In todays world nobody trusts anything, right now banks don’t trust other banks and they damned sure don’t trust you.Democrats don’t trust Conservatives, Muslims don’t trust the US, basically distrust is running rampant in the world today making the peace process difficult and economic developement impossible.

There is little reason for your customers to’t trust you and frankly many business owners  haven’t done a great job of creating any reason for them to trust. After all, many of us treat customers like transactions, we take their money and let them leave with barely a thank you. No wonder they don’t trust us. (it’s like a one night stand, wham bam, ok I went to far)

In this post, I’m revealing some of the things I will be doing in my business to build “a reason to believe“. Now I’m under no illusions, I know it is going to take some work to create the “reason to believe” but in this tough times I need an edge and building trust is an additional edge. Here is what I plan to do.

1. Get testimonials and tell the whole story. This is an easy one to understand but more difficult to execute, I am going to literally ask every client to tell me honestly what they think about my services and as afraid as I am, I’m going to post the good, bad and ugly and here is why. We don’t do everything perfectly, so showing only the good doesn’t tell the whole story. I want my prospect to know the  the whole story,  good and bad and I hope that helps build “a reason to trust“. I am also going to fix the bad and see if I can get the same customer tl tell that story as well. You should too.
2. Guarantee – scares business owners. One of my clients is afraid to guarantee their services and thats a mistake. It’s a tough economy and my clients want to know that I stand behind what I do, so I am going to be working on an results based ironclad guarantee, no results no pay.
3. Show the Data and Demonstrate the Service. I’ve got the great numbers, I can prove my results, so I’m gonna show them. I;m going to demonstrate that I know what I’m doing and provide proff of the results.

Thats my start at showing proof and building trust. In my real estate business, we show proof of great rehabs on Youtube (as far as I know nobody does this) in my marketing consulting business we show results of conversions (actual leads generated) not click thru. Thats how I hope to create a “reason to believe“. What are you going to do in your business.

In todays world ALL of your customers are mystery shoppers. Here’s what I mean. I recently went to a new steak restaurant in my neightborhood. To set the stage, where I lve is not known for fine dining. Up until recently,great restaurants where typically family owned affairs but recently we’ve seen an influx of larger restaurants and some chains.

On Sunday, I decided to try a new restaurant named Flemings Steak House. I sat at the bar ( I was alone) and  ordered a shrimp appetizer, a filet and a salad as well as a single malt and a lager. As I was waiting  I was using my Iphone to write a review on http://www.Yelp.com and once the appetizer arrived I was well into the review.

The appetizer tasted good but it was slightly cold and kind of gooey but I ate it (it was spicy and I like spicy food) anyway. When I finished the bartender Jason, asked how I liked the dish and I mentioned that it was cold. I was getting ready to write my review when the restaurant manager came over and asked me how I liked the dish. Again I hemmed and hawed but told him the dish was cold. He immediately took the dish of the bill and offered a sincere apology. They went above and beyond normal service to ensure I was happy and turned a OK review into a great review (see my Yelp.com review of Flemings SteakHouse).

The point is in today’s world all of your customers MAY be mystery shoppers. They all can (and more often will) review your business online and expose your warts to the world. If you’ve got shitty products, the world could know, if you have great service the world will know. The question for you is “CAN YOU CONTROL THE PROCESS”. The answer is a resounding MAYBE, but doing something is better than doing nothing.

Discover what to do NOW, Discover HOW you can influence your customer reviews.