The second annual TIAA-Cref Trust in America Survey found:
- Investors trusting less than before
- Investors valuing trust more than before.
By a wide margin, investors associate trust with integrity more than competence in their choice of financial services firms.
92 percent of American investors say: "I would invest with a firm that has strong ethics even if it meant not getting as high a return on my investment." That number is up nine points from the 2004.
5 percent say: "I would invest with a firm that cuts corners if it meant I would get higher returns." That number is down from 14 percent in 2004
Finally, the study finds four company attributes (among 13) that drive trust:
• “Has a high level of integrity”
• “Is open about how they do things”
• “Provides excellent service” and
• “Shares my values”
"Gets superior financial returns" is a distant tenth on the list.
In the next 60 days . . .
- What can you do to increase the likelihood that your customers believe you have a high level of integrity?
- What can you do to convince customers you are open about how you do things?
- What can you do to increase perceptions that you provide excellent service?
- What can you do to invite the belief that you share your customers’ values?
- Look at the level of trust your company enjoys (or lacks) from customers in the light of this from Proverbs 11:
The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires. When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.
— Proverbs 11:1-7 [New International Version]
