Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

But that’s exactly what Joe Healey, speaker and author of Radial Trust: How Today’s Leaders Convert People to Partners, did a couple years ago with his family.

Building that trust with family is similar as in business—trust emerges from close and constant dialogue. Healey, who spoke at Unica’s Marketing Innovation Summit last week, said that unlocking trust with customers requires companies to engage in an ongoing dialogue with their customers and employees.

Healey applies four rules in which companies can use to unlock trust.

1. Trust converts noise to dialogue.
Healey says that leaders who can listen intently and can communicate complex information in a way that people can understand are effective at building trust. “It’s not new, but the economics of the competitive world has driven [the need for trust] to a much higher level.”

2. Empower the people behind the brand.
He says that Google is an example of a company where it’s not about the brand—it’s about the people behind the brand who have built trust.

3. High trust equals high innovation and speed.
Healey used Southwest Airlines as an example of a company that turns speed into trust. The airline, despite its non-assigned seating, turns planes around quickly. “The reason why, is the speed results in the teams and the teams result in an atmosphere of high trust,” he said.

4. Remove generational issues, diversity and retention
What matters imost is the relationship—not the technology or content—when building trust with varying generations.

We all tend to struggle with getting out of the box with customers, but dialog is critical to solving problems. And trust is central to communicating the solutions. Healey concluded, “If you don’t work at building trust it doesn’t matter.”