We all know customers can dislike a lot of things, but there are three (3) in particular that will elicit stronger emotions than a simple dislike. If you want to know how to kill your customers’ trust, keep reading.
Trust is largely earned from others through your trustworthiness. Because you can’t make others trust you, nor can they make you trustworthy, the ball is definitely in your court. As a quick reminder, the key dimensions that underpin trustworthiness are your:
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- Ability (can you deliver?)
- Humanity (will you act in my best interest?)
- Integrity (will you deliver?)
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That means if you don’t/can’t deliver on each of these promises, you’ll find it very difficult to elicit trust in the first place or to maintain it.
As you review each of the following, it’s worth thinking about whether or not your customers are encountering any or all of them and how you can prevent that from happening.
What are the consequences if you don’t?
There are consequences for everything. If any of your customers experience and hate these things, that’s a good reason you should avoid them in the first place. But if they happen, they will have a direct, negative impact on the metrics that matter to you and your company. Here are some of the implications (although this list is not exhaustive):
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- Delayed or incomplete customer onboarding
- Poor engagement
- Lack of upsell opportunities
- Risk of non-renewal (if in a contract)
- Churn to a competitor
- Negative sentiment in the market (we all know how social media can amplify good and bad news)
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As you can see, if left unaddressed, some things can literally see your trust (essential to survival), customer count, revenue and business value decline precipitously.
How to kill your customers’ trust
These things can kill trust and have incredibly negative results for both you and the customer, so make sure you eliminate them from the customer’s experience.
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- Unknowns
- Surprises
- Repeating themselves
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Let’s look at each of these in detail.
How to kill your customers’ trust – unknowns
It’s widely acknowledged that companies dislike uncertainty. This because it affects their confidence in the future. Your customers also dislike uncertainty because it brings with it a heightened sense of risk that seems uncontrollable. All trust involves some form of risk taking. But only if the trustor (i.e. customer) has reached the conclusion the risks are worth it and they believe you are trustworthy and will deliver on your promises.
Unknowns keep people from being able to plan ahead with confidence, budget appropriately, or perhaps secure resources. They are things that require discovery, identification, or clarification. The problem is your customers may not even know it’s something they need to discover in the first place.
If your customers experience any unknowns, it’s natural to think it’s their fault. But it’s really yours. You don’t want your customers to have an “OMG” moment because they just figured something out that you should have told them in the first place. Save that moment for when they get the result they want (or better).
What customers will say
You’ll know when your customers experience unknowns because they’ll say things like; ‘why didn’t you tell me about this?’, ‘I wish I’d known about that’, ‘I don’t have the budget for that’, ‘I don’t have the resources for that’, ‘I don’t have approval for that’, ‘nobody told me about this’, ‘how was I supposed to know?’.
Some of the things that may trigger unknowns for your customers could be:
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- Poor documentation
- Badly executed change management on the customer side
- Not fully understanding the customer journey in the first place
- Not managing expectations
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Unknowns are trust killers so it’s worth making the effort to make sure they don’t happen.
How to kill your customers’ trust – surprises
We all like surprises except when we don’t. They’re generally welcomed if they deliver positive news, outcomes and emotions such as when we’re celebrating a birthday or other special occasion. These typically involve some form of acceptable containment. But no one likes uncontained surprises, especially in a business setting when the consequences are negative.
In such a setting, surprises can be unanticipated events, facts, or things that cause negative emotions. For example, not being advised that a particularly important meeting has been postponed or being subject to an unexpected price increase.
What customers will say
You can expect your customers to say things like; ‘what just happened?’, ‘that was shocking’, ‘I didn’t expect that’, ‘why did you let that happen?’, ‘why did you let me do that?’, ‘why is this happening now?’. If you hear your customers say these things, you shouldn’t be surprised that they’re surprised.
Some of the things that may trigger a surprise for your customers could be:
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- Unexpected charges or price hikes
- Uncommunicated key staff absences or re-assignments
- Sudden handoffs to other people in the business
- Unexplained changes to products and service packages
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The best way to avoid surprising your customers is to communicate (clearly and directly) in a way that ensures they understand what they’re being told.
Surprises are trust killers so it’s worth making the effort to make sure they don’t happen.
How to kill yoiur customers’ trust – repeating themselves
One of my pet hates is being asked to repeat myself (sometimes several times), despite making it clear from the outset what my needs/preferences are. This seems to happen a lot when I contact my telco provider. In my mind, this indicates not only a lack of focus by the service provider, but also a lack of respect for me as a customer. We’ve all been in retail outlets when the person serving is in a side conversation with a colleague (or another customer) rather than focusing on you as a customer.
Handoffs are neither good nor bad, but if they’re necessary it’s best practice to make sure they are handled professionally and with the least inconvenience or irritation to customers. That means clear and effective communication and capturing information once so it can be easily shared with colleagues.
No system is perfect but …
Of course, no system is perfect. Someone in your business must update the customer record and someone else has to consume what is there when they prepare to work with a customer. But that’s all time consuming, so there’s a temptation to just ask the customer to tell you what they already told other people before you. From a customer’s perspective, that’s unacceptable in this day and age.
Customers don’t feel heard when they have to repeat themselves and from their perspectibe that probably means:
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- You really don’t care about me as a customer (despite what you say)
- You’re not listening to me
- You’re not synced internally and don’t have your act together
- You’re wasting my time (I’m time poor too)
- I no longer trust you
- I hate you and I’m going to tell my family and all my friends
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If this happens in today’s business environment, with an abundance of technological solutions that are designed to keep customers from having to repeat themselves, it means you just don’t care and it will be obvious to your customers.
The more the customer has to repeat themselves, the less they’ll want to engage. Less engagement means less product/service adoption, upsell opportunities, advocacy, and contract renewal and more contraction, churn, public complaints, and negative word of mouth.
Having customers repeat themselves is a trust killer so it’s worth making the effort to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Summary
The core issue here is that you have to continually maintain your trustworthiness with customers and do whatever you can to avoid the things that will kill their trust in you. That means consistently delivering on all promises associated with your ability, humanity and integrity.
What do you think?
When performed with the right intent and a high degree of execution, your company’s actions can earn trust with its stakeholder groups. Trust is a strong differentiator and a dominant driver of future business profit and growth.
We’ve made trust tangible with our Trustgenie service—helping companies measure, manage, and improve their trust performance to increase revenue, reduce costs, mitigate risks and protect reputations.
If your company is ready to make trust its superpower, Trustgenie can help.