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;

1. survey customers
2. survey employees
3. examine strategies and programs against survey results
4. align communications with trust messaging
5. 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.