Building Trust with Your Customers: A Case Study
Building trust is an essential part of developing a strong relationship with your customers.
When you have trust, your customers will give you the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong. They will be willing to support you, if you want to test an idea or a new product.
They will be happy to give feedback and testimonials
But more importantly, when they trust you they will recommend you. It’s their reputation on the line when they recommend you, so they have to be confident you are going to do a good job.
So, how do you go about building trust?
That’s a huge question – and there’s no way I’m going to be able to answer that in one go.
However, I would like to share with you an experience I recently had, which, I believe, really demonstrates how you build trust with your customers…
I was considering buying a new phone.
I popped into my favourite tech shop and started to get into a deep conversation about the phone I was thinking about. We debated battery life and functionality. We talked through memory size, and I was beginning to think it was time to get the credit card out.
Then along came the guy I usually see. When I told him I was thinking of buying the new phone, he suggested I might want to wait. Whilst he wasn’t certain, there were strong signs a new model would be coming out around September.
Furthermore, he started talking through ways I could improve battery life on my existing phone. He suggested changes to settings, and some of the functions that used more battery life that could be avoided.
He really impressed me.
He clearly had my best interests at heart – not trying to make the sale
He knows I am a loyal customer, so I was likely to be back. And, by helping me, I’m much more likely to seek him out, when I am ready to make a purchase.
It’s very hard to resist taking your customer’s money, when they want to buy. But helping them to choose what is right for them, even if it means turning away the sale, will develop their trust.
