I was fortunate to be on a panel with some Northern Colorado business luminaries last month. It was in celebration of the Better Business Bureau’s 100th anniversary, and the panel spoke to CSU business school graduates about the wide-ranging topic of ethics and trust.

The BBB motto is “Start with Trust.” In preparation for my opening remarks, I got to thinking about that motto. As free citizens we are independent and mobile in part because we trust we’ll have protection from and recourse to the law.

As a business that hires service vendors, we also depend upon fulfillment of contracts and delivery of promises. That sometimes takes a leap of faith. Sure there are agreements in place that you can evoke when things go askew, but how often are you going to take your case to court? There’s not enough time or money to pursue legal actions against disappointing vendors.

Why am I talking about trust in a marketing column? Without trust, there is no marketing. Word-of-mouth is the essence of marketing and when businesses fail their customers, they are not going to be in business long. That’s the true recourse a business has with a vendor who vexes them: bad press.

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