The Trust Thermocline Explains How Companies “Suddenly” Lose Customers And Employees

You Will Not Get A Second Chance To Burn Trust

This image lifted from the Thermocline Wikipedia article and resized, see license.

I came across this tweet this morning and it perfectly explains a phenomenon that all customers and employees intuitively understand.

“So: what’s a thermocline? Well large bodies of water are made of layers of differing temperatures. Like a layer cake. The top bit is where all the the waves happen and has a gradually decreasing temperature. Then SUDDENLY there’s a point where it gets super-cold.”

The Trust Thermocline in Products and Services

John Bull’s explanation is straightforward: if you gradually provide less quality for more money, you are gradually eroding your customers’ trust in you as a provider. At some point your customers will lose faith and bail, and it won’t be because…