There are a number of steps a company can take to build a trust relationship with customers.
According to Deborah Nixon of Trust Learning Solutions. In the Financial Post article of May 26 2009, she lists a few;
- survey customers
- survey employees
- examine strategies and programs against survey results
- align communications with trust messaging
- recheck changes made in 6 months
According to Nixon, “Employees who doubt the integrity or ability of their organization to cope with challenges will deliver poor customer service”
I don’t fully agree with this statement, although there are certainly lots of problems resulting from companies operating low trust corporate working environments.
A worker may hate their job and their boss and think the company is slimy, but may still do their work. EQ assessments, and over 40 years of studies, show that an individual’s empathy and organizational loyalty, and other emotional intelligence internal and external competencies, will impact the degree to which they follow the rules and do their job, regardless of the level of trust around them.
Testing is a critical component in a high-trust organization that wants to be trusted. Companies must invest real resources to take this path. In addition to Nixon’s excellent advice about surveys etc., companies need to recruit and retain people who have been assessed, and will likely be suited to their roles. This is the way to peak performance in an organization.
Tags: deborah nixon, financial post, trust
Thank you for posting my article and for your comments. I completely agree with you about empathy and loyalty as determinants regarding employee performance. However, I’m talking about superior customer service and strong performance. Trust is a foundational element to performance and customer service. It would be difficult, over the long term for an employee to follow the rules if trust was not present. After all, you need to believe in the rules to follow them. And if you didn’t trust your leadership or the organization, it is likely you won’t trust the rules that these leaders have designed.
My research and experience have shown me that EQ is necessary but without trust, they are not sufficient.