The Change Dude’s Blog

Physiology of Trust

Trust is what allows our economy to work smoothly and efficiently providing opportunities for growth and fulfillment.  Our common challenge in bringing business relationships out of the proverbial tank and back into the light is renewing a level of trust with our customers, employees and shareholders.

The more I thought about this idea of organization renewal the more I sought research to guide me.  In addition to the valuable experience I’ve accumulated over my years in consulting a question remained about just how this trust thing works in humans.  Through the search for an answer, or at least some semblance of an idea,  I came upon the relatively new science of neuroeconomics. 

Neuroeconomics combines neuroscience, economics, and psychology to study how people make decisions. It looks at the role of the brain when we evaluate decisions, categorize risks and rewards, and interact with each other.  From my study of the research conducted in this area my undergrad degree in Biology came in very handy.

Here’s the crux of the research, trust begets trust.  OK, big enlightening finding right.  Actually, yes.  The result of some incredible research done by Paul Zak at the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies in Claremont, California has found that their is a physiological reason we tend to hang out with people we trust.  It makes us feel better.  It makes us feel good and bond because when a behavior of trust occurs between people the peptide oxytocin is released giving us an emotional lift.  That emotional lift causes us to be more open and relaxed mediating trust behavior when a decision is being made.

Ah ha!  Ever wonder why we get so angry when things appear unfair? Or why we feel so good when a complete stranger offers their hand to help.  Voila – oxytocin. 

So how does an business organization take this really cool data and do something with it?  At the core it’s about making offers that build trust.  Offers of stress free service that is really stress free.  Offers of discounts that are actually discounts.  Offers of personal growth to employees that are made good.  Each time we in the business world “make good” on a promise trust is enhanced and deeper bonding occurs, for real, through the release of oxytocin. 

Unfortunately, this has not been a banner year for oxytocin release.  But there is a silver lining.  With all the chaos and unrest in the economy today a little bit of trust building may go a very long way. 

The Change Dude’s 3 step approach to enhancing trust:

1. Offer customers/employees something unexpected
2. Deliver on the offer quickly without conditions a.k.a. fine print
3. Repeat as often as you can

Case in point, a few years ago Bell South implements a “just ask” program requiring every customer facing employee to ask customers a simple question at the conclusion of every interaction “Was there anything else I can do for you?” 

The result was a rise in overall customer satisfaction because a little offer goes a long way and sales increased based on that little question adding  $100M add in first yea.  Additionally,  reward points were given to service people to be used to choose from catalog of goods enhancing the quality of work because they had to qualify for the opportunity and follow up with the sale.

All this good stuff happened because of a little trust, with some help, probably, from our friend oxytocin.

July 15, 2009 - Posted by thechangedude | Thinking About Associates, Thinking About Customers