6 Ways to Build a Trustworthy Reputation

  • 1 min read

Despite the ease and convenience of the digital age, people still care about who is on the other end of the Internet vacuum. You can only hide behind your online persona for so long – 92 percent of consumers say that they find word-of-mouth recommendations to be the most influential. Earning the trust of your customers and colleagues takes time though and some strategy. If you really want to build trustworthy character, you must:

Work late. If you want to improve your reputation at work and prove who you are as a business person, you have to put in the hours. When your clients, customers and employees see you working away they will know you are invested in your brand.

Shake hands. You won’t be able to meet all of your clients face to face, but make an effort. You should also look for ways to meet up with business partners and colleagues on occasion. Digital communication is convenient but nothing beats an in-person handshake when it comes to building trust.

Keep up. If you take the time to open social media accounts, take the time to keep them updated. The same is true of a blog. If current or prospective customers visit any of your online locations, you want them to see professionalism. If you do not make the effort to stay up to date on your own sites, how can a client expect you to take time with them?

Think forward. Never stand still when it comes to building up your personal brand and growing your business. Show that you are not comfortable in stagnation and others will want to go on the journey with you.

Apologize. When you mess up, fess up. Genuinely. Mistakes happen and can actually present a great opportunity to build trust. Show the person or people that you are willing to right anything you have wronged. The adversity may work to your advantage because you will be able to show your strength of character and your determination to stand by your word and name.

Reach out. Find a cause to back that shows you care about more than simply making money. This can mean actions that pay it forward to your clients or include community outreach. Give a charity some free ad space on your site or volunteer a few hours at your local animal shelter. The help you provide to others, however small, is the payoff and building up your good reputation is just a bonus.

The thing about trust, in professional or personal realms, is that it often takes a lot of time to cultivate and a fraction of that time to lose. Keep that in mind as you grow your personal brand. Being trustworthy is not something that you can turn on and off; it is a professional lifestyle.

Picture of Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com which is the largest business directory on the web. Megan also writes business news.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Psychologists did not coin emotional intelligence until 1990, and Goleman’s book did not popularize it until 1995, so people raised between 1945 and 1975 grew up with no shared vocabulary for feelings, many still improvising one from watching, guessing, and going quiet when intimacy calls for words.

Psychologists did not coin emotional intelligence until 1990, and Goleman’s book did not popularize it until 1995, so people raised between 1945 and 1975 grew up with no shared vocabulary for feelings, many still improvising one from watching, guessing, and going quiet when intimacy calls for words.

Global English Editing
MLive announced in September 2026 that it will end print production entirely for eight of its Michigan newspapers, shifting those communities to digital only coverage after years of steadily declining print subscriptions across the whole state

MLive announced in September 2026 that it will end print production entirely for eight of its Michigan newspapers, shifting those communities to digital only coverage after years of steadily declining print subscriptions across the whole state

The Blog Herald
Thomas Stanley and William Danko mailed 3,000 surveys to American households and found that among the 1,115 replies, 385 came from actual millionaires, half of whom said they had never spent more than 399 dollars on a suit, 140 on shoes, or 235 on a watch.

Thomas Stanley and William Danko mailed 3,000 surveys to American households and found that among the 1,115 replies, 385 came from actual millionaires, half of whom said they had never spent more than 399 dollars on a suit, 140 on shoes, or 235 on a watch.

Global English Editing
The more the women in one survey prized happiness, the lower their well-being, though only when life was less stressful, and reading that happiness pays made a gold-medal moment land flatter

The more the women in one survey prized happiness, the lower their well-being, though only when life was less stressful, and reading that happiness pays made a gold-medal moment land flatter

The Vessel
An AI company built specifically to replace vanishing local reporters in news deserts nationwide shut its entire operation down in 2026 after journalists discovered it had been copying, nearly word for word, stories those same reporters had already written

An AI company built specifically to replace vanishing local reporters in news deserts nationwide shut its entire operation down in 2026 after journalists discovered it had been copying, nearly word for word, stories those same reporters had already written

The Blog Herald
Many women in their seventies say the decade feels better than their thirties, forties, or fifties, not because there is more time now, but because they finally stopped needing a thesis defense to justify disappointing someone with a simple no.

Many women in their seventies say the decade feels better than their thirties, forties, or fifties, not because there is more time now, but because they finally stopped needing a thesis defense to justify disappointing someone with a simple no.

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore