A recent move to a new town after living 80 miles north of here for two decades has had its challenges. While there is a lot of adventure and excitement in a move, there is a lot of change that involves creating new relationships with professional services, like a dentist, car mechanic, ophthalmologist and veterinarian.
As I work to figure out a good fit, I’m realizing a good part of figuring out who will be best is coming down to trust. After developing trusting relationships with previous providers, how do I know if I can trust someone new? It’s not a quick process.
I’ve worked with Flint Group for almost 30 years, and many relationships I developed with colleagues and clients 30 years ago, or even five years ago, are built on trust and multiple other factors.
Key components to building strong personal and professional relationships based around trust can be similar. No matter what is on the top of your list, we all must create positive relationships to get through life’s and work’s challenges.
How can you build trust? Here are some pointers I’ve learned during my time in client service:
- Take an emotional stake in the success of your colleagues and clients.
- Develop good people skills, like listening more than talking, and being empathetic and open to what people have to say.
- Be appreciative of others and acknowledge their kindness.
- Be positive.
- Respect people.
I’ve found that when you can live and work by these simple yet sometimes challenging guidelines, your relationships with your clients, customers, colleagues, friends and even acquaintances will be friendly, successful, memorable and quite possibly life-long.
Building strong relationships doesn’t happen overnight. Deliver on your promises, be trustworthy and show dedication to your clients’, colleagues’ and friends’ needs, happiness and success. Trust is having confidence in someone. Trust is a feeling that allows us to live and work together and feel safe. Trust is worth the work to achieve all of this with those amongst us.