In our industry, it is unfortunately true that one needs to exercise some suspicion when working with creatives.
This isn’t because creatives are inherently untrustworthy, but rather that creatives can often treat every project as if it is their life’s work, forgetting that the client has people to report to, ROI to obtain, and simply needs a digital asset to do their job.
This is why trustworthiness—the virtue of cultivating trust in clients—is essential for a successful working relationship when it comes to creating digital media. In this blog post we’ll discuss why trustworthiness is vital for your business if you’re going to move the needle.
1. Trustworthiness kills suspicion.
We all know the feeling. A deadline comes and there is radio silence; you email the agency asking for an update to hear hedging; the deadline is delayed for weeks because of things that are outside of your control. Nothing breeds suspicion as much as the violation of trust.
We have found at Fifth & Broad that one of the most important things to cultivate with clients is the ability to quickly build trust and work as hard as possible not to violate that trust. It's understandable to have a modicum of suspicion at the beginning of a relationship—we have experienced this from clients who have become lifelong friends—but the goal is move as quickly as possible to kill suspicion through meeting deadlines, telling the truth, and doing what you say you’re going to do.
2. Trustworthiness is efficient.
In a somewhat ironic twist, cultivating trustworthiness is also efficient. When suspicion exists between clients, it’s like adding a load to a pickup truck: it can still run but much less efficiently. When the suspicion gets particularly acute, the load gets heavier and becomes more inefficient. This isn’t to say guardrails aren’t necessary—they are. It’s rather to point out that things can be more efficient where a place of trust exists.
This has been true for us. Early on, there is lots of back-and-forth, approving each small step of the process. For the beginning of a partnership, this is essential! But the point is that as you work together on projects, building trustworthiness along the way, efficiency can increase in the space that trust builds.
3. Trustworthiness cultivates long time partnerships that are good for both parties.
Trust is essential for a good marriage that lasts a lifetime. And so it is with client relationships. As you work closely together, building trust, increasing efficiency, and working through difficulty together, the partnership that is built is ultimately good for the client and the agency.
At Fifth & Broad we value getting the job done when we say we’re going to, putting forth industry-leading content. But more than that, we value our clients as partners. Each project we do is adding one more building block to the long term goal of a fruitful partnership over many years. This has been true for most of our clients and is essential for us when we begin new partnerships with others.
Do you want to work with a digital media partner you can trust? Drop us a line. We’d love to earn your trust.