In every business, building client trust is crucial. It is the way you keep your current clients happy and how you continue to grow your client list through referrals. The matter of trust can sometimes be a hard topic to navigate. We asked our CEO, Dan Moshe and President Micah Thor some fundamental questions on building trust with clients, and how Tech Guru continues to create raving fans.
Rule #1: Do what you say you’re going to do.
One of the easiest ways to build trust with your clients is to have excellent follow through. It is as simple as staying faithful to your promises. If you tell a client you will be following up with them later that afternoon, make sure you follow up with them that afternoon. Dan explains the importance of following through on your promises. “The root is doing what you say you’re going to do. In our business, we sell something invisible. It’s a service. It’s a promise.”
The promises we make throughout the day are what our clients depend on. This is especially true in the IT support industry. “In our business, our client’s businesses and livelihoods depend on what we do for them. We play a critically essential role. For them, their businesses come to a standstill if their technology stops. They want to know that we’re going to be responsive to their needs and follow through with what we say we’re going to do. That’s why we have to model that with everything we do, from day one – every contract, every interaction,” Moshe explained.
President Micah Thor expands on how crucial it is to deliver on your promises, “When people make a big decision like moving their IT, it’s really important that we over-deliver on our promises right out of the gate.” Micah continued, “There’s anxiety involved in big decisions that impact the whole company. Switching your IT provider is one of these events.” Whatever your industry may be, following through on your promises – and doing what you say you’re going to do – could be the big difference between building a trusting relationship between you and a new client or losing a potential raving fan.
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Follow through on your promises
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Do what you say you’re going to do
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Over-deliver right out the gate
Rule #2: Listen
Listening to your clients and making them feel valued is extremely important when it comes to building long-term trust. Moshe puts great importance on listening when it comes to creating trust with clients, “We call it the 90-10 rule. 10% talking, 90% just asking questions, discovering, learning, seeking to fully understand where they’re at, where they want to go, why and how they want to get there.” It comes down to “demonstrating that we have their best interests in mind before our own,” Moshe finished.
Along with listening, strive to show empathy and teach your employees to show empathy towards clients. Moshe explains the positive effect that empathy training for every Tech Guru employee has had on client relationships. “We try to be the highlight of our clients’ day. We know that when people are calling us, it’s usually because something is not working right, and they’re not having a great day. We try to turn that around.”
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Listen first
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Put the client’s interests above your own
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Strive to be the highlight of your clients day
Rule #3: Communicate
Just like listening can help make your clients feel valued, setting communication expectations can be another great way to build a trustworthy relationship between you and your client. Micah Thor suggests, “Set expectations for communication intervals and be on time or early for each one.’ Ask, ‘How are we doing?’ ‘Is there anything more we can help with?'” and when in doubt, “Over communicating is not a bad thing either,” Micah comments.
Make sure to establish communication right away. Moshe and Thor both put great importance on communicating with potential clients immediately. “When someone is introduced to us, we get in touch with them right away,” Dan says.
In this day and age, sometimes it is difficult to get everyone in the same room. Moshe suggests that even if you can’t meet face to face, make it a point to try to connect over a video chat, “I think face-to-face contact, even if it’s over video, is an important way to build trust.”
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Set expectations for communication
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Communicate right away
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Strive for face to face communication
Rule #4: Have a process, and be consistent.
When clients are dealing with your organization, they want to know what to expect and when to expect it, which is why having a proven process is essential to building client trust. At Tech Guru, we run our business on the EOS system, which keeps us aligned and rowing in the same direction. Moshe explains that “demonstrating a high level of organization” is a critical component in building trust with clients. One way we do that at Tech Guru is by having each client complete an initial questionnaire that helps us to understand their business and how we can be of service to them.
By having a proven process on your website or shared within in the first initial contacts, you create transparency and trust, “Expectation setting and exceeding are key to establishing trust from a new partner,” Micah explains.
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Establish a system
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Get organized
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Share your process
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Exceed client expectations
Clients are the reason you do what you do. Building trust with them is the most important investment you’ll ever make. We hope some of these tactics help you establish long-lasting, trusting relationships with your clients and create some raving fans!
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