Talk builds trust

Customers who trust a supplier tend to buy more from it and recommend it. Where that trust comes from is less obvious, and it isn't mainly the years you have known each other. Keeping customers informed counts for more.

What the research found

A review of 170 studies from 36 countries, covering business and consumer markets, found that customers who trusted a supplier more tended to give it more business and to recommend it more. When the same review looked at what went with higher trust, communication had the strongest link and the length of the relationship had the weakest.

What does trust look like to a customer? In a six-year study of one supplier's small business customers, it was measured with plain statements such as "can be counted on to do what is right" and "stands by its word". An earlier review by the same research group found that relationship building paid off more in business markets, and when the relationship was with a person rather than only with the firm.

What it means for you

Say a customer's delivery slips by a week. You keep quiet until it's sorted, hoping to have only good news to report, and meanwhile they hear about the delay from their own team. The delivery arrives in the end, but they found out from someone else. You stayed quiet to protect the relationship, and the silence did the opposite.

None of the steps below was tested on its own; they follow from what the studies found.

Keep them informed

• Tell them before they ask, whenever something changes, good or bad.
• When the news is bad, send it early, together with what you are doing about it.
• Give them one person they always hear from. At first that is usually you. Loyalty to one person can leave with that person, though, so keep a record of what each customer has been told.

How Bamya CRM helps

Bamya CRM is a free AI-assisted CRM. Every customer has an owner, who is reminded to keep in touch.

Research: Samaha, Beck & Palmatier (2014), Journal of Marketing; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal & Evans (2006), Journal of Marketing; Zhang, Watson, Palmatier & Dant (2016), Journal of Marketing. Most of the studies are surveys, and the largest reviews come from one research group; the links are associations, not proof that trust causes sales.