Trust vs. Relationship
By John Downey
APRIL 28, 2011
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“It ain''t what you don''t know that gets you into trouble. It''s what you know for sure that just ain''t so.” Mark Twain.

I''ve been involved in various aspects of the carpet care industry for nearly 40 years, with the last six as an owner-operator carpet cleaner.

My company serves a small (under 10,000), affluent college town about 30 miles northeast of Columbus, OH.

Downey''s Carpet Care of Granville has done well. While the income is modest compared to some of the other things I''ve done, I enjoy this business immensely.

In particular, I love the customer relationship aspect of the business. Until recently I attributed much of the success I''ve enjoyed in building this business to those customer relationships. In marketing parlance this is known as “relationship marketing,” and I''m good at it.

Last fall, I began a series of monthly columns for the Cleanfax Insider e-newsletter, under the heading “Life as a Rug Scrubber.” This caused me to pay careful attention to the details of my business. Maybe that''s why a customer comment made shortly before the holidays struck me.

And when it happened twice in less than a week, I realized that I needed to pay attention.

Lesson #1

The first time this occurred, I was cleaning for a retired bank president. His wife, now deceased, had originally hired me five years ago.

While I had met him in the course of doing my work, my relationship was with his wife and, frankly, I was somewhat surprised that he continued to call me for service after her death a few years ago.

When he scheduled the appointment he indicated he wasn''t sure exactly what areas needed to be cleaned, so I suggested we take a look when I got there and figure it out. When I arrived, he let me in, told me what areas he had in mind, then he said this: “John, I trust you. Clean whatever you think needs to be cleaned.” Then he told me if I needed him I could find him in his office.

As I did my work, that word “trust” hung in my mind. Heretofore I think I would have just attributed it to my relationship marketing skills, but that didn''t quite seem to fit. He was a man and a banker and the things I do to build relationship aren''t done with male bankers in mind.

So, I wondered, was I perhaps missing the point? I''ve attributed a good portion of my success to the fact that my customers like me and because they like me they are comfortable referring me to family, friends and neighbors.

Maybe it''s not so much that they like me as it is that they trust me. Hmmm…

Lesson #2

A few days later, I was scheduled to clean for a sweet elderly lady, a customer since 2005, who is the kind of person who makes me glad I do what I do.

She''s certainly not affluent; she rents her modest house and is on a tight budget. It''s just her and her dog and I usually clean for her about once a year. I had just cleaned for her in the late spring, so I was a bit surprised she had called so soon for another cleaning.

When I arrived I found out why. She was to host a Christmas dinner for the family, and her daughters (also customers) told her she needed to have the carpet and a sofa cleaned before the dinner. It seems the daughters believed the sofa had an objectionable odor.

Knowing she was already on a tight budget, I suggested a cleaning approach that would save her about a third of the cost while meeting her (and her daughters'') objective of a malodor-free Christmas. Her response: “John, whatever you suggest is fine with me. I trust you.”

Dang! There was that word again — trust. Very different customer, different context, but the same word used to describe what I am to them: Trustworthy.

Trust versus relationship

Some readers may think I''m splitting hairs by contrasting relationship to trust. After all, people trust those with whom they are in relationship, right?

That''s what I thought until I really thought about it. Then I realized the two aren''t necessarily linked.

I thought of a handyman I used who did great work and was very personable. But he didn''t always follow through with what he said he was going to do. He wasn''t always easy to reach. I liked him but I didn''t trust him, and ultimately I stopped using him.

I thought of others with whom I had done business over the years. I thought of the Realtor who didn''t follow through, the banker who didn''t go to the mat for us when we needed him to, and the doctor — brilliant and a friend going back to high school — whose personal problems and alcohol addiction has rendered him unreliable.

All of them I love like brothers, but I don''t do business with them anymore because they don''t measure up in terms of trust.

Then I thought of the people and companies with whom I''ve done business for years: The exterminator, the appliance repairman, the barber, the plumber.

Why? Some are pretty inexpensive, others not; some are people that I enjoy and like; others not so much.

They all have one thing in common, though; they''ve proven themselves to be worthy of my trust. I''ll bet if you think about it, you''ll find the same to be true of the people and companies you do business with.

So if trust is the key, what are the traits of trustworthy companies? I''ve identified three things that I would call primary traits:

Competence
Reliability
Accessibility
I believe that how well we integrate these traits into our businesses has a huge impact on our level of success. Let''s take a closer look at them.

Competence

Competence is the baseline of trust.

If you don''t know what you are doing, and if you don''t inspire confidence that you know what you are doing, forget about reliability and accessibility. You are sunk.

Competence can be gained in many ways: Education, training, experience and certification come to mind. In the carpet cleaning industry, technical competence is not that hard to attain. But make no mistake; there are a load of technically incompetent carpet cleaners out there.

Business competence is more difficult to attain, especially for owner-operators.

Both technical and business competence, or lack thereof, are communicated in a wide variety of ways: Our credentials (association memberships, certifications, etc.), how we answer the telephone, our personal grooming, our uniforms, our tools and equipment, the condition and cleanliness of our trucks, the signage on our trucks, the way we introduce ourselves, the way we talk to customers, the care we demonstrate for the customer and the customer''s property, the results of our work, how we handle problems/complaints.

The list can go on and on.

Reliability

Talk is cheap. Trust is bred when we deliver what we promise and it is lost when we don''t. It''s as simple as that.

Reliability is arriving when we say we will arrive and doing what we say we are going to do. It''s having equipment that works and the tools you need to do the job.

Reliability is not making excuses. Excuses destroy trust.

Honesty and candor are related to reliability. When things go wrong, and it happens to all businesses, honesty and candor will go a long way toward restoring trust.

Accessibility

At first blush this may not seem like a trust issue, but if a customer can''t get you when they need you, trust is lost.

This is probably the area where small, owner-operator companies are at their greatest disadvantage. Larger companies typically have one or more people in the office during normal business hours. When a prospect or customer calls, their needs can be addressed immediately.

With smaller companies, phone tag is a very real problem. Recent years have seen the advent of specialized scheduling services that are designed to address this problem. Depending on their level of integration with your company''s sched- uling and support systems, they are able to deliver from a basic to an advanced level of assistance to you and your customers.

Marketing and communications are related to accessibility. We have to be visible to be accessible. Regular customer communications keep customers from forgetting who we are. We may delude ourselves into thinking we''re unforgettable; we''re not.

Building trust

Competence, reliability and accessibility. Any company that excels in these areas has built a solid foundation for trust and subsequently for success.

How trustworthy is your company?

If your repeat and referral business is growing at a healthy pace, odds are that you pass the trust test.

If not, a critical examination of your company''s competence, reliability and accessibility is in order.

John Downey is owner-operator of Downey''s Carpet Care of Granville in Granville, OH. When he''s not scrubbin'' rug, his wife, Cecilia, lets him help out his brother, Tiger, owner of Perceptionist, an appointment scheduling service for small service businesses (www.myperceptionist.com). Downey can be reached at jdowney@johndowneyco.com.