Win in trust.
Based on recent research: the competitive edge is dependent on trustworthiness
“Today, we live in a highly networked world. Competitive advantage is no longer the sum of all efficiencies, but the sum of all connections.”
Greg Satell recently published his book called Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age. What has he found out and what can we learn to improve ourselves and our companies? What is the secret of recent innovators?
Let´s focus on connection now.
As quoted above, competitive advantage is about connections. Business environment is changing with ever accelerating speed. This is the reason why you can’t ever stop learning and finding new ways. Connections are everywhere — you deal with colleagues, talk with friends (and with strangers), sing along with your favorite music band, negotiate with business partners.
However, there is one place where human personal connection is missing. And this may seem paradoxical: we call it internet connection, but it disconnected us in ways we never thought were possible. Online communication with retailers for example is often automated. What is missing here? Trust. According to Accenture study which analyzed more than 7000 companies — trust “disproportionately impacts revenue” — more than any other single factor involved in the decision to do business with a particular company.
Historically, and as we wrote in before, today you can’t even begin to differentiate your business by offering sales discount. Old and tired tactic. As Scott Joseph says, there is nothing special in “the lowest price” or “wide range of cars” or “big discounts”. You need to find another differentiator. Offer your customers something memorable by emphasizing the difference in your services.
Differentiator, do you have one?
One of the differentiators could be something seemingly invisible at the first glance. However the most important things are invisible to our eyes, as the Fox said to the Little Prince. Greg Satell in his article emphasizes the crucial role of TRUST. And the trust is important not only in the relationship with your customers, but also in that with our colleagues and business partners. Based on research and studies, this notion is very relevant in considering the impacts of trust value in your company.
Following Greg Satell´s summary, the type of trust depends on type of industry. “For example, in manufacturing, media, and insurance, the cost of trust incident was fairly low. In industries such as banking, retail, and industrial services, that impact could be five to 10 times higher. … a retail operation needs to maintain strong relationships with hundreds and, sometimes, thousands of suppliers. Banking, another highly trust-sensitive industry, is a complex ecosystem that depends on the cost of capital.”
To be more detailed, lets look at some examples. Satell presents Apple and Starbucks.
“Apple, which encountered a number of trust events during Steve Jobs’ tenure. However, because Jobs so clearly demonstrated his commitment to “insanely great” products, the company’s customers, employees, and partners were arguably more forgiving than they would have been with any other company. Or consider, more recently, what happened when two men were arrested in a Starbucks location in Philadelphia. Because Howard Schultz has built a reputation for fairness — he supports his employees in attending and graduating college, for example — and because he acted decisively, the impact was far less severe than it could have been.”
How to build trustworthiness
Satell, during interviewing innovators and entrepreneurs while working on his book, was the most surprised by the fact that many of interviewed people seemed almost as interested in him and his project as he was in them. “I could see how this would make others feel more forthcoming toward them, and how it could inspire collaboration. These innovators embodied the trust they cultivate in their companies. Their curiosity gave them the kind of access that led them to solve problems no one else could.”
It’s simple. It’s always about what we as humans have in common. Sometimes empathy, responsibility and honesty is the key to success.
Well, that’s nice. But how do we pair it with the 21st century technology?
We are connected through internet, but not connected personally. Can we bring personality and trustworthiness in the anonymized online environment? As you may have noticed, there is a significant and stable rise of using videos in business. It does not matter if your business is big corporation with thousands of employers or just a small local store.
As we postulated in the beginning, nowadays the trust is built through personal connections. At OKTIUM, we believe that human connection and personal communication is one of the most important value to be brought back into the tough world of business. That is why we aim at trustworthy live video communication to your store. One click of OKTIUM’s Face2 button on your website instantly connects your online shoppers to you.
Source
Article by Greg Satell https://medium.com/s/story/how-trust-can-be-a-competitive-advantage-5740ab57186c
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