Nothing builds trust like good results
Results are the third major building block of trust after customer orientation and competence. What could be more convincing than a series of successful references? How these are best communicated varies from one industry to the next.
What are relevant results?
First of all, it is important to find out which results are worth communicating at all. Today’s business world is characterized by a high degree of competition, except for very few specialists. Whether I’m looking for a craftsman, a lawyer, a doctor or a communications agency — I have many to choose from in any case. The situation is similar in the B2B sector. Here, competitors are often not to be found in the same country, but are nevertheless present and also active in the company’s own sales territory. Whether this is the mechanical engineering company with competitors from Italy and China or the construction machinery manufacturer with competitors from Sweden and the USA or the software manufacturer with competitors from England and, in case of doubt, the USA, they all have to consider which results are worth showing in comparison to their competitors.
If one does not act as a price leader, the simple rule applies: Be with the best!
And also, only in those areas where you consider yourself among the best in your field should you document your results.
For trustworthiness, it is enormously important not to promise too much and, in case of doubt, to deliver more than the customer expected. Enriching one’s own products with supplements that are important for later use is an effective means here. If the carpenter not only gives me personal instruction in the handling and care of the new built-in furniture, but also an attractive wooden box with the basic set of care products, this is an additional service that I give him high credit for. Or if the machine builder provides a login area free of charge where I can track the maintenance intervals of the machine and see live the current condition of my new major investment. So it’s worth thinking about what questions the customer will have about my product or service immediately after the handover. Giving him the appropriate answers without being asked in connection with the handover creates a feeling of overachievement in him. Be Mister 120%!
If you belong to the best, awards and distinctions are valuable evidence that you should not miss. They document the outstanding results of one’s own work in a striking way. My recommendation for this is not only to list the awards you have won in a logo series, but to connect them with your customer.
Awards + Connection
If you have built the fastest electronic component in your industry and receive an award for it, this speed has a benefit and a meaning for your customer. He can use it, for example, to have certain processes calculated faster, which has the benefit of saving heating energy. Or if you win a design award, it has the benefit of the beauty of the product, which you can enjoy every day and which leads to it feeling particularly pleasant in the hand. Or is particularly easy to use. Or simply looks much cooler than the competing products.
It therefore makes sense to write a short sentence for each award that makes the connection to the customer short and concise.
Before and after method
For the interior designer, there is hardly a better tool than to show the newly decorated home before the remodel and after. The effect should be immediately obvious. If it’s not, she’s missed her job. Picture spreads with before and after images are purposeful in all professions where something is being changed. This does not only apply to design. Surely you have seen such photos from gyms or weight loss guides. You can think about the extent to which your business changes things. Even if the service is not visible, as in the case of consultations, the person who was advised changes. Even a facial expression can speak volumes.
The perfect statement
In my digital agency, I’ve seen it happen time and time again, and I got it completely wrong in the beginning. We simply asked our client for statements from their customers. The answer was almost always that it was difficult to get them. When we then asked emphatically, the second attempt often resulted in two or three statements (“If you knew how difficult it was to get them ….”) — unfortunately unusable. The statements were in the style of “We were actually always satisfied” or “Mr. Meier, who is unfortunately no longer here, was a good contact person”. You can’t imagine the bizarre sentences that were presented to us. Even a well-intentioned endless list of what was great is neither credible nor convincing.
We have therefore developed a questionnaire that directly targets the results. When answering, the customer describes what his starting point was, what result he was aiming for, and how he got there with the help of the provider. Since in this area, as everywhere on the Internet, no one likes to read long texts, the spice is in the brevity.
Besides the direct statement on the page (ideally as a video), there is also the possibility to copy statements from online reviews and paste them on your own page.
If you are a new startup and don’t have many customer statements yet, you can think about letting other people have their say. Think about opinion leaders or even partner companies who report on why they like working with the company based on the great results.
And if the results are not so great?
Dealing with mistakes is an essential point for the trustworthiness of the company. Mistakes happen everywhere. They are human and cannot be prevented even by the best four-eyes principle. What matters is how you deal with them.
The 3 steps when something goes wrong
Apologize. Important: This is where the boss comes in. Mistakes are always delegated upwards, never downwards. In any case, it is disastrous for your credibility if the boss tries to make it clear to the customer that it was “only” an employee who was responsible for the mistake. In case of doubt, the boss was responsible for hiring the employee, for the leadership and guidance, and for the organization that should have prevented the mistake. Therefore, it can never be the employee who has to bear the responsibility. It is always the boss who has to apologize.
You fix it. And quickly. And without any discussion about responsibility. There is nothing more unpleasant about unsatisfactory work than a supplier who tries to make it clear that the unsatisfactory product is actually okay. Trust is then lost in any case. Unfortunately, the flood of lawsuits for damages in German courts shows that this area has lost its naturalness.
People learn from their mistakes and draw consequences. At this point, I must correct my statement under point 1 to the extent that the consequence can also lie in the realization that the employee is not optimally deployed in this position. In that case, something may have to be changed. Of course, it may also be that one’s own service does not function optimally in certain contexts.
It is very worthwhile to think about how to communicate responsibility for one’s own mistakes to new customers. I well remember an IT service provider’s website that had the boss right on the home page with the statement, “I’ll bail out what I bail you in.” Does that inspire confidence? I think No. After all, you shouldn’t make too many mistakes either.
My recommendation is a separate paragraph or subchapter in the service section.
Responsibility as a service point
When I read here that the company takes responsibility for its own mistakes and what the process is for doing so, it builds trust. You don’t have to talk about mistakes in the process, either, if you want to avoid the word. But it is quite possible to report that projects can sometimes run longer than planned and that the necessary resources will then continue to be available in any case. Or that a special service has been organized to find a solution even over the weekend in case of an emergency.
Results are one of the most important instruments for generating trust among potential new customers. It is therefore worthwhile to think carefully about which results should be communicated and how best, and how you as a company generally take responsibility for your results.
