You
Need to Capture Your Customers' Trust
It's a precious attribute for any company--and under assault in our economy.
How, when, and how many of your long-term
customers will be back? Do they have confidence that you've successfully
weathered the COVID-19 storm and, more importantly, do they still trust you?
You might even ask whether they trust anyone these days.
This is a difficult question to answer in the
post-pandemic world and it's not getting any easier to figure out in the
increasingly toxic atmosphere that surrounds us. Trust, in the best of times,
is a precious and delicate notion and suspicion, not even proof, is enough in
many cases to destroy its fragile fabric. Add in an out-of-control segment of
the media and dozens of lying politicians promoting destructive fictions, and
you have chaos, turmoil and rampant misinformation.
The truth becomes ever harder to discover,
promote and protect.
Fox News spews constant lies, phony facts and
stats invented by deluded provocateurs and attacks the credibility of experts
such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health authorities while claiming that
Covid-19 vaccines are causing thousands of deaths. Far too many people,
listening to this garbage, are convinced that our government officials are
lying to us and conspiring to do us in.
When people no longer trust even themselves to
know enough to make the right choices, they rely upon, and begin to depend on
other, often simplistic and authoritarian inputs. Truth is replaced by show and
spectacle, reason by rote repetition, and facts by blinded "faith."
Jefferson said long ago that: "a continual circulation of lies among those
who are not much in the way of hearing them contradicted will in time pass for
the truth."
Sadly, thanks to six plus years of unrelenting
assault by a disgraced and discarded huckster and his minions, the most
precious component of democracy - our trust in business, government and each
other - is under constant and continued attack. And trust - the very foundation
of democracy - is largely losing the battle. We see this happening with
millions of Americans every day.
In its earlier Trust Barometer reports, the public
relations firm Edelman held out the hopeful prospect that, at a minimum,
consumers and employees still retained some degree of comfort and confidence in
the integrity and reliability of small businesses. But that was before the
pandemic largely destroyed the office environment and killed off the water
cooler conversations that were the primary sources of so many individuals'
knowledge about what was going on in the world around them. Left in their own
homes and to their own devices (no pun intended), many consumers didn't and
still don't
really know where to turn.
If you think for a moment that all the
political and media goings-on at a national level aren't going to directly
impact the way your customers will be acting and reacting to your own products,
services and other offerings, you've got your head
stuck somewhere. Expect them to be suspect and cynical of, and reluctant to
return to, business as usual. They'll need considerable comforting and
cajoling.
If you want your customers to return, you need
to get busy. And, while it's helpful and necessary, straightforward marketing
and advertising or just focusing on burnishing your brand isn't going to be
sufficient.
Your brand promise is important but delivering on it in real time and in the
real world is essential.
You've got a lot to prove to many tentative
and confused people and only a short window to do so because you're competing
now not simply with the guys down the block, but also with Amazon and many
others in an enhanced, expanded e-commerce world that has become an everyday
part of almost everyone's lives.
And you can't do it by yourself. You'll need
your past, present and future team members to get the job done. But not all of them. So, you need to
focus on those who can most quickly help to address your customers' concerns
and restore your customers' trust and confidence.
Every business will now need to carefully move
to rebuild their connections with their customers and to be sure that they
don't imperil the trust and loyalty that their customers once again place in
them. Take the time to do a few key and important things really well. Things
that matter to your customers.
Cutting corners, service and staff cutbacks,
and other short-term compromises are the very worst things you can be doing at
this moment. Doing nothing, on the other hand, is a sure way to lose.
Focus on solid and consistent execution.
Your business is built on your brand (and its
promise) and your brand is built on three simple ideas: authenticity,
trustworthiness, and reliability. Each is especially crucial right now. Be the
one people can count on and trust and they'll come
running back.