How Singapore firms can effectively win personal and corporate trust

The great US investor Warren Buffett famously said, “It takes 20 minutes to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

How to build (and maintain) trust and reputation is the subject of countless dissertations. It also keeps numerous reputation management and PR companies in business. But don’t ever think it’s just the concern of academics, consultants or multinational mega-brands.

Every entrepreneur should think about trust, even on day one of the business. First, trust is essential for attracting customers. Second, trust builds a brand, and therefore adds financial value to a business. A trusted company also finds it easier to gain partners, attract talent and find suppliers.

A US thinktank, the Values Institute, has come up with an easily-memorised formula for the five values that influence trust in a brand:

·         competence [eg how the company performs]

·         concern [eg care for customers, staff, community]

·         connection [sharing customers’ values, communicating with them]

·         consistency [dependability of products and services]

·         candour [transparency, openness and honesty].

All these values should run right through a business. Concern and connection, for example, have to be genuine. In the days of the internet and social media, companies can’t fake them. With almost 50% of Singapore on Twitter, over 60% on Facebook, and 37% researching online reviews and social media before buying,[1] companies quickly get caught out if they fail to care, connect or be candid.

In a recent survey in Singapore,[2] social media was ranked low as a positive influence on corporate reputation, but this is no cause for complacency: social media can very easily have a negative influence on reputation. Warren Buffett’s warning about how it can take 5 minutes to ruin a reputation is more relevant than ever in the days of social media.

Why SMEs and growth companies may struggle with trust

Another definition of how to gain trust is that it is based on two elements: character and competence. ‘Character’ covers similar ground as ‘concern, connection and candour’ - it’s about building relationships, not just sales. Customers increasingly like companies with values. They want to believe that they, and not profits, are the primary focus of businesses they deal with.

All of the various Cs that go to create trust – character, competence, concern, connection, consistency, candour – can come under pressure when companies grow quickly. Staff and owners get overstretched; new employees come on aboard who don’t have the same connections with customers as in the early days; consistency may suffer.

As I said earlier, values like candour and concern have to come from within, and owners and managers must take the time to build a good corporate culture. But with other values – competence and consistency – help can come from outside. This applies not just to Singapore’s high-growth companies, but to every company, from the one-man-band upwards.

Competence covers the big issues like quality and price, but it’s also about getting small things right: phones being answered rather than allowed to ring; messages passed on and calls returned; a business address in a good area. These are the things that can SMEs can often overlook, and can dent people’s belief in your company.

Let’s say you’re overstretched. Rather than jeopardise competence and consistency, why not outsource? Think about all the activities that divert you from core business: dealing with lengthy paperwork such as property leases; equipping the office and organising cleaning and maintainance; getting the photocopier fixed when it goes wrong; hiring people to staff reception or security and answer the phones; making sure you’re meeting local health and safety regulations.

If someone else does these things, you have more time to focus on the core tasks of being competent and consistent. Which is why over 1.3 million satisfied customers worldwide use Regus for their workspace or virtual office needs, including at 13 different Regus business centres in Singapore. For these customers, with less time spent on workplace, there’s more time to spend on business.

How to win personal trust as well as corporate trust

With personal trust, the same principles apply as with corporates: you have to show both character and competence day in, day out. It’s back to Buffett again: five bad minutes when you’re overstretched can easily harm trust and reputation. Networks spread recommendations, but they also spread criticism.

The solution is to arrange your life so that you can perform properly.

·         invest in talent so that you’re not doing everything yourself

·         outsource non-core tasks such as managing the office, so you and your key staff can focus on customer service and revenue and new business generation

·         pay attention to your work-life balance and stress levels

·         cut the time and energy you spend on commuting and business travel. By working at locations closer to home or using videoconferencing instead of flying abroad to meetings, you create more time for work and family.

Trust may be an abstract concept, but to gain it you need to look at those practical details.