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We ask customers to trust us and thus customers need to believe that we will do more than just produce a result. It’s a lot to ask of customers; it isn’t easy for customers to trust us. Therefore we must honor, meet, and sustain their trust. And to do that, we must identify what exactly customers need to trust we will and won’t do.

Customers Need to Trust We Will. Image via free Powerpoint clip art.

Customers Need to Trust We Will …

1. Treat them with basic human respect.

2. Show them we care about them even when they don’t seem to care about us.

3. Listen without assumptions and bias.

4. Have and show a sense of urgency.

5. Work as a team so they don’t have to manage us.

6. Understand their frustration.

7. Listen to their anger and help defuse it.




And they need to trust we will …

8. Use great courtesy with them.

9. Give them our full attention.

10. Adapt to their pace of speech.

11. Ask them questions to help them define what they need.

12. Educate them on requirements without patronizing them.

13. Offer them options and alternatives.

14. Follow-through with our promises.

15. Act with honesty and integrity.

16. Own our mistakes, apologize fully, and correct the trouble.







Customers Need to Trust We Will … Image by Terry Johnston via Flickr.

Image by Terry Johnston via Flickr Creative Commons License.



And customers need to trust we WON’t …

17. Speak in jargon and confuse them.

18. Abuse them.

19. Work so slowly that they experience a loss.

20. Put them or their business at risk in various ways.

21. Expect them to know what we need from them.

22. Accuse and blame them.

When we read and re-read this list, we see just how hard it is for customers to trust service providers. Add to that any and all bad customer service experiences they’ve had, and the challenge of building and maintaining customer trust becomes crystal clear.

How can all service providers meet this challenge?

• Practice courtesy, listening, and patience with each other. What becomes our norm becomes our interaction with customers.

• Simplify procedures to make service easier to provide and easier for customers as well.

• Find pleasure and reward in serving others. This mindset supports you in the toughest moments.

• Build a strong dynamic team within to prevent gaps in service.

• Train every single person in your organization how to hear and respond positively to negative customer feedback.

• Teach everyone in your organization how to apologize unconditionally. No “if we did …” nor “Sorry you feel that way …” sidesteps. These moments are critical!

Customers decide whether they can trust us based on how we treat them, if we deliver what we promise, AND how we behave when we fail them. And not surprisingly, we do the same thing when we are the customers. So here’s to a renewed commitment to delivering the the ultimate customer service experience each and every time!

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™

Related Post:
Leaders, A Great Employee Attitude is Essential, Not Negotiable

©2019 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Tags: anger, customer effort, customer experience, integrity, National Customer Service Week, needs, People Skills, respect, Soft Skills, trust, Ultimate Customer Service