Trust: Hard to earn, easy to lose

A key area that we in Golin/Harris believe requires urgent attention involves that commonly-used word, 'trust.' Now, I know the notion of being trustworthy sounds corny - goody goody. But we have come to see it as a hard-nosed business tactic that in today's glass-housed world is nothing less than critical to the long-term success of an organisation. It is, as far as we are concerned, the most basic element of the social contact, the great intangible at the heart of every long-term success.

In our profession, you have to know what is happening today - be perceptive enough to forecast tomorrow.

Trust is the belief - the faith - that you will do your utmost to meet an expectation. Trust is commitment to excellence and fidelity. It is fidelity to employees. A belief that management and staff are all in this together. They know you'll go to the wall with them for them. And you know you will do the same. It is fidelity to clients and customers. A belief that your company offers more than a service, product or experience, that you are people your customers can count on.

There was a time not so long ago that trust was the core of every business-customer relationship . Sadly, times have changed. Today, global business has embraced the vocabulary of tort lawyers: 'breach of contract,' 'joint and several liability,' 'negligence,' 'not fault,' 'punitive damages.' Trust was once at the core of every company-employee relationship. Today those loyalties have been sacrificed - to some degree necessarily - at the altar of downsizing, mergers and reinvention.

I began thinking about this after seeing a book by Francis Fukuyama, the brilliant Rand scholar, who defined the post-cold war era with his essay on 'the end of history.' His book, titled Trust, lays out the diagnoses of what is missing in our global society. He calls the money some people spend in suing one another 'a direct tax imposed by the breakdown of trust in society.' He says the social capital represented by trust will be as important as physical capital.

The popular image of a corrupt, scheming corporation, eager to exploit customers, is a cliché that modern capitalism has got to shake. It has helped spawn an anti-business bias that, very unfortunately, is reinforced every so often when a company fulfils the public's worst expectations. Like the manufacturing company that let its stock prices soar, which violates generally accepted account principles. Or the European division of one of the world's best known companies that refused to believe a contaminant could be in its beverage. And most recently, Ford and Firestone - two fine companies - that at the very least decided that a less than great product was good enough.

These companies have found and are finding that a breach of trust can be a killer. It kills because nothing can be hidden. Not with corporate walls made of glass. Not with employees, investors and business media all knowing the whys, the hows and the whos of major corporate decisions. Not with news travelling instantaneously around the world. Indeed, companies must get over the idea that they can confine a problem to a given area or country.

I have found that one constant among companies that understand the importance of building trust. To pare all I've heard to one phrase, I would call it 'reliability over time.' Whether you are in São Paulo, Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, London or Los Angeles, reliable companies that create, restore and maintain trust are defined to win a decisive advantage in the 21st century.

Trust, in other words, is both a process and an outcome. The heart of dealing with clients, customers, employees, shareholders.

Think of your mechanic, your children's teachers, and your doctor - when they exceed your expectations - you become more than a satisfied customer, you tell others, you give endorsements, you become their advocate. Trust, in other words, is both a process and an outcome. The heart of dealing with clients, customers, employees, shareholders. The heart of one's whole approach. And - when that trust is returned in kind - the heart and soul of growing the bottom line.

All this leads me to the conclusion that we have embraced at Golin/harris, namely that trust can become a competitive advantage. Getting involved is beyond goodwill. It is a business model that builds durable relationships with customers, employees and investors. It is a business model that will sustain any company, whether it clicks or bricks, through bad times and propel them up-wards in good times.

Some say that with so much consumer power, trust matters less. Why should trust matter when - the argument goes - a customer has access to unlimited information on the Internet?

It is undeniable. Information is empowering. Yet even within the new economy, people look to their own network - friends, family, colleagues - for greater trust. Our focus groups show intense distrust of many Internet services. The challenge for e-commerce is to give people a reason to trust it. To provide personal information. To believe the claims of relatively unknown online merchants. Take amazon.com; when Harry Potter became the hot book for children, they guaranteed delivery for Christmas. But, there has to be a balance of some high touch with all this high tech! I'm always amazed when I think about a fellow in our office who sits in an office about 50 feet from mine and sends me e-mail and voice-mail instead of walking into my office. I'm convinced people don't want confrontation!

Because of the fact that cyberspace is so anonymous, the trust factor is even more important to maintain, when individuals or companies attack anything they want. It only took the Internet five years to reach 50 million users. It took cable 10 years, 13 years for TV and 38 years for radio to reach that audience. Another mind-boggling statistic: almost 10 billion e-mail messages are sent to the US every day as compared 100 billion first class pieces of mail each year!

One successful way of supporting such a trust-based based model is to show your customers that you care about them personally. At Golin/Harris, we coined the term 'trust bank' to describe programmes designed to demonstrate caring by means of community involvement. Our theory was that 'good works' represent 'deposits' of trust on which consumers would be willing to pay interest in the form of respect and patronage. These same 'deposits,' we believe, would serve us well should 'withdrawals' be needed down the line when tough times or sensitive issues hit.

Some of you may think that 'trust bank' programmes fall into the category of not being suited to every country's culture. And it's true, community involvement by corporations is not a tradition in every culture. But our experience is that good works, as long as they are translated to address local needs and culture, are appreciated everywhere you go. Even in Russia, we had a client donate a portion of their sales to the Soviet Children's Fund. This was a 'first' for any private company in Russia!

Trust bank programmes are important, but all the good will in the world can be swept away in an instant when you are revealed to be a liar. Trust is hard to earn, and easy to lose! Companies must avoid trying to limit damage by coming out with quick excuses and denials. A CEO must never do so until he or she is absolutely sure of the facts.

Make no mistake: character is critical to long-term success. It represents a trust bank from which you can draw on when things go wrong. A bad reputation is like a snake waiting to bite the wrong doer the moment he or she stumbles. Because whether it's choosing a politician or a car, customers making purchasing decisions are, in a very real sense, deciding to buy two things: the product and the company or brand. My business, the public relations and communications business, presents a special challenge. For our clients, we try to minimise the risks, and manage situations as best we can, but so many things are out of our control.

One reason for that is that the news media today has moved from healthy scepticism to out-and-out cynicism. But I guess I shouldn't complain. Partly because of this cynicism and the dangers it represents, the public relations business is growing... probably at one of the fastest rates in our history. Companies more and more are recognising the importance of their reputation and understanding that a good reputation can be one of a company's true competitive advantages.

I am old enough to remember that 40 yeas ago, the PR professional's dream was to figure out how to get people to do what you wanted them to do. Well, today's more realistic goal is to position your product or service so it is in sync with what other people are going to do anyway. Put another way, knowing what a consumer 'thinks' is not as important as knowing which of those perceptions will count most in his decision to act.

Today's public relations professional is humble enough to realise that the power to persuade is very limited. Success in the 21st century comes from reading the public mind, not manipulating it. It follows that trust can not be won by a single clever move and certainly not by putting it in a mission statement or posting it on a website. It is not a quick fix. It's even more important to deliver trust programmes week after week. Protecting your brand from folks who may have an axe to grind, especially on the all-to-available Internet.


About Al Golin
Al Golin is a PR veteran of 40 years and founder and chairman of Chicago-based Golin/Harris International. A consultant to the US department of Commerce, Al was named one of the 100 most influential public relations people of the twentieth century by the industry trade magazine PR Week.

The website of Golin/Harris International is www.golinharris.com or to contact Golin/Harris email MCS/Action, the Golin/Harris International affiliate for the Arabian Gulf on michael@mcsaction.com