How do you establish credibility?

How do you establish credibility in client/customer relationships? Not just rational credibility where the client trusts you because you have the technical know-how but credibility that involves complete trust.|||Credibility means:





Tell the truth. Never promise what you can't delivery. It is better to say you can't when you know you can't rather than say you can and hope it all works out. Never answer a question if you don't know the correct answer.





Anything else is just window dressing.|||Credibility allows a business to establish a longer term relationship with clients. Here are some ways a business establshes credibility:





1. In your meetings with clients, you demonstrate a strong grasp of industry knowledge and understanding of the client needs immediately. The client will recognize that you've thought the matter through and you couldn't have had this conversation with anyone else.


2. Accreditation from industry organizations and vanguards of industry standards


3. Professional certifications (e.g. event planner who is a Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP)


4. Good public presentations and public speaking engagements. By getting speaking engagements, you establish yourself as an authority in the field


5. Published studies or articles in industry publications.


6. Complementary services or products that supports your main products in an effort to gain customer's credibility in your brand.|||Honesty, honesty, Honesty, Your word should hold water! There are too few honest people these days...|||Ouch... did you say "complete trust"? That's not a client/customer relationship... that's a marriage. I can't think of too many business relationships that would demand such intrusion. Nor would I, as a professional, want that type of responsibility over a person's confidential information.





How about just providing the best work they could expect from someone in your field? That's a sure fire way to have clients who are satisfied, really to return and to refer you to others.|||People often make mistakes by believing that you must demand respect...I believe that it must be earned. If you tarnished your own name in others' eyes, then you must change those things that caused lack of credibility in the first place. After all, you can't go wrong when you're doing right, right?!?!