Have you ever tried baking a cake or a batch of muffins and missed an important ingredient like baking soda or perhaps accidently used plain flour instead of self-raising flour? If so, your cake or muffins were probably a flop—literally—as they would not rise without those ingredients.
Of the many ingredients that combine to make up a business, trust is required to allow your business to rise and be successful. Trust is the main ingredient in a successful business—it is a business and brand asset you must manage with care, especially in your relationships with your clients or customers.
Would you work with a business you don’t trust? No? It’s true that often we need to be convinced that a business is worthy of our trust before we take the leap and work with them or purchase their products and services.
Trust is the main ingredient
in a successful business
—it is a business and brand asset
you must manage with care,
especially in your relationships
with your clients or customers.
So, put yourself into yourself into your customers’ shoes for a moment. What would convince you as a potential customer to put your trust in your business?
Tips on how to build trust with customers and potential customers via social media
- Be real and believable.
Customers want to get to know you, the person or people behind the business, the story behind the brand. Tell your story. - Customers are people too, so treat them as people, and as individuals.
Interact person to person and build bridges. - Listen to your customers.
Yes, social media is social—and that means two-way interaction, not just pushing out your message (and your products and services) to the masses. So, listen to what your customers are saying and what they want and respond to them. - Be trustworthy!
That may sound obvious, but for trust to form, you must show you are worthy of someone’s trust. For example, follow through on promises made. - Trust cannot be bought, it must be earned.
Giveaways and discounts can be useful promotional tools, but you cannot buy trust, you need to work at it and earn it. Building trust is not a once-off action, it is about repeated and consistent actions resulting in trust growing over time.
“If people like you they will listen to you,
but if they trust you,
they’ll do business with you.”
Zig Ziglar
Not only is it important to build good relationships and trust with potential new customers or clients, it is also important to maintain trust with ongoing clients and to part amicably when paths diverge. Avoid burning bridges, as people’s needs change, and if a client moves on, you never know, you might run into them again some time. Take a look at my case studies below for examples.
Case study 1
In my previous business, My Virtual Assistant, about 11 years ago, I worked for a few years for a particular businesswoman, but in a different role. At the time she owned a few health clinics and I performed admin and customer service tasks for her.
Today, my business is very different, and so is hers. She now coaches those wanting to start their own business. Early this year she saw me online promoting Social Jam and didn’t hesitate to get in touch. She still needed to find out if I could help her with her needs, but I already had a foot in the door, as the trust between us was already there. So, trust wasn’t a factor holding her back from deciding whether or not to engage my services. So, after all this time I am assisting her again, in a whole new capacity. This is example of how important good relationships and trust are in business. What’s more, you cannot get that level of trust straightaway, it can take time—sometimes years—to build.
Case study 2
About five years ago I did some basic social media contract work for a client for about two years, until they hired an internal marketing person. Recently, the same client contacted me to request some social media graphics, unaware of my new business, Social Jam. After I told her about my new focus, she hired me to look after her entire social media strategy and management for her two brands. We are doing some big things with her brands including photo sessions and videography and I manage all of this for her. She trusts me impeccably. Once again, you can’t rush those years of trust and relationship forming.
There are prospective clients or customers out there waiting to get to know you. Are you using social media to its potential to draw out these clients or customers and start building their trust?
For help managing your social media channels, check out our Jam Packages or book an initial Jam Session.