IN BUSINESS, AS IN LIFE, TRUST IS EVERYTHING.
YOU CAN FEEL IT CAN’T YOU? THAT 3AM THOUGHT THAT SOMETHING IS BROKEN?
Your best people are quieter in meetings.
The tone of your biggest client’s emails feel different.
That Strategic Initiative is “Still in progress.”
By the time it shows up on the KPI dashboard, or worse, in public, it's too late.
REVENUE HEMORRHAGE
Stalled deals cost you 30-40% longer sales cycles because prospects sense your team can't deliver what they promise
Lost pricing power means you're competing on price instead of value because customers don't trust you're worth the premium
Higher churn and negative word-of-mouth quietly erase 15–25% of your lifetime customer value because one broken promise turns satisfied buyers into vocal detractors
COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE
Strategic partnerships collapse when connection is transactional instead of deep—leaving you without the alliances that could accelerate your growth
Innovation requires risk but teams paralyzed by distrust won't take the creative leaps that separate market leaders from followers
Your competitor's tagline is becoming "the reliable alternative"—and that's a positioning you can't overcome with marketing alone
TALENT EXODUS
Each departure costs you $4,000 to $150,000+ in recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity—and that's before calculating what walks out the door in institutional knowledge
Your top 20% are the first to leave when trust breaks because high performers have options and won't tolerate incompetence
Teams stuck in perpetual rebuilding mode never reach peak performance because they're always training someone new on decisions that were made before they arrived
CUSTOMER DEFECTION
A $50,000 annual customer becomes a $500,000 loss over ten years when you factor in compound lifetime value and the referrals they would have made
Customers can sense when concern is performative—when you're going through the motions but don't actually care about their success beyond their next invoice
Lost referrals compound exponentially because satisfied customers tell 3 people but customers who felt uncared for tell everyone
REPUTATION EROSION
Stalled deals cost you 30-40% longer sales cycles because prospects sense your team can't deliver what they promise
Lost pricing power means you're competing on price instead of value because customers don't trust you're worth the premium
Rebuilding damaged trust takes years and millions in marketing spend that could have been avoided if you'd measured and addressed trust gaps early
STRATEGIC PARALYSIS
Meetings accomplish nothing because no one trusts others enough to speak the hard truth—so you keep scheduling more meetings about the same issues
CYA culture replaces problem-solving as people spend more energy documenting why something isn't their fault than actually fixing it
Strategic initiatives stall in bureaucracy because without trust, every decision requires fifteen approvals and six contingency plans
IF THESE STORIES SOUND FAMILIAR, YOU’RE NOT ALONE.
A Story of Competitive Intrusion
A leading upscale hotel brand with over 800 properties worldwide, was in danger of losing market share and sought to understand its competitive position in the increasingly crowded select-service hotel market. While it had strong operational metrics and J.D. Power rankings, leadership needed deeper insights into brand perception and emotional connection with guests. The key question: Where did the brand stand on trust compared to key competitors, and what dimensions of trust were causing competitive intrusion?
What was broken: Emotional Connection. Beyond expected quality, customers had no feel for what the brand meant to them, or how it demonstrated real concern, so they chose brands that had clearer emotional branding. Our TrustPulse survey discovered that emotional connection was the driver of brand preference and loyalty.
Results: Brand changed from a features-based messaging strategy to communicating their shared values with their guests and acknowledged their emotional needs resulting in the Highest REVPAR gains (6%) in chain’s entire portfolio. Occupancy rates increased by 3% overall and 7% on weekends
A Case of Misaligned Priorities
A premier property management division managing luxury apartment communities faced a cultural crisis. Despite a legacy of excellence and employee-first culture, warning signs emerged: declining morale, loss of empowerment, and employee perception that the company had shifted from "people serving people" to prioritizing revenue above all else. Leadership needed objective data to diagnose the depth of the problem.
What was Broken: Collapsed employee trust . The TrustPulse™ assessment revealed the crisis wasn't about competence—it was about systematically eroded trust between employees and leadership across all 5 dimensions. The diagnostic provided specific data showing where trust broke down and delivered an actionable, evidence-based roadmap for cultural transformation.
Results: A second wave of the TrustPulse survey revealed that within 18 months, corporate trust had significantly improved among employees. “Management provides a clear sense of direction” improved from 46% to 63%. Employees also believe that management was sincere in their efforts to communicate with them (45% to 62%). Efforts by the leadership team was certainly noticed and acknowledged by employees. “Top management behaves in a consistent manner” and “Top management keeps their commitments to their employees” had a 40% and 36% change respectively.
You Can’t Fix What You Can’t Measure
A gap in any of the 5Cs has a price tag.
The TrustPulse™ survey shows you the financial impact of those gaps.
Trust building isn’t a one-time project. We help you measure improvement over time through follow-up assessments, tracking whether your initiatives are working and course-correcting before minor gaps become major crises. You'll see trust scores improve, turnover decrease, customer retention increase, and revenue gaps close. The data proves the ROI.
You'll know if you have a:
Competence problem (people don't believe you can deliver)
A consistency problem (people can't count on you)
A candor problem (people don't trust your honesty)
A concern problem (people feel like numbers)
A connection problem (relationships are transactional).
The TrustPulse™ survey brings the invisible to the surface.
Quantify what you've been sensing but couldn't name.
Generate a roadmap to fix it before your best people and largest opportunities walk away.
