Trust is the invisible currency that every business needs. Without trust, there is no business. In fact, customers don’t buy products or services, they buy trust.
Trust in business is earned over time. It takes time and once earned, the real task lies in maintaining it. It should be noted that it takes one hundred years to build a legacy but one minute is enough to destroy it.
Building trust is a hard task but losing it is the easiest thing than anything else. Employers have to instill trust in their employees. The employees will in turn transmit the same to the customers. Trust is mutual and without it, what you might think is a business, is actually a shell.
Many employers have failed the test of trust and this has ended up affecting their business. It is very difficult for employees to trust bosses who never keep their word. There are employers who are known as ‘cunning’ by their employees because they never keep their word in anything. To demolish trust, you don’t need a voluminous scandal. Something as simple as promising them a cake and then failing to honor the promise is enough to break their trust in you.
Some employers never trust their employees. They keep on blaming them for any fault that falls on their business. They are never ready to take the blame even when it is clear that they are the ones at fault. This, apart from killing the morale of the employees, pulls their trust away from the employer.
When employees have trust in the employer and the business, they will take the business as part of them. They will work as though they are working for what is their own. Once the trust is broken, employees become dejected and start only working to pay their bills. The moment your employees start working for you just to pay their bills, you are done and your business is beyond repair.
What makes employees lose trust in their employer?
Failure to pay employees on time. This is the number one factor that leads to mistrust of employees in the company. There are employers who never pay their employees on time but expect them to deliver on time. The human brain is fixed and when it comes to issues to do with money, it is more fixed than anything else. Failing to pay them on time on several occasions leads to mistrust and this affects delivery.
Unrealistic and unfulfilled promises. There are employers who are masters of making promises that they know very well that they cannot fulfill. For instance, do not promise your employees a lump sum salary increment when you know very well that your business is lame and going through financial turmoil. Do not promise to take your employees to a lavish resort when you yourself only hear about it through the media. Why make them mistrust you when you fail to fulfill?
Rewarding mediocrity and condemning hard work. There are employers who never pay attention to hard-working employees. They are perfect in listening to mediocre and busybodies in their company and those who sing their praises and never listen to any voice of reason from employees who are hard-working. This makes the hard-working employees lose trust in both the employer and their business.
Dating and flirting with female employees in presence of others. The surest way to lose the trust of your employees is to start dating and flirting with some of them in presence of others. First, you will lose the trust of your male employees and their respect for you will diminish. You will also lose the respect of your other female employees the moment they discover that you are screwing* one of them.
What makes customers lose trust in you and your business?
The trust of your customers in you and your business relies heavily on your employees and how competent they are. However, your customers are likely to lose trust in you and your business when:
i) When you over promise and under deliver.
ii) When you fail to honor deadlines
iii) When you fail to honor the contract
iv) When you lie to them
v) When they find out that you are a fraud.
