Credibility Management

Technological advancement has brought in a sea of change in the way world works! Information is the key here, gone are the days when experts spoke technological jargons that customers seldom understood; but now the situation is different. We cannot utter even a singe word that is incorrect or manipulative because people on the other end knows exactly what you are talking about and if you are correct or not! Companies have started investing more and more on "Do it yourselves" tools that require less intervention by any 3rd party consulting company (though this is not the case always). Hence for a consulting company, to survive in this information era,one of the most important tasks is to build the credibility in the minds of the customers. It does not come so easily, it requires lot of hard work and honesty as well as proven results. Credibility if lost, it is very difficult to regain them; anything you do would then be just a compromise. We need to prove our mettle, build the trust and manage them throughout. Hard work always pays, but the honesty factor plays a crucial role as it stays in the minds of the customer longer than the hard work you had put to achieve something. If you do a mistake then accept it honestly and analyse what you can do to make the situation correct rather than trying to hide it uselessly. Being impractical and unrealistic also tarnishes one's credibility. For instance if you work on a value adding activity and provide the benefit to the clients then you need to present what they exactly get out of it rather trying to put irrelevant benefits without putting practicality and realism into picture. There are many reasons why one should kill the credibility in the minds of the customer which in the long run proves to be a big mistake made. So the key words important for maintaining the credibility are hard work, honesty, practicality, honesty and common sense.