How do I know how much my business is trusted?

Some time ago I was working with a B2B insurance company that did all its business through brokers. They were bemoaning the fact that they were not getting improved “net promoter scores” from brokers despite making numerous improvements to their products, customer service and operational processes.

It turned out that a few years before they had needed to exit a category for good commercial reasons, but had done it hastily with little prior notice or consultation with their brokers – they effectively just ‘dumped’ the problem onto them!

Investigation proved that they still had not been ‘forgiven’ by the brokers most affected – even years after the event. The “would you recommend” question was therefore not being answered in relation to recent service, but was reflecting the bigger issue – the loss of trust.

There is universal acceptance that trust is essential in B2B, and it’s at the heart of our Customer Attuned model, yet it is all-too-often assumed rather than managed or measured.

The thing is, it’s a difficult question to ask a B2B customer – do you trust me/my organisation? It’s OK when a client does trust you, but if they don’t they might not tell you because… they don’t trust you to do something about it with equanimity!! It’s a classic vicious circle.

Is Net Promoter therefore the answer? Well, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Part of the problem is that trust is behavioural as well as attitudinal – what people do day-to-day is likely be a better indicator than feedback on occasional surveys or traditional account review meetings.

Tracking behaviour, however, is complex and requires sophisticated CRM systems rich with quality data on account interactions as well as transactions. The task is compounded in B2B because there are often many-to-many individual relationships in one client/supplier corporate relationship.

I wish there was an easy answer to this!

Our approach – Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ™) – measures the levels of both Trust and Commitment in client/supplier relationships at multiple levels, creating a much more robust and insightful indicator.

We’d VERY much like to hear your views on this subject – please join in the conversation on Twitter.

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Peter Lavers

Peter Lavers is a co-founder and Director of Customer Attuned Ltd.

An expert in CRM and customer experience management, Peter is regularly recognised as a top influencer in the subject.

He's a SAS Collaborator and IBM Futurist; and regularly features in "top people to follow" lists for Customer Experience, Customer Service and Customer Success.

His early career was 18 years with Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors, after which he jumped the fence into business consulting, helping clients improve customer experience and value.

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