What Makes People Trust an organization?
There are several factors to have in place when trying to build trust with an audience. It starts from the quality of your product or service to the tone of your marketing. Everything plays a role in building credibility and trust. But is that all that makes people trust an organization? And how can you make sure your audience trusts you? In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at what makes people trust an organization and some tips on how to strengthen that trust. So without further ado, let’s get started!
What helps to develop trust?
Trust is developed over time. Like any other wide concept, trust needs a strong foundation of values. Four major elements make up trust: consistency, compassion, competency, and communication. In simple terms, the company should exercise communication effectively, be compassionate towards each other and their customers, improve their service delivery efficiency and product quality, and be consistent in whatever they do. Below are several aspects of an organization that facilitates trust within itself and with its customers.
- Reliable Employees/Supervisors
Suppose you are a manager or a supervisor in charge of a number of team members. If you want to achieve trust among them, you must be the first to extend this courtesy. Empower your employees and team players. Ask for their input to make the organization successful. Make sure you call them for strategic meetings and ask for their ideas and insights. Capitalize on and reward their abilities. In doing this, you will make them appreciative of your leadership, and are on the right track to earning the trust of your employees. Therefore, when you don’t allow your team members or employees to get involved or feel like they contribute towards the organization’s decision-making, you alienate your staff and they feel like you do not trust them. This is damaging to an organization’s success.
- Honesty And Transparency
This is the most widely followed rule for establishing trust. When there is integrity, transparency, and honesty in all the processes involving the day-to-day running of an organization, then the creation of trust is increased. However, when there is corruption, a flaw in transactions, and deceit of any kind, trust is sabotaged. Customers, employees, team members, stakeholders, and managers of an organization require honesty. Breaching honesty does not only ruin trust, it also destroys respect and interpersonal relationships. Supervisors and employers should strive to be straightforward with their employees and shareholders, especially during hard times. This is the best method to cultivate trust.
- Effective Communication
Efficacious communication within any organization is the goal of every team member. Information from the manager or head of an organization, for example, should reach the junior-most employer within a reasonable timeframe. This is enabled through a designed hierarchy and effective mechanism of circling information.
Effective communication is also crucial between the business and its clients especially when they send a question, tracking a delivery or trying to resolve a problem. Whether internal or external with customers, it is good to deliver timely and authentic information to build trust.
- Good Listening
This is most pertinent skill that senior members of an organization need to harness to build trust with their employees. This is because management who listen, earn trust more than those who do not. Employees have the advantage of working closely with clients and so have real life solutions and viewpoints. This is a key reason why employers must give them a keen ear. You cement a healthy working relationship based on respect and mutual trust when you genuinely listen to your staff. If an employer is not a good listener, then his staff may think that they are contemptuous and disrespectful. This is an unhealthy work relationship, and it destroys trust.
The same principle applies to the business and their clients. They need to be good listeners to provide customized/ personalized experiences that make the brand stand out from others.
- Consistency
Actions speak louder than words. A leader of an organization should always accompany their words with actions. This ensures employees know what to expect. When you insist, on time-keeping, you should lead by example. If you discourage a particular habit in the workplace, you should not be found doing it. Keep your word and be fair in your judgment at all times. This will make your employees trust you and your abilities.
For clients, consistency is critical especially in quality delivery and the more consistent the experience, the more trustworthy the brand becomes.
- Compassion
A caring employee, boss and leader, gains trust faster than a cold, inhuman one. When you show care and sympathy for your employees, it is easier to gain their respect and trust.
For brands, many people mistake compassion for weakness, but this is untrue because it builds credibility and authenticity. This is especially seen in the delivery of customer service when they take an interest in the customers challenges and treat them with respect and dignity. This is a simple way to build trust in your brand.
Is Trust Necessary in the Organization?
Lack of trust within an organization can be extremely damaging. Research shows that trust takes years to develop but will quickly wither if it is not a genuine priority. This happens when the management concentrates more on an organization’s aims and financial benefits and forgets that trust is one of the greatest factors to cultivate with employees and with their customers. Unless the organization’s upper management work on improving trust, achieving their objectives will be an uphill task.
Final Take Away
So, what makes people trust an organization? We explored good listening, consistency, good communication, compassion and more as the key elements that contribute to trustworthiness in an organization. We also discussed how you can work on building trust with your employees and clients. Trust, respect, and honesty are the building blocks of an organization.
