I’ve been asked by Charles H Green of Trusted Advisor Associates to host the May 2010 edition of The Carnival of Trust. I am truly honoured to accept the invitation having been a fan of the Trusted Advisor since 2002 when I read one of the best articles I have ever read on the psychology of selling professional services.
Thank you Charles, and thanks also to Ian Welsh for his help.
As a lawyer with a diverse litigation practice and an increasing social media presence, I believe trust is the sine qua non of everything that I do.
I’ve selected a baker’s dozen of articles for the May 2010 Carnival of Trust. There’s some fantastic reading here, so let’s get going:
1. Crisis Media Preparation – 6 Crucial Rules by Matt Eventoff
Matt talks about and highlights the risks of allowing the media to control the message when a crisis hits or seizing the intiative and calls in aid owner of 5WPR and public relations expert Ronn Torossian who posted a great post on 6 crucial rules when appearing before the media.
2. 5 Ways to Keep Customer Information Safe by Thursday Bram of Open Forum for American Express
Thursday puts up a great post on the risks associated with the handling of and safekeeping of customer information and offers some extremely practical steps to keep your customers’ information safe. A must read if you are controlling customer information and processing orders via the web.
3. Building Brand Trust Online and in the Mind by Nick Black of Black on Black
This is another great post by Nick Black which first appeared in the Canadian Marketing Association blog dealing with the science of trust and how trust is now centre stage within the online environment.
As Nick says: “Extending proactive trust to your customers is a powerful way to cut through this mess and build a strong brand.”
4. What Trust Brings to Amazon, Zappos, and USAA by Peter Merholz on the Harvard Business Review Guest Blog
This post has been picked up fairly widely and deals with the impact of a memorable customer experience and how that can enhance and build upon the trust that customers have for the brand.
As Peter says:
“A great way for companies to demonstrate great customer experience, instead of just to talk about it, is to do something weird, something unexpected, something bold that draws deeply from company values. These “somethings” turn into features so distinct that rarely are they copied. And because of this, these features become iconic elements of the company’s brand. All that’s required to pull this off is a healthy dose of trust in your customers.”
5. How do you Keep Them Coming Back? by M P Mueller published in the Small Business Blog section of the New York Times
This is another customer focused piece with a warm feel to it. M P Mueller looks at trust in the context of customer experience and what makes the customer come back again and again.
As he says: “One of the most important aspects of retail marketing is to get the customer to think, “I love it here. I want to be here. I belong here.â€� You want customers to take ownership of the store, which essentially means ownership of the brand.”
6. The Anatomy of Trust in Social Media by Brendan Hughes in his blog Where Have all The People Gone?
I like this post a lot. It distills down the circles of trust and how the internet is changing our concept of trust. As Brendan says:
“Social media is helping us grow our trusted networks beyond our close-knit circle of real-world friends. But how much is that trust worth?”
7. Client Trust – You Have to Care Enough to Cry by Justine Ungaro a Los Angeles wedding and portraint photographer
Christine writes an emotional piece about the need to take the very best care of your clients in what is a very personal and emotionally charged environment. She emphasises the need to go the extra mile to earn the trust of clients.
8. Got Trust by Terri Holley the owner of Creative Blog Solutions and a social media strategist
Terri highlights the need to replace your everyday assumptions of dealing with customers with a series of ‘trust builders’. As she says:
“The more assumptions you leave behind, the more room you’ll have for building authentic relationships that are built on trust. Connecting with customers—what more can a business owner ask for?”
9. The Value of Trust by Lynda Bourne DPM PMP written in the Project Management Institute Blog
Lynda argues absent trust there is a strong inclination to constantly measure and check output or performance and the lengthy promulgation of reports. In simple terms trust = speed and lowers transaction costs.
10. Establishing Trust in the Sales Process by Tom Ninness of the NicheReport.com blog
Tom talks eloquently about the essential characteristics for high trust to occur and the necessity for consistent quality service. He says:
“This should be the desire of all professionals to be consistent in their professionalism and services. Integrity is when you adhere to a set of ethics and values and it is a major quality of consistent behavior.”
11. 40 Ways to Build Trust on Your Project Team by Geoff Crane on the site Papercut Project Monitoring
What a great post setting out a list of essential trust issues to be considered in a project team. If you like the Jungle Book there are some awesome video clips as well.
12. New Poll: Employees Don’t Trust Thier Leaders by Dan McCarthy in the blog Great Leadership
Dan discusses the new Maritz® Poll conducted by Maritz Research, a leader in employee satisfaction research, as to the position of American workforce attitudes toward employers. Dan says:
“Employees’ trust toward their workplace has taken a severe hit, with employees across all industry segments citing a lack of trust in not only senior leaders, but direct managers and co-workers as well.”
The post summarises the findings and is essential reading if you need to look at the critical issues that impinge upon trust in the workplace.
13. Leadership Trust by Jenny Catron of Leading in Shades of Grey
Jenny deals very eloquently with trust and the interplay with leadership. She says: “Trust is foundation to our leadership relations.” She picks up and deals with a) accountability, b) communication and c) consistency and makes it clear that these traits are not a given and trust has to be earnt.