NASHVILLE–Credit unions were given “eight pillars of trust” that one expert said are vital to addressing the biggest expense they face—even if they can’t find the expense on the balance sheet.
David Horsager, a business strategist and best selling author who has conducted significant research on trust, told NAFCU’s annual meeting that “a lack of trust” is every organization’s “biggest expense.” But he also told credit unions they are in a unique position when it comes to trust, even though the industry is not taking full advantage.
David Horsager speaking to NAFCU meeting in Nashville.
“If you think trust affects the bottom line, ask Volkswagen, ask Brian Williams,” said Horsager. “Your credit score is a trust score. One of the greatest biggest pieces of research found that in countries where citizens trust each other more, they have lower levels of poverty.”
As an example, Horsager said the cost of a lock on anything isn’t a few bucks, it’s trust and time.
“Trust is a confident belief in a person, professional, or organization,” he said. “As trust increases, output, morale, retention, productivity, innovation, loyalty and revenue. And as trust decreases, cost, problems, skepticism, attrition, time to market and stress all increase.”
Horsager said research has shown that high-trust companies outperform companies with low trust levels by 186%.
According to Horsager, when people trust a company:
- 91% chose to buy from them
- 76% recommend them to a friend
- 55% will pay a premium to use them
- 42% share positive experiences online
“If you want to change one thing in your credit union this year, it has to be something to do with trust,” said Horsager, adding one misconception, is that it takes a long time to build trust. It can happen in a moment, he said.
The Eight Pillars of Trust
Horsager outlined what he called the “8 Pillars of Trust.”
1. Clarity. “People trust the clear, and mistrust the ambiguous and complex,” he said. Horsager said that when organizations talk strategy, there are two words that are not asked frequently enough. The first question in any part of strategic clarity is “why,” said Horsager. “In credit unions, you have a great ‘why.’ If you aren’t clearly sharing the why with Millennials and others, you’re losing. The second question is the real question of clarity, and most people stop too early, and it is ‘how.’ How do we get there. Ask ‘how’ at least three times.”
2. Compassion. It turns out, not too surprisingly, that we trust people who actually care beyond themselves, said Horsager. But what is the top reason people leave an organization: lack of caring, he observed. He then cited the LAWS of Compassion: Listen, Appreciate, Wake up, and Serve selflessly: “The greatest need for humans after basic needs is need to feel appreciated. You want a better culture? This one idea can change it all. Appreciation is how we show compassion in the marketplace.” When it comes to the “Wake up” piece, Horsager cited Caribou Coffee’s motto, “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” “If you can show you’re awake to another person, it changes everything,” said Horsager.
3. Character. “I believe you can build a high-character person and a company and organizations. One little idea: the leaders we studied were marked by a very specific trait: they did what needed to be done, by when it needed to be done, whether they felt like it or not.”
4. Competence. “You can have character and compassion, but if you don’t have the competency to do the job, I don’t trust you. You have to stay fresh, relevant and capable. You have to have the technology the banks have, the ways of doing things that are the best. Ask, ‘How am I staying fresh, relevant, and capable?’ In business, we say input leads to output. It turns out books are better input than television, by a long shot. Yet the average amount of TV the average American watches annually is 1,287 hours, and the average number of books an American reads after their formal education during their lifetime is one.”
5. Commitment. “It turns out we trust people who will stick in the face of adversity. Those we believe are committed, we tend to trust. The only way to build trust is to make and keep a commitment.”
6. Connection. “This is where we get rid of silos,” said Horsager. He said the number one magnetic trait in people and teams is gratitude.
7. Contribution. “There are several ways to do this, but it really comes down to this: results. If you don’t get results, I have a hard time trusting you.”
8. Consistency. “This is the king of the pillars. What ever you do, do it consistently. It’s why we don’t like moody people. Consistency is trusted. So if I come into your credit union and the front line person is nice, but the loan officer is not, if the web presence is not nice, but the brochures are, I don’t trust you. Consistency is the only way to build a reputation and a brand.”