The stock market is still on a wild roller coaster ride. Trust in business is at an all time low. Do your customers still trust you? Here are seven ways to help you make sure.

1. Go the extra mile. Under promise and over deliver - a time worn concept that still works every time. Be there for your customers and show them how reliable you are. It's your actions that count, not your words.

2. Provide spectacular customer service - every time. Have a friend or colleague visit your business and provide feedback from a customer's perspective.

3. Make sure your front and back office work like a well-oiled machine. Do your front line employees and back office staff tell your customers the same thing?

4. Manage your customer relationships - return customers take the least amount of effort - use that to your advantage. Keep in touch often.

5. Communicate, communicate, communicate - with your employees and your customers. Nurture those relationships. Ask for feedback often.

6. Take responsibility. Don't pass the buck. If you can't personally handle a customer issue, make sure that you hand the customer off gracefully.

7. Meet commitments. Commitments guarantee that something will get done. They're also a way to manage the customer's expectations. Make commitments you can keep. A kept commitment builds trust. A missed commitment destroys trust. And once trust is broken, it takes much longer to rebuild.

Denise O'Berry

With more than two decades of operational and management experience, Denise O'Berry has developed a sharp eye for how businesses get bloated with inefficiencies, cross-purposes and miscommunication -- and how they can retool for a sleeker, smoother, strategically focused organization.

An entrepreneur who quickly built her own successful consulting business, she helps other small business owners set priorities, take action to grow their business and create the balance they want between life and work. Her clients have ranged from telecommunications giants like Verizon to Mom-and-Pop retail shops with a primary focus on those having 10 or fewer employees and up to $2.5 million in annual sales.

Denise frequently speaks to professional organizations, is the author of three booklets, and several "how-to" manuals. She writes a weekly small business column, hosts an online small business owners forum and is called upon regularly by publications such as Entrepreneur, Bank Rate Small Business, Florida Trend, Inc., various newspapers, radio and television to provide expert comments on small business issues.