Have you let anyone down recently?

3/6/09

Trust is a major factor when it comes to people referring you. Let’s face it, however good you think a member's service is, would you easily recommend them if you couldn’t completely trust them?

I’m guessing that the answer is probably no – certainly I know that I would think twice.

It’s really important that we don’t raise people’s hopes by making a promise only to dash them by breaking that promise. It wrecks our credibility and therefore any trust that person has in us.

Now I am not talking big events here; it’s the build up of those small broken promises that do the real damage.

Have you ever said to someone, ‘I’ll call you in the morning’, and not done so? Or, ‘I’ll pop it in the post’, and forgotten? Maybe, ‘How about coffee on Thursday?’ and totally forgotten about it. Even, set a date for a meeting, ‘no fail’ you said, and then changed it.

The list is endless, but each is a promise broken. Sooner or later people will stop believing you and with that goes your credibility. And, after that goes the trust a person had in you.

The result of all this is fewer referrals.

A member asked me recently how they could improve their image within the chapter, get more referrals, and my answer was easy. Keep your promises I advised, as only that very week someone else from the chapter had complained that they had stayed in all morning waiting for a promised phone call from this member!