Delivering on Your Promises is the Basis of Trust

In any commercial relationship, trust is a vital commodity. At the most basic level, a customer needs to be confident that the supplier will deliver what was asked for to an agreed price. But is that enough to build real trust of the sort that makes a customer prefer that particular supplier next time around?

The level of trust that leads to long-term relationships is tied up with other aspects of project delivery; those that represent real value to the customer. This is all about experience and outcomes.

Experience

Long after a project is delivered the experience of how it was delivered lives on in the memory. Was it an experience people are eager to repeat? The experience has several facets:

• Flexibility to deal with unexpected events and keep the project on schedule, and to adapt plans to minimise disruption or improve quality.
• Being honest and transparent in all communications, even if mistakes were made; capturing detailed project data and sharing it openly.
• Taking responsibility and being accountable; never finger-pointing or hiding behind the shortcomings of others.
• Being committed to the project and willing to do whatever it takes to make it successful.

Outcomes

Beyond delivery of a physical asset, there are many outcomes that represent the promises made that informed the customer’s decisions. Quality, durability and future maintenance requirements are all part of the equation. If contractors make promises about all of these added values, then they should be prepared to be held to account over whether or not they were delivered.

Ultimately, we want to ensure that our customers look on us as being dependable: that we deliver what we say we will in terms of project outcomes and experience; we have the expert knowledge needed to do this; and we have the innovative and agile approach needed to respond to changing circumstances. We have the independence of being family owned that enables us to put customer value and relationships above profit.

Our recent successes in the infrastructure sector are based on this philosophy. We know that when we consistently deliver the things our customers value most, we earn the trust that makes us a dependable choice for future projects.