What does it mean to be trustworthy? Why are these companies trusted? Part 2

Continuing from the piece yesterday, What does it mean to be trustworthy? Why are these companies trusted? Part 1. 

 

3. Transparency

 

Transparency is similar to authenticity, but it goes one step further - a company openly communicates what it does and how it does it. 

Transparency is intentionally baring your soul to the world by showing your true self to others.

--What does being transparent mean?, Liveauthentically's Blog

 

For a company, that means exposing what your processes are, telling a customer what to expect.

Here’s the problem, though: When a company makes its operations transparent, it reveals them not only to its customers but also to its competitors. And since very few companies have cornered the market for raw materials or talent, making processes transparent means making the business easy to copy. That is why so many businesses stop short of revealing everything customers might like to know. And it’s why ideas like trustability, likeonomics, and face-to-face are needed to keep potential buyers from bolting.

Truth be told, customers won’t really trust you unless you’re transparent. But if you become transparent, your competitive advantage proves transient. Margins plummet, and you’re forced to innovate.

--Julie Kirby, Trust in the Age of Transparency, Harvard Business Review 

There are some flaws in this argument (I’m finishing up a seminar about competition and copying). Copying may be the easy way to get a program implemented, but there are a lot of problems with that approach, especially if you are copying a program from a company that has a very different corporate culture than your own. 

 

And if it were easy to copy a company’s processes from transparency, why don’t more companies do it to achieve the results these companies have? 

 

Zappos is completely transparent - they constantly share how they work (see the video at the top of the page). Even though they are highly successful, not many companies have adopted what they do. They are truly unique.

 

Further, they have transformed their corporate culture to be transparent so there is no hiding and everyone knows what everyone else does.

 

During the 4-hour meeting, Hsieh talked about how Zappos’ traditional organizational structure is being replaced with Holacracy, a radical “self-governing” operating system where there are no job titles and no managers. The term Holacracy is derived from the Greek word holon, which means a whole that’s part of a greater whole. Instead of a top-down hierarchy, there’s a flatter “holarchy” that distributes power more evenly. The company will be made up of different circles—there will be around 400 circles at Zappos once the rollout is complete in December 2014—and employees can have any number of roles within those circles. This way, there’s no hiding under titles; radical transparency is the goal.

Hsieh told the crowd on that rainy November afternoon, “Darwin said that it’s not the fastest or strongest that survive. It’s the ones most adaptive to change.”

...

“We’re classically trained to think of ‘work’ in the traditional paradigm,” says John Bunch, who, along with Alexis Gonzales-Black, is leading the transition to Holacracy at Zappos. “One of the core principles is people taking personal accountability for their work. It’s not leaderless. There are certainly people who hold a bigger scope of purpose for the organization than others. What it does do is distribute leadership into each role. Everybody is expected to lead and be an entrepreneur in their own roles, and Holacracy empowers them to do so.”

In its highest-functioning form, he says, the system is “politics-free, quickly evolving to define and operate the purpose of the organization, responding to market and real-world conditions in real time. It’s creating a structure in which people have flexibility to pursue what they’re passionate about.”

 

--Aimee Groth, Zappos is going holacratic: no job titles, no managers, no hierarchy, Quartz

Not only is the internal structure being more transparent, they are communicating this change to the world. Wonderful transparency.

 

Virgin America is also transparent with their customer. Their upgrade policies were revolutionary, especially because there were no secrets about how to score a first class seat 6 hours before a flight. Now, a number of other airlines have similar offers. It's a great way to not let first class seats go empty - and fill up the plane.

 

They are also transparent about how they save energy. 

 

Virgin America was the first domestic airline to list its carbon footprint according to internationally accepted standards on The Climate Registry. Virgin America established its baseline footprint in its first full year of operations, as a first step in ensuring its operations were transparent to the traveling public. The airline is committed to finding new ways to reduce its footprint per guest, even as it experiences substantial growth both in traffic and fleet.

 

--Virgin America Web site, Transparency

 

Apple is also transparent, but I have a personal story to share to tell the transparency story.

 

My computer was old and dying, I knew it, but I wasn’t ready for a new one yet. One day, I let the battery run out and it just died. It wouldn't turn on. I went to get a new battery, and it still wouldn’t work. I called Apple Care and they didn’t want to tell me the bad news that most likely my logic board was fried, so they tried to get me an appointment at an Apple store. However, this was my work computer - so I needed a solution right away. The Genius Bars near my home were booked solid for 3 days, so the call center recommended that I go to a reseller to get faster service. I didn't know that resellers still existed with the Genius Bar concept - but I was thrilled! I found a reseller who specializes in small businesses and can give me better service and help than going to Apple itself. Now I have someone to call if there is a problem.

 

By being transparent about how I could get the best solution rather than looking for a sale for Apple itself, Apple made a better deal - they introduced me to a solution I needed more than an Apple Genius bar desk. 

 

 

Another sign of transparency is to do an experiment how easily a company can be contacted. Companies that have their phone numbers and online chat easy to find means they want to talk to you and they are concerned with their customers. Companies that hide their contact information in some ways, don't want customers to contact them. They would rather that customers research their own answers to questions than help them.

 

Zappos (see the header - many ways to contact Zappos at the top of the page), Virgin America and Apple all have extensive Contact Us pages. It's wonderful how open they are to help customers solve their problems.

 

 

4. And these traits build the greatest trait - Loyalty

Being loyal means being true to yourself, first, and then you are true to others and offer them the right assistance that they need.

Sure, reward systems improve loyalty, but giving gifts is like giving someone a bribe to work with you - it's not being truly loyal.

How are these companies truly loyal to their customers? They all take their responsibility seriously. Being authentic, responsible and transparent makes them automatically loyal to their customers. I could tell countless stories about loyalty for these brands - and I'm sure you could too. 

 These companies are also loyal to their employees to complete the chain. And these employees are engaged with their employer and it's brand.

 

Engaged employees are the ones that believe in the brand philosophy and are committed to upholding it on behalf of the company. They have been compared to volunteers who give their time to a cause they are passionate about. They are passionate about the company mission and goals and are willing to put in the extra effort to make sure they are met. When they are faced with obstacles, the think out of the box and come up with creative solutions to overcome the challenges. They are what Lowenstein refers to as Employee Ambassadors. 

 

--Colin Shaw, New Generation of Business: Connecting Employee Loyalty with Customer Loyalty, LinkedIn

 

And how does this extend to how employees work with customers?

They are committed to the customers. Ambassadors understand the customers’ needs and does everything they can in their performance at the company to meet those needs, while delivering the highest values in both product and service.

--Colin Shaw, New Generation of Business: Connecting Employee Loyalty with Customer Loyalty, LinkedIn

 

We trust certain companies because they are authentic, responsible, transparent and loyal - and their employees feel that way about them as well. Without this "perfect storm" present, a company has a hard time earning trust from prospects and customers to provide a trustworthy and good customer experience.

 

 

What else makes a good customer experience? Read the continuing story expanding on the 9 Characteristics of Great Customer Experiences.