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By Anthony Power, Founder of The FEEL Company
A bigger online competitor can stock the same shoes as you. Earning the same trust takes more work.
A local running-shoe shop earned my loyalty by helping me choose with confidence. Over time, I came to trust their judgement more than the brand I had arrived intending to buy.
It started with understanding a familiar interaction.
A runner asks for the same brand they have worn for years. The latest model has changed. The fit is different, and the retailer suspects another shoe might suit them better.
But the customer hesitates. “I’ve always worn these.”
That hesitation matters. The customer may be thinking about an injury, months of training or an upcoming race. A different shoe feels like a risk. Familiarity offers reassurance, even when the familiar product has changed.
The retailer brings out both the requested shoe and an alternative, explains the difference and invites the customer to try them on a treadmill. They can feel the difference and make their own decision.
I know because I was one of those customers. Over time, I changed brands whenever they recommended it. I trusted their expertise and believed they were looking out for me. That took the worry out of the decision. The brand became less important than my confidence in the people helping me choose.
Give customers reasons to trust you
Small businesses often compete against companies with larger budgets, better technology and greater buying power. Their knowledge of customers gives them something valuable to work with—but only if they use it.
The psychology of trust offers a useful lens. Researchers Roger Mayer, James Davis and David Schoorman identified ability, benevolence and integrity as contributors to perceived trustworthiness.
Put simply: do you know your stuff, are you looking out for me, and can I trust what you tell me?
In the shoe shop, the retailer demonstrates expertise by explaining the options. Taking the runner’s concerns seriously shows care. Letting them compare without pressure gives them a way to judge the recommendation.
Businesses can build those qualities into everyday service. Explain your reasoning. Acknowledge limitations. Keep your commitments. When something goes wrong, take responsibility for what happens next.
Being independent doesn’t automatically earn trust. Repeated experiences give customers reasons to rely on you.
Build a system around what works
If that experience depends on one thoughtful employee, it becomes less dependable whenever they are absent.
Understand what made the interaction useful, build it into relevant customer interactions and improve it over time. In the shoe shop, that might mean asking about running goals, discussing concerns and making comparison part of the fitting process.
Staff need to understand why those steps matter so they can adapt to the person in front of them.
This is where judgement becomes a business capability. Customers develop confidence in the whole team. A competitor can buy the same stock; reproducing the judgement, training and consistency behind that experience takes more work.
Question what seems fixed
When I was growing up, my parents owned a flooring business in Waterford, Ireland. I remember my father preparing a bid for a large hotel contract against suppliers with far greater resources.
He had our kitchen table, a scale ruler and scraps of paper.
He studied the plans and questioned the usual waste allowances. Then he contacted the manufacturer and asked whether they could adjust the production run to fit the job more efficiently.
They agreed. That reduced the planned waste dramatically and helped him win the contract.
His knowledge helped him recognise an assumption worth testing. A conversation turned that insight into a better offer.
Small businesses encounter opportunities like this every day: a delivery schedule everyone accepts, a pricing structure nobody questions or a customer habit interpreted as resistance.
Take your expertise seriously, including the responsibility to question it. Ask better questions and look for ways your knowledge could improve the offer. Familiarity is useful until it stops you examining something you have come to accept.
Turn understanding into results
Start with a repeated signal. Where do customers hesitate, chase updates, return products or ask the same question? Examine examples with the people handling those interactions.
Then test your explanation. Are customers objecting to price, or is the value unclear? Is a delay unavoidable, or does it sit between two steps nobody owns? Ask customers rather than deciding on their behalf.
Choose one change and define success. Track returns, repeat purchases, customer feedback or repeat contacts—whatever helps you judge the result. Check that the improvement also works for your team and your margins.
This week, choose one point where customers hesitate or chase you. Ask what they need to feel confident, test one change and examine the results.
AI can help analyse feedback and explore options. Your knowledge provides context for judging its suggestions.
This thinking sits at the heart of FEEL: find meaningful signals, explain what they mean, engineer a response and embed what works. I explore it further in my book, FEEL.
Knowing your business is a starting point. Competitive advantage comes from turning that knowledge into decisions and experiences customers can consistently trust.
You may also like: Understanding the Best Ways to Identify Customer Pain Points and Improve Customer Experience
Image source: thefeelcompany.org
