Why Is Trust Important To You?

We have talked at length about so many good and bad customer service experiences over the past several months.  As we were reflecting recently, one of the most important values  in customer loyalty to a particular brand is trust.  Given this, we have a couple questions we’re going to answer regarding trust.

Question 1: Are there any particular companies you are loyal to because they have earned your trust and why?

Jenny: Hey Jeremy! Trust is SO important with companies. I can definitely tell you that I am loyal to my bank and have been since 1995. The turning point with them was when I had my debit card stolen and they went above and beyond to help make sure I was taken care of. Their customer support is superb! I am also loyal to my cell phone provider because of their great customer support. They may be more pricey that some other  companies, but knowing I can trust them to always receive great support and a strong cell signal is worth every penny.

Jeremy: Those are such great examples in industries where trust is so fragile.  Isn’t it so true that when money enters the picture, trust is harder to come by?  There are so many great ones.  I have talked about my mechanic several times but he’s great.  He always refers to me by name and is careful to explain everything he’s doing on my cars.  Once, he applied a coupon for me even though I didn’t bring one because he said he always takes care of his neighbors (They are right down the street).  Another one that comes to mind is a company, SweatPrints, who we have purchased custom shirts from.  They are always friendly and upbeat and through consistency and quality have earned my trust and repeat business.

Question 2: We want our customers to have complete trust in us.  What are two things that you think are critical in our customer service department to achieving this?

Jenny: Wowzas, now that’s a good question! The two things that come to mind instantly are:

1. Contact (email, phone, chat) with a reliable customer service department that responds in a timely manner.

2. Consistency with high quality service levels, an easy to navigate website that doesn’t change too often and a support team that can always provide great support.

Do you agree? What would you modify? What are your TWO things?

Jeremy: Those are great answers but for the sake of being different I’m going to throw out two more:

1. Clear Expectations- Especially when it comes to billing, we need to bill the customers what we say we’re going to bill them.  If we charge them more than they expect it is extremely damaging to customer trust even if customer service is quick to fix the issue.

2. Courtesy- I’m sticking with “C” words here.  Customer service pros that are over-the-top friendly and do that consistently really win my trust.  I associate a great feeling with interacting with that company and those feelings keep me coming back.

Those are our thoughts on trust.  What are your answers to these questions?  Do tell!