Welcome to TrustFX.

Here you will find my thoughts on the importance of trust. Trust is a word that is used often. We hear it in sales pitches and in advertisements every day. However, the word “trust” is like the word “FREE”. Free gets our attention, but more often than not free has to be paid for! As important as trust is to consumers and businesses, it is amazing how empty the words “trust me” can sound.

I believe that all businesses can be divided into two groups. Those who consistently satisfy their customers and those who don’t.

Most consumers prefer to use the former, however, it is often very hard to tell one group from the other. Both groups have impressive references. Both groups come across as sincere and can often back up their promises with written warrantees. Businesses can even have a clean history (no complaints on file) with the Better Business Bureau.

Consumers can perform significant due diligence on a business and still have a very bad experience. A bad experience always results in aggravation and loss of time. At other times, a bad experience will cost you money. Sometimes choosing the wrong business can even place the health of you or a family member at risk.

The above scenario is the basic problem that TrustFX aims to remedy.

The only credible predictor of how well a consumer will be satisfied with any business is to measure how well a business takes care of their existing customers. That is what TrustFX does. We provide a simple way for any business to put their reputation into the hands of their customers. Not just some customers, but every customer. The results that we collect are used to create a TrustFX score that is updated monthly and published at www.trustfx.com.

When a business puts their reputation on line, they have to try harder. They have to set an accurate expectation. Setting proper expectations requires the business to understand your needs. It also means that businesses need to turn away customers where there isn’t an optimal fit.

People often ask the question, why would a business put their reputation at risk? For businesses that have customer satisfaction issues, the answer is they won’t. But for quality businesses that can and do satisfy their customers consistently it is great for business. I invite you to read Glen Urban’s paper “The Trust Imperative”. His research shows that a trust-based marketing strategy provides businesses with superior financial benefits including from the ability to attract and retain great employees to reducing the cost of attracting new customers.

A business’s TrustFX score, developed over time, is the single most effective indicator that a consumer has to measure the trustworthiness of any business.

In order for ratings to be credible, the system that creates them must be credible and that is where TrustFX is unique. Most sites that rely on consumer-generated content allow anyone with an email account to rate any business, which results in a great amount of abuse. Our system involves both the business and the customer. Businesses that use TrustFX, pass a key to each customer at the time of sale. The key insures that a transaction took place (we can audit this process) and it allows the customer to rate the business that gave them the key after the service has been delivered. Because we can audit the process, with your help we can identify and remove businesses that choose to only give TrustFX keys to select customers.

It is my pleasure to serve you with TrustFX.com, but it is your individual contribution and participation that makes this site valuable for all.

-Andrew