The Business of Trust: How Experiences Build Trust and Drive Business Impact

By Stein Broeder

We have a trust problem.

Due to the rapid proliferation of data and technology across society, a disconnect has formed between employees and customers; the organizations they service and those that service them. This is causing an erosion of trust. Given that trust is the single most important asset of any organization, th

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781636762340

Book preview

THE BUSINESS OF TRUST

How experiences build trust and drive business impact

Stein Broeder

new degree press

copyright © 2020 Stein Broeder

All rights reserved.

THE BUSINESS OF TRUST

How experiences build trust and drive business impact

ISBN

978-1-63676-633-1 Paperback

978-1-63676-237-1 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63676-234-0 Digital Ebook

To Mams and Paps

Contents

Prologue

Introduction

Part 1

The journey

CHAPTER 1

The moment that started it all

CHAPTER 2

From inspiration to action

CHAPTER 3

Building a client obsession framework

Part 2

Trust—The only currency that matters

CHAPTER 4

What is trust?

CHAPTER 5

The speed of trust

CHAPTER 6

The economics of trust

CHAPTER 7

The trust opportunity

Part 3

Experience—The only transaction that matters

CHAPTER 8

Every experience builds (or breaks) trust

CHAPTER 9

Invest in employee experience (trust me)

CHAPTER 10

Customer experience is a superpower

Part 4

Inspire—A trust-building starting point

CHAPTER 11

The pillars of trust

CHAPTER 12

How the most effective leaders build trust

CHAPTER 13

How organizations build trust moment by moment

Part 5

Invest—A framework for driving trust

CHAPTER 14

The three trust drivers

CHAPTER 15

Authenticity

CHAPTER 16

Accountability

CHAPTER 17

Inclusion

Part 6

Action—Insights you can apply to start building trust

CHAPTER 18

Building employee trust

CHAPTER 19

Building customer trust

Conclusion

Interviews—Insights from trusted thought leaders

Kirk Williams,

owner ZATO PPC Marketing,

author Ponderings of a PPC Professional

Mark Horoszowski,

cofounder MovingWorlds

Myron McMillin,

cofounder botany.io

Mel Carson,

founder and CEO Delightful Communications, author Introduction to Personal Branding

Rand Fishkin,

cofounder SparkToro, author Lost and Founder

Miri Rodriguez,

Microsoft, author Brand Storytelling

Wil Reynolds,

founder and VP of Innovation Seer Interactive

Melanie Deziel,

founder StoryFuel,

author The Content Fuel Framework

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Trust is like the air we breathe–when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.

—Warren Buffett

Prologue

Whenever we set out on a journey, we have certain expectations of what an experience will be like. We try to quiet the rational voice in our head for a moment and silence the worries. We allow ourselves to be inspired by the wonders of hope and possibility. This, too, is how my journey began.

I set out to write the book in the fall of 2019. Then came 2020. And you know what came next.

I could probably impart a long list of lessons like never give up on your dreams; it’s a marathon, not a sprint; it takes a village, etc. Those are all valid, but do you want to know what the one thing was that kept me going?

You guessed it.

Trust.

The trust I had in myself and the trust others placed in me propelled me forward.

And my hope is that if you will learn one thing from this book, it is this:

There is nothing more important, more powerful, more vital, in both our personal and professional lives, than trust.

What I also realized is I could help others on their trust journey.

That is why I have partnered with The Boys & Girls Club of America to donate net proceeds from the sales of my book to help foster productive, caring, and responsible citizens. I believe trust plays a vital role in enabling young people to reach their full potential.

Introduction

Do you trust me?

This was a question a surgeon once asked me prior to a procedure. I thought it was a funny question. But upon reflection it underscored something very fundamental. It was only funny because he asked the question. The answer was yes, and that was implied. That same implied trust is the reason you are reading this book. Just about every action we take, no matter how mundane or how critical, on some level, involves trust. Trust is so woven into the fabric of our lives it is rarely discussed. As Warren Buffet pointed out in the quote just a few pages earlier, it is like the air we breathe, rarely noticed, but when it is absent, when trust is broken, everyone notices.

Trust is not an issue; it is the issue.

¹

Nowadays, trust is indeed the issue. Trust is being broken right and left. Read the headlines. Look at your social media feed. There is a crisis of trust.

