Find Ways to Build Trust with Your Clients

Or eventually find yourself without a client.

Photo 60385787 © Olivier Le Moal | Dreamstime.com

The most significant factor affecting your capacity to do business, profit, and build lasting relationships with clients is trust. Therefore, it's difficult to trust someone when you don’t build trust with your clients.

To gain client trust, there are five things you can do.

1. Keep your promises

If you say to your client that you are going to do such and such by a certain date, it is essential that you keep those promises. Why? Because you've just made a promise. This can be a legal promise to do something, such as selling a product, or a commitment to keep your client's best interest at heart.

Whatever the case, if you've committed to doing something, you'd best follow through. There are two significant things to keep an eye out for when making a promise or commitment.

1. One is making sure you keep the promise you made to them. For example, if you told your client that you'd meet your sales goals, keep that commitment. Meet your sales goals.

2. Breaking a promise can leave an incorrect impression on your client. It would be best if you prevented this. Once you commit to doing something, then you must keep your promise.

2. Show you care

In the business world, you are exposed to various personalities and situations, some good and some not so good. Your client is no different. Sometimes, your client may need you to show a little empathy and just listen. This is true whether you are face-to-face or virtual. Your client may be the only person your client has been in contact with that day. If they let it slip that issues and concerns may be overwhelming, show a little care.

Why not take it one step further and send the person a handwritten note? Notes are perfect for expressing your appreciation for your client. You can also do this with phone calls and text messages. When writing a handwritten note, you put much more thought and emotion into your message than when you send a text or email message. And handwritten notes allow you to add pictures and flowery language.

3. Be reliable

Your goal should be to set your client up for success. This means doing your project on time and making sure that you do your very best job. Better yet, turn in the project earlier than your client expected. My best friend had a saying, "Better never than late." (I didn't always agree with that.)

Another way to build trust with your client is by delivering on the commitments that you both agreed on. Being reliable can also mean staying focused on what's important. Don’t let yourself get distracted from the work at hand.

4. Communicate with your clients

Being reliable goes beyond being on time. It also means communicating with your clients, which will keep them in the know and let them know how things are going. Don’t keep them in the dark.

Reliability means letting your clients know how much you appreciate their business and working with you. It also means staying connected with your clients while working together. Keeping your clients in the loop shows that you care about their business and that you can be depended on.

Moreover, you're not trying to do two things simultaneously when you're in touch with your client. You are focused on their needs. And when you keep your clients in the loop, it also shows that you know how to prioritize your work.

5. Help them grow their business

Finding ways to build trust with your client are not hard; you just need to be alert. For example, being a trusted advisor and partner in growth is one of the most important ways to build trust with your clients. You can help your clients grow their businesses by offering marketing advice and guidance. You can also help your clients grow their businesses by taking the time to mentor them.

Mentoring can be done through one-on-one mentoring sessions or group mentoring programs through Zoom, Loom, or Google. One of the best ways to help your clients grow their businesses is to help them build their brands. For example, you can help your clients craft online and offline marketing messages and strategies. By doing these things and more, you will find that your clients will be extremely grateful for your efforts.

As a caution, helping your clients set themselves up for success doesn't mean doing everything for them or forcing them into a specific type of situation. It means setting your clients up for success by teaching them how to be accountable for their actions and how to set goals and achieve them.

Conclusion

To find ways to build trust with your clients, you need to be alert and look for them. However, to start with, you can use the below five methods.

1. Keep your promises.

2. Show you care.

3. Be reliable.

4. Communicate with your clients and,

5. Help them grow their businesses.

As a bonus, I introduced two more in an article I wrote on Medium. Read it now.