Building Trust: The Essential Component of any Business Relationship

By Datto Guest Blog 2

When I started Datto in 2007 it was imperative for people to trust me and my new company in order for them to become customer. Having just left Rochester Institute of Technology, I had yet to prove myself in the business world or any world for that matter.  How would I establish trust — in my skills, my product, my company?  To be honest, it didn’t come as quickly as I’d have liked.  My parents trusted me enough to lend me a basement as Datto headquarters, but that wasn’t enough.  Trust takes time to develop, but I’m not always a patient guy. Just ask my team. 

In any business relationship, particularly in the BDR and business continuity space, trust is the most critical component.  Even more so when you work directly, and solely, with the Channel.  It’s both your company’s reputation and the Channel provider’s reputation on the line.  When the goal of your product and solution is to save the files and systems of someone’s business and livelihood, part of the message is Trust.  To me and Datto it’s much more than just a marketing message.  It needs to be a reality.

At Datto, trust has been earned by delivering both reliability of service and a strong level of commitment to our Partners.  We recently published an Infographic on the three tenets of a Datto Partnership: Trust, Technology and Support.  Within the Trust section we referenced the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, which identifies the top categories for building trust.  In order of importance they are: Engagement (listen to customer needs and feedback), Integrity (ethical, transparent and open business practices), Products & Services (innovative, high quality products and services), Purpose (programs that benefit the local community), and Operations (highly-regarded and admired top leadership).    

The top categories identified by Edelman follow closely to Datto’s three tenets.  As an R&D-based company Datto places a huge value on the strength of its technology and products.  When this is combined with partner engagement, aggressive SLAs, zero cloud data loss, superior product reliability, a 3-year no-questions-asked device warranty, and the best upgrade policy in the Channel – trust is built. 

It’s gratifying for me to hear evidence of Datto Partner trust.  One of our Canadian partners, Tom McIntyre with TAG Computer Systems shared, “I dread late night calls from clients who don’t have Datto.”  Certainly the most visible and memorable scenario of Datto delivering on Partner trust was during Hurricane Sandy.  With over 3,800 devices affected and a peak VM count at 300+, Datto Tech Support worked around the clock.  No data was lost and Datto confirmed why its Partners have trust in us. 

A partner sent me a blog post that appeared in the Harvard Business Review and it struck a chord with me on the matter of trust.  It ties trust to competence, suggesting that you can’t have one without the other.  I couldn’t agree more.  It also stressed the importance of building trust over time. Trust is built through continued, consistent accomplishments.

And while it takes time to build trust, it can be lost very quickly. It got me thinking about how the Channel might lose trust in a cloud-based BDR vendor. What if the vendor went out of business? There is a vendor in our market right now who is experiencing serious financial troubles and slow sales; it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they close their doors. A question that MSPs should ask themselves … “What happens to my clients’ data if my BDR provider goes out of business?”  I don’t think I’d trust them with my data.  Would you?

All of Datto and I want to be there to earn the trust of the community. That is the passion that the team here at Datto comes to work with every day. I welcome your comments and suggestions on how we can continue to earn that trust below, or at [email protected]

Austin McChord is founder and CEO of Datto.