And what is one of the primary culprits? Technology.

As technology introduced many conveniences into our lives, it also introduced increased complexity. And the pandemic we are collectively experiencing magnifies the need to reduce that complexity and to bring us meaning. The leaders and organizations that figure out how to navigate this complexity and how to build lasting relationships with the employees and customers are the ones that will succeed.

This means you need to be proactive about earning and nurturing trust from your employees and your customers. And if you happen to break it, you will need to know how to rebuild it.

Nurturing trust is a constant endeavor, yet one that can be derailed in the fraction of a second. This is especially true in the digital age, where social platforms act as catalysts for spreading information, and search engines are permanent collective memory.²

Techlash

Techlash was term coined by The Economist that describes a strong negative reaction or backlash against the largest technology companies, or their employees or products, according to Dictionary.com.³

This phenomenon was initially described as hypothetical or theoretical but has now become very real.

If you use technology in any form, you have undoubtedly felt some of the emotions that have led to the techlash phenomenon which was born, in part, from actual events.

[I]ncluding, among others, the revelations Russia used social media platforms to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections, Cambridge Analytica misused Facebook data for political purposes, and Google was investigated for antitrust violations. Panic spread on a parallel track as new technologies such as deep learning, certain forms of artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous vehicles came to be seen as both transformative and imminent.⁴

While the effects of techlash have been felt by just about everyone, people aren’t abandoning their phones, computers, or the internet. However, people have become more cautious and more skeptical. According to the 2019 Edelman Brand Trust Survey 45 percent of consumers say they would never again trust a brand that is unethical or suffers a controversy, and 40 percent would never buy from that brand again.⁵ To make it real, Uber is a good example of a brand suffering from a lack of trust. Its brand index rating plummeted by 141.3 percent in 2017 when it disclosed its data breach.⁶ Anecdotally, I can tell you I stopped using its service because of its mishandling of data, and I know many friend and colleagues that did so as well.

In fact, if a breach is poorly managed, consumers are likely to lose trust, dissociate from the business, tell their network about the breach, and shop with a more secure competitor.⁷

In addition to lost trust, organizations need to think about the ripple effect. People like to talk, especially about good or bad experiences. It relates directly to having their information stolen because of a data breach:⁸

•85 percent tell others about their experience

•33.5 percent use social media to complain about their experience

•20 percent comment directly on the retailer’s website

And it isn’t just consumers who can lose trust. It can also happen in the business-to-business world as well; because at the end of the day, businesses are run by people.

This example again finds Facebook in the crosshairs. As a direct result of its lack of addressing advertiser concerns regarding the spread of hate messages, one thousand brands attached themselves to the #StopHateForProfit movement. This list of brands that participated ranged from small businesses to the big spenders like Disney, Microsoft, Starbucks, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Unilever, Ford Motor Company, The North Face, Ben & Jerry’s, and Levi’s. A Pathmatics study found Facebook’s top one hundred advertisers spent about $30 million less in July year over year. Even for Facebook, that’s a significant hit to the bottom line.⁹

When you examine the cause of techlash, it can be traced back to one thing: the proliferation of data.

Currency

Data is vital to a brand’s success, but data is not the new oil. This mantra is deceptively simple.

While true that data, like oil, powers much of the technology we use today, unlike oil, it is more susceptible to misuse by bad actors. And the examples of the misuse in our present highly connected information networks elevate the importance of trust. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Uber’s data breach cover-up, and Google’s data privacy issues are all examples.

Fundamentally speaking, a company’s data is worth a vast sum, but only to that company. It would never sell it to the competition. Sure, there are companies that sell things like location data, but for the most part, first-party data stays with the company where it was generated. And if used appropriately, this data ultimately benefits the consumer in the form of personalization. This then helps to build trust.

My research has shown that trust is the most important asset for a company, even more important than data. Trust is the currency, and experiences are how we transact trust. So how do brands build up their trust banks? Through delivering meaningful and memorable experiences with lasting impact. People will give you their trust if you give them the right experiences.

And leaders need to be thinking about every possible experience. Every interaction is an opportunity.

