Trust is a social construct referring to the way people relate to one another in all areas of their lives. It´s the glue that binds people to one another and customers to organisations and, in a world where trust is a scarce commodity, winning it is becoming increasingly important to the success of any growing business.

It would be nice to believe that we engender trust in all those we come across; however, although human beings have a propensity to trust, we also know that there are those who would abuse or misuse our natural instinct to believe in the goodness and honesty of others. A growing business needs to be aware of the importance of gaining the trust of their paying audience, the ease with which that trust can be lost, and the processes that absolutely must be put in place to safeguard these efforts to win customer loyalty.

Trust is not something you can easily control as it comes from the emotions and perceptions of others. Attempting to influence this can sometimes be like trying to catch rainwater in your bare hands – most of it will escape your grasp and you´d expect nothing less. Not every customer will honour you with their trust, but by doing your utmost to be trustworthy in your every action and word you´ll find that more and more will.

How can you lose that trust?

A single conversation can bring down an empire, just ask Gerald Ratner. I know it´s a tired old example, but Mr Ratner´s experience with the press in 1991 wiped a reported £500m off the value of his business, almost destroyed the company and was instrumental in his resignation the following year, so it´s still a valid wake-up call for any organisation without the proper safeguards in place to prevent such an eventuality. Therefore please remember that every single email, letter, advert, blog entry, web page or conversation that you or your employees have has the potential to build trust or cause that trust to collapse and disappear.

Any growing business needs to develop clear rules for every form of communication they use and disseminate them throughout their workforce. Anyone in your organisation could cripple your trust campaign through the way they talk to your customers, the quality of their emails, their attitude on the phone, and a hundred other ways. Not all have the power to bring the company down, but every little knock can affect the trust others have in your growing business.

Trust can evaporate just as quickly due to the perception that you may have done something wrong, and that´s far more difficult to police. A disgruntled customer who contacts Watchdog, a prolific blogger with an axe to grind, or a journalist stopping at nothing (even the truth) to expose a story for the headlines it will achieve. Reality often comes in second place when enough people believe a lie, and many a growing business has been brought to its knees in just such a way. Your only defence from this kind of attack is to have already established a level of trust that will ensure the dirt will wash off in the next rain.

The benefits of that hard-won trust

It costs a company far more in terms of finance, man-hours and effort to win a new customer than to win new business from an existing client. So in these frugal times it makes sense for a growing business to put more effort into building their customer loyalty than ever before.

You want customers to stay with you, continue buying from you and be open to the idea of diversifying their buying habits to include other services or products you supply, or to increase their commitment to you. Trust softens the relationship between customer and company and it builds stronger bonds that should ultimately return greater profits.

Trust can, of course, also be translated into new business as those who trust in you become members of an unofficial sales force, singing your praises or recommending you to others because of the good work you´ve done for them.

Customer loyalty is the lifeblood of any growing business in this day and age, so start developing your corporate trust strategy today to win new clients, develop existing relationships and secure the future success of your organisation.