This is my dog barking at a pile of hard rubbish.
The trainer assures me the dog is not an idiot.
She simply doesn’t trust the thing she’s never seen before.
And fear makes my dog bark.
Fear makes barkers of us all. Because, we don’t always know who our friends are and who our friends aren’t. It comes down to trust.
According to the world’s most trusted source of information, google, trust means, “… firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.”
It’s a concept based on observation, behaviour, logic and emotion. (Four words carrying more than their fair share of marketers on their casually-kerned shoulders.)
We want customers to trust us.
And, the truth is, customers probably do trust us. But not as we would like.
Trust is a belief based on experience.
“I trust them to treat me well” comes from the same place as, “You can trust them to put profits in front of people.”
Most customers trust businesses to make economically sound decisions.
But, if the short-term economies win out over the customer experience, they may not trust us as much in the future. “Trust them to be bastards” is a term a lot of bank marketers have heard in more than one research group.
We want to trust based on the words we want to try new things. But we can’t try new things based on experience. So we need to base the decision on what information we can find.
The experiences of people who’ve done it.
Our own level of comfort with the risk.
The words of the people selling it.
Our customers base their beliefs about us on the assumptions they make of the category in general. Which is based on their experience, our words, or the PR around the issue.
If there is no information to be had, or no experienced head to guide us, the new thing becomes just a pile of hard rubbish. To be ignored. Or to be yapped into submission.
The good news; lack of trust doesn’t stop people purchasing.
But the game isn’t about purchasing. It’s about re-purchasing.
You shouldn’t not make promises.
You just need to know what people assume of you. What they trust you to do.
And then either build a temple on that trust.
Or change their assumptions.
By changing your behaviour.
I find a dog biscuit helps.
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