Trust and Profit. Practical ways communications can create both. (part 1)

We live in a skeptical time; you know this. A recent study by Datamonitor, “Building and Profiting From Consumer Trust,” reported that 86 percent of consumers have become distrustful of corporations. 86 percent! It’s a simple truth that people don’t trust what we, as businesses, have to say.

Actually, it’s not hard to understand why. Read the headlines and you’ll see plenty of corporate misdeeds. Try to work with the average Customer Service department and you’ll likely experience a spike in your blood pressure. Too many companies have made it a habit to talk one way and act another. Seriously, the reason we have a Sarbanes-Oxley Act is that too many companies are willing to abuse the public’s trust.

Unfortunately for most companies, though, there is a direct relationship between profitability and high levels of customer trust.

The First Rule of Trust is You Never Talk About Trust

You simply can’t talk about trust publicly. People won’t listen, and for most of those that do, the skeptic alarms will blare. No, trust can only be earned. Which leads to:

Tactic #1: Show your employees the connection between ethical behavior and personal benefit.

People, in general, don’t like to be preached to while at work. Ranting on “doing the right thing” tends to make people tune out. Yet your employees—be they in the C-suite or the plant floor—constantly act in ways that either reinforce trust with your customers or undermine it.

A critical tactic for building trust and profitability is to connect your employees’ actions with their own personal success. To change their behavior, you have to make it in their own self-interest to change.

The Virginia Association of REALTORS^® (VAR) is doing just that. They have a long-established Code of Ethics that everyone reads and very few think is relevant to their daily activities. VAR is launching a campaign to show REALTORS^® how the way you act (ethics) directly affects your ability to sell. Ethics is not some 10-cent word; it’s money in your pocket. It’s referrals. It’s more listings. It’s better cooperation from your fellow REALTORS^®.

But the campaign, to be successful, must be more than a break-room poster. You have to get the attention of the audience before you can begin educating them. Remember, people are skeptical of all discussions centered on trust.

To get the attention of REALTORS^® in Virginia, VAR created a character that parodies the industry by grossly exaggerating all of the unethical behavior VAR is trying to eradicate. While the character is entertaining, he also subtly begins educating viewers on the downside to behaving unethically.

Once the audience has been fully engaged, the program offers several options for learning more about the benefits, the practical benefits, of living by the Code of Ethics. It’s here that the Code of Ethics takes on more personal meaning. It also translates the formal legal text of the code into language that’s easier to grasp and apply.

Read part 2