A business model based on trusting the customer

Anna Bernasek

Anna Bernasek is the author of The Economics of Integrity: From Darwin to Toyota, How Wealth Is Based on Trust & What That Means for Our Future, published in 2010 by harperstudio, an imprint of Harper Collins.

At the conclusion of Chapter Six, she shares a number of valuable insights when supporting the concept of a business model based on trusting the customer.

“Business models that demonstrate trust in the customer have an exciting potential for growth. Most businesses today tend to ignore the issue or take it for granted. Of course, to actively trust the customer, a company first must make sure its own house is in order. You can’t sell faulty or unreliable products or services and then expect the customer to treat you fairly. But when you do your best on behalf of the customers and then trust the customers to do their best on behalf of you, you can create something lasting and valuable. People have a deep need to be trusted. They value the trust of others, and in general what people value they will pay for. It boils down to what Dale Carnegie advised long ago: give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. On that simple principle a commercial empire can be built.”

It is no coincidence that the same companies that are annually ranked highest in terms of being the most trustworthy are also annually ranked highest among those that are most profitable: L.L. Bean, Overstock.com, Zappos, Amazon, Lands’ End, Newegg, J.C. Penney, QVC, Coldwater Creek, and Nordstrom.