3 Ways To Build Trust

Posted by Anil (3 years, 2 months ago)

Trust is the most valuable quality today. Companies spend billions on building and maintaining trust. New technologies like Blockchain / Bitcoin are built solely to service trust. Sadly, trust has been gradually reducing in our societies. So what can we do about it?

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Trust

Trust is like wine. The older you get, the more you appreciate it. and, this is true for companies, as well. Big companies spend billions on building trust via marketing. Some spend more than what they spend on research. This just shows how important trust is, for companies and individuals alike. I mean, the more people trust you, the more you can earn. Just look at our social media influencers.

So what is this trust. When I checked online I realised that the definitions are interesting, but they're too vague for my liking. So, I was forced to dust off my psychology notes for answers. And people, I found out that trust can be built in 3 ways:
1. Reputation
2. Familiarity
3. Culture match

Reputation

Suppose you want to invest you money. Say you want 20% returns every year. You would ask around or even google and go with someone with highest ratings. Essentially, you are trusting someone based on reputation. This is the most straightforward way. You need to be good at what you say you do and people will trust you.

Familiarity

Second, familiarity. Now, when you think of trust, you most likely think of your family or close friends. Why? Because you know them so well! Familiarity. The more you know someone, the more you trust that person.

Now, these two are pretty straightforward. You know how to build reputation and familiarity. Even companies understand this well. They spend on research, offer better products and services to increase their reputation, and spend billions, as we saw earlier, to increase familiarity through marketing. But what we all find confusing is this third way called Culture match. It is the hardest to understand, although it is the quickest way to build trust and by far, what builds the strongest trust.

Culture match

So what is Culture match. Have you ever met someone and formed instant connection? You felt like you've known this person for years? That is what Culture match feels like. Even companies can feel the benefits of Culture match. Those customers who buy whatever they sell, waiting hours in line. Politicians who control the masses also feel the effects of Culture match when people are ready to die and kill at their command. We all can feel it, but it's hard to define it and even harder to replicate.

But that hasn't stopped some people from trying. And I am one of them. For years, my colleagues and I have been working on Culture match, and recently we built a platform for people to find their Culture matches. Essentially, find others whom they can trust. So far there's no platform that helps with Culture match. There's Google, Linkedin for increasing reputation, Facebook, Instagram for familiarity. But none for Culture match, until now.

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