“Don’t lower your price…increase the trust!”

What does a Schuh, Ibis, a London bus and Maria from Seville have in common?

They have all reversed the ratio between: Tension vs. Trust!

I will come back to that in a minute…

Allow me to start by taking a trip down memory lane. It was back in 1997 when I first set foot in the premises of our family business. It was an exciting time and I walked in with a sense of pride knowing that it was my father who built this amazing enterprise. But what was more impressive was how he cared about his customers – something that I have been hugely inspired by. For example, he always ensured that two coffee machines were taken out of stock so that when customers had a broken down coffee machine, he could replace it while theirs was being fixed. He did this so that his customer didn’t have any downtime and therefore loss of sales. People loved the company because my family cared about their customers through which they built a relationship based on trust. He (my dad) was the first person I witnessed to reverse the balance between tension and trust.

So what is this tension versus trust ratio all about? Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are a man and you go on a first date with the woman of your dreams. If you arrive to pick her up on time and listen intently to what she says, if you don’t make a pass at her and show her that you respect her, then what you would have achieved – other than be called a ‘gentle-man’ – is to lower the tension that she could have felt towards you because you have increased the trust between you! As a professional, you can influence the balance of tension and trust to tilt towards the latter by being punctual, well prepared and knowledgeable.

The last eleven days I have been out of Cyprus travelling to Seville, London, Manchester and now I am writing this email from Rhodes where I have given a speech to a major global company. These 11 days have been an experience that has really opened my eyes and has allowed me to soak in all the inspiration that I was surrounded by – from the traditional London bus to an amazing woman called Maria in Seville.

Increasing sales and profit margins through TRUST

In one of my seminars, titled “The Circle of Trust”, I often stress to the participants that “one new acquaintance or one new idea can revolutionalise your personal and professional lives” and, what I experienced during my recent roundtrip across four different cities brought this to life.

So, why do I keep mentioning this ratio between tension and trust? Let me explain. I am often asked by business people:

How can we increase our sales and maintain a healthy profit margin?

There are of course many factors that can influence sales figures and profit margins but one of the factors that has been highlighted to me over the duration of my recent travels is that we need to say what we mean, and mean what we say. This creates trust amongst customers instead of tension and inevitably, leads to more sales.

So how do companies rebalance the ration of tension versus trust in their favour? Here are some vivid examples that I have come across in the past 11 days.

1. Schuh

These guys sell shoes and make promises that their rivals simply cannot match. They remind me so much of Zappos.com who first started this many years ago. They are so confident in their product that they give their customers:

1. Ibis

While I was in London I decided to stay in one of the Ibis hotels. They have cleverly used the technique of lowering tension and increasing trust by stating that they “have 15 minutes on the clock to sort it out. And if we don’t manage to chase away this pesky cloud in the specified time, that service is on us.” Impressively the clock starts when the call is places with one of their reception staff!

They also added a nice touch by sending me a weather report prior to my arrival in London – very useful when travelling to the UK! But more importantly it significantly reduced any tension I had and the delight in receiving such a surprise increased my trust in them.

1. The London Bus

Although the concept of reducing customer tension and increasing trust is something I am bringing to the surface now, it is not actually a very new concept. Transport for London has been working successfully alongside this principle for a few years which is most clearly shown through how they operate their bus and train service communications.

I remember when I was a student in London and I would wait for the bus to arrive without any indication of when to expect it. However now, they manage our expectations and understand that for a customer, waiting for 9 minutes which is communicated is better than a 6 minute wait without any communication.

1. Maria from Seville

I was so impressed with Maria that I had to write a testimonial of what she provides on my Facebook Fan page, here is an excerpt: “Maria – a shining example of a well-run business that I ran into here in Seville! Maria offers personalized aprons which she sews on the spot according to the request of her customers! “In fact the shop next door to Maria’s shop was also selling aprons but, although they were cheaper, they were not customized and despite the price difference,people were far more attracted to Maria’s shop.

Not only has Maria mastered the art of offering a unique selling point but, she also promises to deliver a sewn apron within 12 to 15 minutes!

“Don’t lower your price…increase the trust!”

When we take a look at companies like ibis and Transport for London, we see how they are managing customer expectations so that they build a strong relationship supported by trust. My advice to anyone – and any organisation – who has decided to combat the current economic downturn in the Eurozone (or in any ‘zone’ and any country in the world) by lowering their price in the hope of attracting customers and remaining competitive is to start eliminating tension and nurture trust with their customers.

How can this be done? By personalising your services, like Maria does. By delivering your promise and be willing to offer your service for free if you fail to deliver, like ibis does.

If you do that dear friends and fans then your customers will not be telling people how ‘cheap’ you are but rather they will be telling people about the amazing service you provide!

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Note 1: A very big thank you to all the companies and institutions that have “TRUSTED” me with training, lecturing and speaking to their respective teams during these 11 days that I was constantly abroad. And these are: Liberty International, UCL, ITMB-North Conference and Bayer CropScience.

Note 2: Michael Virardi is a trainer, speaker and author. His work can be found here: www.michaelvirardi.com. You can hire Michael for your up-coming event or training session by calling him directly on +357-99-612532 or by emailing him at [email protected].