Trustworthy Communication
How to Build Trust with Words
Trust is a much-valued asset nowadays. Trust between people is the assurance we feel to rely on another person. We base our decision to trust someone on the knowledge we have about them. This means that if we have little common context with a person and have spent little time with them only, it is more difficult to decide whether we can trust them or not. Given the complexity of today’s world, it has become difficult discern who is trustworthy and who isn’t.
If you want to be perceived as trustworthy, it is essential to use every single interaction as an opportunity to build trust. So, here’s how you, or your company, can use words to build trust and come across as trustworthy.
First and foremost, never forget that you are communicating with people. Even if we sit in front of the screen for hours every day, we must remember that on the other end of the line, there’s a person – a person who could be your customer, your candidate, your contractor, or anybody else who will be of relevance for you or your business. When it really matters, we’re still humans communicating with humans. So, before you begin to communicate, think of what kind of person will be listening to you or reading you.
Who Is the Addressee?
When trust matters, your target person is not just anybody randomly chosen out of eight billion people. Because not everybody cares about trusting you. Those who do care will observe you very closely.
Trust is particularly important in sectors in which lives, careers, or investments are at stake. For example, if you provide security services, if you are looking for candidates to fill executive positions, or if you sell top-class niche services, your target person is highly likely to listen very carefully to what you say and write. Don’t rush; they will think twice before they close a deal with you, especially if they have no recommendation or context to rely on. All they have is their judgment of what you communicate.
So, here are five aspects of communication that create trust by means of words.
Five Important Features of Trustworthy Communication
Be Relevant.
Listen before you speak. What questions does your target person ask? The answer to this question will set the course. It will give you clues about the preoccupation behind their interests and what they are looking for. For example, if they don’t ask for the price, then refrain from explaining financial issues in detail.
Rather, focus on your product or service and how your target person will benefit from it. If they complain about time issues and inquire about efficiency, then include efficiency in your conversation and consider how your service will help them save time. Stick to things that are relevant to them and use the words they use to explain your point.
Be Specific.
I mean it: Explain what you really do and what you don’t do. Ask yourself if your language is precise and if it accurately describes what you do. Avoid boastful words that have been overused in marketing and lobbying.
Take the word “science”. “Believe in Science”, we were told, and everybody from marketers to lobbyists have been using this term to add authority to their point. But science isn’t a religion, just like science isn’t a person. Science doesn’t resolve problems – people do.
Journalists and influencers use the word a lot, like Andrew Huberman, who wrote that “science cannot satisfactorily fix broken retinas yet.” Science certainly won’t fix a retina – a medical doctor will. When such big words are overused, they become meaningless. And people who want to trust you prefer words with a concrete meaning.
The same goes for the word “solution”. Salespeople and politicians alike have been using this word in all areas; everything is a “solution” nowadays. But while you may ultimately bring a solution to your target person, what you really have is not precisely a solution. Perhaps it is a “software”, a “tool”, a “workshop”, a “newsletter”, or a “service” – whatever it is, it’s a “thing” of the real world that will ultimately solve their problem. People who want to trust you don’t want to hear those empty terms that have become fuzzy and meaningless. They want to stick to the point and know what exactly you are talking about. So, be precise.
Be Consistent.
Avoid contradictions. The price of a workshop, for example, is expected not to vary, as its value should be comprehensible and fair. It may, however, change under certain conditions, for instance, if the workshop will be repeated. Whether such a price model is accurate or not depends on the kind of service and the industry, of course, but whatever the price model is: Once it’s established, it must be applied consistently and transparently. The same applies to deadlines, salaries, and deliverables.
In order to build trust when negotiating prices and amounts, use a similar wording whenever you refer to the same thing. Have a number of alternative explanations up your sleeve at the beginning for you to be able to adjust to the wording of your target person, but ensure it has the very same meaning. You can use “tool” for “device” or “machine”, if needed, but once the wording is set, stick to it rigidly.
This rule applies to address forms as well. Don’t confuse names in writing (and I have myself seen the wildest forms of my own name), and once you’ve started to call your target person by their first name, don’t go back to last names again. If you tend to forget, then keep a list of how you address the people you’re in touch with.
Use Correct Language.
Language is a code. A code cannot be changed at a whim if it is meant to be understood by all the involved parties. Accordingly, a correct code, i.e. correct language, brings clarity. Of course, sloppiness is the opposite of precision, so any faulty text will certainly not convey competence but make you seem less trustworthy instead. Also, keep in mind that only correctly formulated and correctly spelled sentences are unequivocally intelligible. Even minor typos may render the entire meaning incorrect, ambiguous, or unclear.
Preventing ambiguity and misunderstandings is particularly relevant in multilingual contexts. If you are multilingual yourself and communicate in more than one language, check your wording with a language professional who can tell you if you haven’t mistranslated your message into the target language with a different meaning. German, for example, has the word “profitieren” meaning “to profit”. Unlike English, it means at once “profit” and “benefit”, so it doesn’t necessarily imply financial gain. If your target person is a native speaker of English and your first language is German and you talk to them about “profit” instead of “benefit”, they may become suspicious of what you’re saying.
Be Professional.
With people who are looking for serious deals, composure is key. They will decide on their very own no matter how much you try to influence or motivate them with emotions. In other words: Refrain from visualizing emotions of any kind.
Emojis, for example. Unless you’re selling children’s birthday parties as a service, excessive use of emojis will weaken your credibility. Emojis add emotions to a text, yet professional communicators add emotions by means of words and punctuation marks or with the pitch of their voice. Emojis are unnecessary, and no person looking for a serious, high-quality service will appreciate an email, post, brochure, or any other kind of text sprinkled with colorful faces and images. The same goes for capital letters and colorful highlighting. Rather, everything can be expressed with words, so ensure your text is correct, complete, and polite.
Invest in your Wording
These five points will make your wording more professional, convincing, and trustworthy. Competent speakers and writers have always had an advantage over incompetent ones, which is why rhetoric skills have been honed since ancient times. If you formulate your service, your arguments, your data story, or any other kind of information as templates for your emails, brochures, pitches, or website before you even approach your target person, you will not only make your communication more convincing, but also become a better and more confident speaker and writer. You will be able to focus on content, rather than form, and naturally build trust.
In a nutshell: Invest in your communication. Don’t squirm and suffer; rather, take the time it takes to polish your texts and speeches and feel confident. If needed, get professional support for you to save time and effort and be successful. It will pay off. It will take stress and unease off your shoulders and boost your confidence, polish your performance, and naturally increase your results. As you build trust in your communication, others will build trust in you.
About the Author
Consultant | Coach | Author
Danae Perez is a versatile language expert with vast experience in both research as well as the corporate world and a contagious passion for languages and people. She holds a PhD in linguistics and has published her research on the evolution of languages in multilingual contexts with the most renowned publishing houses. Danae Perez has been providing language services and communication consultancy for corporate clients for nearly two decades and has worked in a myriad of countries, cultures, and industries. She has the rare gift of quickly grasping the essence of a message and putting it into the right words to facilitate communication between people, cultures, and disciplines.