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By Mark Smiciklas

This most recent visual was inspired by the BBB Standards of Trust.

Every small business, product, service or brand goes through the process of building and maintaining trust with customers, a target audience or wider stakeholder group.

Essentially, an organization’s behavior in a number of different areas acts as a “trust filter” – positive actions let trust flow through while negative actions block trust.

Key Trust Behaviors

• Truth – Honesty is the best policy. Nothing erodes trust faster than lies about your product, service or policies.
• History – There is no shortcut when it comes to time. Gaining trust involves creating and repeating positive interactions over time.
• Privacy – Be diligent when it comes to data security and never use personal information in any way other than stated.
• Integrity – Approach every interaction with integrity.
• Promises – Keep them…Simple.
• Response – Address product, service or company related issues in a prompt and professional manner. We operate in an on-demand service culture that equates “slow” with not caring.
• Marketing – How you advertise goes a long way towards building trust. For example, spamming vs. permission based marketing.
• Transparency – Be open about all the things that are important to people when they deal with you i.e. terms, conditions, guarantees, etc. Don’t hide behind your policies.