Remote work isn’t just a pandemic-era necessity anymore—it’s become a permanent fixture in our business landscape. As someone who has spent decades studying customer service and experience, I’ve observed a fundamental truth: what happens inside an organization with employees is inevitably felt on the outside by customers.
This connection between internal culture and customer experience becomes even more critical when teams are distributed across different locations. The challenge? Building genuine trust when you can’t physically “reach out and touch” your team members.
The Swift Trust Dilemma
In my recent conversations with remote work expert Dr. Tim Curry, we explored the concept of “swift trust“—a provisional, transaction-based trust relationship that emerges when people work together virtually. Originally, swift trust was meant to be temporary, applied to short-term projects with global team members.
The problem today is that many remote workers are applying swift trust indefinitely. They wake up, have coffee, do their work, and log off—maintaining only surface-level connections with colleagues. Their work becomes just one compartmentalized part of their lives rather than a source of deeper meaning or connection.
While this arrangement might seem fine on the surface, it creates a significant issue: this shallow level of trust doesn’t stand up to challenges. It doesn’t foster organizational identity or make your company a place where people genuinely want to work. And most importantly for customer-focused businesses, when employees think transactionally about their jobs, they have little emotional energy left to care deeply about customers.
Leadership in a Remote Environment
Leading remote teams requires a completely different approach than traditional in-office leadership. The “front of the room presence” that many leaders relied on has vanished. Instead, research shows that trust in remote leadership stems from:
- Online availability (seeing that green “active” dot even during off-hours)
- Responsiveness to messages and requests
- Engagement in non-work-related channels
That last point is particularly important. The organizations thriving with remote teams create digital spaces where people can share personal interests, family photos, or discuss topics unrelated to work tasks. These channels replace the casual office interactions that traditionally built relationships.
Becoming a Digital Leader
To build trust with remote teams, leaders must take a two-pronged approach:
First, authentically engage in digital channels. This means revealing more of yourself personally, understanding your employees’ positions, and creating genuine connections in virtual spaces.
Second—and this might sound controversial—become an “influencer” to your employee base. Not in the superficial social media sense, but by regularly sharing insights into your work day, challenges you’re facing, and how you’re working to improve the company. When employees see their leaders walking the talk and being transparent about their work, it builds the followership that can become transformational.
Creating Meaningful Connections
During COVID when my team went fully remote, we assigned someone as the “Humor Resource” (not Human Resource) each week. This person would share funny videos during our virtual lunches together. It was a simple way to see personalities emerge and build connections despite physical distance.
For our team members on the other side of the world, we maintain daily contact and weekly one-on-one meetings. People often ask how we’ve retained these remote workers when many similar roles are highly transactional. The answer is simple: we care about them, and they care about us. They feel like part of a team, not just isolated contractors doing work.
The Attention Battle
One significant challenge in remote work is what Dr. Curry calls “the attention battle.” Most remote workers have multiple inputs competing for their attention simultaneously—laptop, phone, TV, and more. This is a battle corporate America has largely lost.
The solution isn’t expecting eight hours of continuous focus. Instead, identify the two or three hours when you truly need full engagement, and create expectations that during those times, cameras are on, phones are off, and other distractions are eliminated.
Creating Memorable Moments
The most powerful way to build trust—whether with remote teams or customers—is through creating memorable moments of genuine connection. These don’t have to be elaborate; they just need to be authentic.
Whether it’s taking the time to guide team members to an authentic local restaurant (rather than letting them settle for Taco Bell) or finding creative ways to connect virtually, these moments build relationships that can last decades beyond any project or transaction.
The organizations that will thrive in this new world of work are those that find ways to recreate these authentic connections—either in person when possible or through thoughtful digital engagement. When we succeed at building trust internally, the positive impact on customer experience naturally follows.
