and profit made by any business. This implies that the ability of a business-to-business salesperson to earn trust from his or her customers significantly leads to his or her business has a competitive advantage over its rivals (Ebersole, 2009, para. 3).
Reference
Carter, C. (2008). How to Earn Customer Trust. Web.
Ebersole, G. (2009). The Strategic Importance of Trust in Business, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach. Web.
Lewicki, J & Tomlinson, E. (2003). Trust and Trust Building. Web.