Trust Is Capital—Are You Making Deposits?

 

I’ve come to believe that every destination marketing organization has a bank account that doesn’t appear on its financial statements. It’s a reputation bank account.

Every interaction with a hotelier, elected official, attraction, restaurant owner, board member, resident, reporter, or community partner either makes a small deposit or a small withdrawal. Most of those transactions are barely noticeable at the time. But over the years, they add up. And sooner or later, you may need to draw on that account.

During my years leading a DMO, I learned that trust isn’t created by a clever marketing campaign or an impressive annual report. It is accumulated slowly through consistency. You say what you’re going to do, and then you do it. You return phone calls. You share information. You explain decisions. You give credit to partners. You don’t promise something simply because saying yes is easier than saying no. Those are deposits.

Transparency is another deposit. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to know every detail of every decision. It means people shouldn’t be surprised by decisions that affect them. When possible, bring stakeholders into the conversation early. Explain the reasoning behind difficult choices. Help people understand not only what the organization is doing, but why.

Credibility works the same way. If you present research, make sure the numbers are right. If you claim tourism is generating economic impact, be prepared to explain how that impact was calculated. If you tell elected officials that something will happen, make every reasonable effort to make sure it does. And when you make a mistake, and every organization eventually will, admit it. That may be one of the largest deposits you can make.

Too many organizations treat admitting a mistake as weakness. I’ve always believed the opposite. People are remarkably forgiving when an organization says, “We got this wrong, and here’s what we’re going to do about it.” They become far less forgiving when they believe someone is hiding something, shifting blame, or hoping the problem will disappear. This matters because every DMO eventually encounters controversy.

Maybe it’s a budget issue. Or a campaign creates unexpected criticism. Perhaps a major event doesn’t deliver what was promised. A community partner becomes unhappy. An elected official questions the organization’s value. A newspaper begins asking uncomfortable questions. That’s when you discover the balance in your reputation bank account.

If you have spent years making deposits, being transparent, dependable, accessible, credible, and fair, people are more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt. They may not agree with you, but they will listen. They know your history. But if you have been making withdrawals for years, the smallest controversy can become a crisis.

Another lesson for DMO CEOs: reputation management isn’t primarily a communications function. It is a leadership function. You cannot manufacture trust when you suddenly need it. The press release you issue during a controversy matters far less than the hundreds of conversations, decisions, promises, partnerships, and relationships that came before it.

So every once in a while, I think a DMO CEO should ask a question that will never appear on a balance sheet: If we needed our community to trust us tomorrow, have we made enough deposits today?