“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”  -George McDonald

But what makes a company trustworthy?

Try this: imagine you are evaluating a proposal for a project you requested.  Below are some of the questions you might be asking about the vendor as you evaluate the proposal:

• Are they charging a fair price?
• Do they have the capability to do what I need?
• Will they meet the deadlines?
• Will they deliver work with the quality I am paying for?
• Can I work and communicate with them?
• Can I trust them?

What’s the most important question you need answered? I believe for most people “trust” is the most important question.  Trust, not money, is the currency of business.  Have it and everything is possible, but without it everything freezes (witness the recent financial meltdown).  Yet trust is an experience, a feeling, felt by one person towards another in response to the actions of the first.  Therefore trust cannot exist without a relationship.  So if you rely on customers to purchase your products and services then your business, like ours, is this: it is all about the customer relationship.

So how do you improve your relationship with your customers and build trust?  It will not happen overnight but if you commit yourselves to each and every one of your customers to improve the relationship you will be on the right path. Share information, seek to understand their business, actively listen to their needs, answer their questions, and most importantly deliver on your promises.  In doing so you will build the relationship and trust will follow.  Seek not to create trust, but to earn it from your customers.

Trust grows through ongoing communication, good will and shared experiences.  At IT Hands we want to walk it like we talk it so we are committed to communicating with you, providing helpful IT related tips and explaining who we are and what we have learned along the way.  If information like this is useful to you become one of our fans on Facebook and receive even more helpful advice and interaction with us.  We might teach you something new, we might save you some money, or we may give you an idea of how to make more money, and along the way we want to provide a reminder that we at IT Hands have a relationship with you and we are committed to building on that relationship over time.