Ian Hrovatin, Co-founder, Vero Amore

The importance of trust

We operate in territories in Southern Mexico and in Colombia, where people have come with promises in the past, promising a better future, and often in a deceiving way. And I felt partially responsible for that, working with the United Nations before, in a context where even with the best of intentions, we created, at times, dependencies that were destroyed at the time the funding ended and we had to leave the country.

I remember when we declared that our project was going to end because we did not have any more money, people were literally crying in the communities. And I said to myself: this is so wrong. How can we create a process that will not end tomorrow, that will keep on creating these steady income flows that will build trust over time?

The truth is, we had to be very careful with the promises we were making. We had to be consistent over time to demonstrate that we were committed to a joint shared project. This is what made failing this community sometimes so painful because we did not want to replicate the failed promises from the past.

Michelle Ijomah, Co-founder, Agnes Health

Ways to build trust

We've built trust with our beneficiaries and our users by having them meet us, having them see us. It's easier to trust someone you've met physically as opposed to just dealing over the phone or getting a random call to understand what's happening.

We have our team members go in, speak to them, engage with them, understand the concerns that they might have and then, from there, we're able to now see what concerns we could solve and what concerns we take back to either the healthcare provider, in this case the hospital, or the government, and see what solutions that they could provide for the users from there.

Knowing when and where beneficiaries wanted us to be, and what they expected of us helped us now know how to tailor our product, helped us know how to build in a way that served them.

So listening to them and paying attention to them, having user interviews and just understanding how they interact with the product helped us also know what features possibly become redundant, what features would flow, what features would work with them as well.

The result of that has definitely meant that we get a lot more trust from our users because they hear from us. It also has meant that we are able to build in tangent with what they want.

Key takeaways 

• Be honest and consistent with promises; avoid repeating past disappointments

• Create sustainable initiatives that outlast short-term funding cycles

• Meet beneficiaries in person to build stronger, trust-based relationships

• Listen to users’ needs to tailor solutions that truly serve them