Gaining and retaining trust is the elusive prize, right? It can make or break relationships and projects.
Trust is what elevates a company's services from commodity to premium. It's takes you from a vendor to a partner.
Recently we ended a client relationship due to trust issues. This got me to thinking- how do you spot trust issues early in a relationship? Is there a way to test for trust?
So we are working on a prospective client scorecard. It will focus on several areas- web experience, team culture, company vision, etc- but most of all we are trying ascertain- "does the leadership trust their team and does the team trust each other?" If a team doesn't trust each other chances are any outside partner will have trouble winning their trust.
Once trust is earned then begins the hard work of retaining it. A different topic and challenge.
Our goal is to have every SmallBox employee that interacts with the prospective client to have their radar tuned in for trust. I would love to hear what you have found are good trust tells when starting relationships.