Opportunity

Earning, building, and maintaining trust is exactly what leaders need to focus on. Evidence shows they are aware of what they need to do. According to 76 percent of global marketers, trust is important to keep consumers buying their brand.¹⁰ Beyond the table stakes of privacy and security, 47 percent define trust as brand loyalty, and the same percentage define trust as customers being brand ambassadors.¹¹

The question is, how?

Trust is a funny thing. From a neuroscience perspective, we want to trust.

The willingness to trust others is built into our DNA. Working together has always been key to the survival of our species. Having faith in one another is in the best interest of both the individual and the collective—especially in times of risk and uncertainty.¹²

From a fundamental perspective, trust is woven into the fabric of our lives. It permeates just about every action we take and every interaction we have.

Trust; the reason behind stability of global financial markets, the motivation for rise of political parties, the human trait that makes placebo drugs effective. Trust has always been the foundation for durable relationships, the power at play in the development of every positive aspect of our societies.¹³

It is the fundamental principal that rules how we interact with each other. The question is, how can leaders and organizations seize this opportunity? Through purpose and values.

Building a brand and marketing is about values.

Steve Jobs

Values drive value.

Trust is the foundation on which every business, organization, or team should be built.

After reading this book, you will understand what trust is and how it works. You will find out how every experience builds or breaks trust. And you will learn about the three foundational attributes of trust: authenticity, accountability, and inclusion.

This book will resonate most with leaders and managers at Fortune 500 companies who are looking to earn, build, or even reclaim trust from employees, customers, or both. However, the principles discussed, and the application of those principles, are relevant to businesses of all sizes.

As an author, my purpose is to help you recognize every employee and customer experience is an opportunity to earn trust and then to challenge you to become intentional about building that trust.

Experiences are the ultimate driver of trust. And those brands who successfully build trust will see the resulting business impact multiply via advocacy over time. Building trust is not something that happens overnight. It is something that happens one moment at a time. One experience at a time.

In order to begin earning your trust, I will start by taking you on a personal journey that will bring to life how this topic has helped shaped my career and brought me to a place where I wanted to learn more.

Trust me.

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1 Future Focus 2020 – The Next Ten Years, iProspect, accessed September 21, 2020.

2 Ibid.

3 Techlash, Dictionary.com, accessed September 21, 2020.

4 A Policymaker’s Guide to the Techlash—What It Is and Why It’s a Threat to Growth and Progress, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, accessed September 21, 2020.

5 Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020, Edelman, accessed September 21, 2020.

6 Sarah Hospelhorn, Analyzing Company Reputation After a Data Breach, Varonis (blog), Varonis, March 29, 2020.

7 Interactions Finds 45 Percent of Shoppers Don’t Trust Retailers to Keep Information Safe, Press Releases, Interactions Marketing, accessed September 21, 2020.

8 Hospelhorn, Analyzing Company Reputation After a Data Breach.

9 Gavin O’Malley, How Did Facebook Boycotters Spend Their July Budgets? Social Media Insider (blog), MediaPost, August 11, 2020.

10 Ken Symon, Advertising and marketing must ‘rebuild trust’, insider.co.uk, July, 2019.

11 Ibid.

12 Christopher Bergland, The Neuroscience of Trust, The Athlete’s Way (blog), Psychology Today, August 12, 2015.

13 Future Focus 2020 – The Next Ten Years, iProspect, accessed September 21, 2020.

1

THE JOURNEY

1

The moment that started it all

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It’s easier to love a brand when the brand loves you back.

Seth Godin

It was a brisk sunny Pacific Northwest day in early December 2017. I was working for Microsoft in a marketing role and got an invite to hear guest speaker from a from Alaska Airlines, Travis Gelbrich, managing director of guest experience and design, share insights from the Alaska company culture and investments it is making to make customer obsession real and impactful. I had heard a lot about Alaska’s commitment to customer experience and even experienced it myself.

Every Alaska Airlines employee I have ever encountered was kind, courteous, and would go out of their way to help—from customer service agents to in-flight staff. So, I was interested in learning more about how it fostered such culture.

The stories Travis recounted were amazing. There was the time an Alaska employee stopped to help a stranded motorist and learned they were on their way to the airport to catch an Alaska Airlines flight. So, what did the employee do? He called the ahead and told them to hold the flight and gave the