[NOTE: It's my early New Years resolution to try to put some type of marketing edge on every post I do. I mean, this is Marketing Punk, so there should be something marketing related here, right?]

When Kristi and I were in Venice this spring, we spent one evening doing as Venetians do and went out for cicchetti - Venice's answer to Spain's tapa-hopping. After our second bar, we walked up to a very popular (and Rick Steves recommended) cicchetti bar called Al Marca right off the Grand Canal and near to the Rialto Bridge. Here's what it looked like:

As you can see, the bar was nothing more than an awning and a window on the side of the building. You couldn't go in, and there weren't even any seats or tables. You just ordered your drink, chicchetti and then enjoyed it where you wanted. And when I say where you wanted, I mean you could wander off, go a hundred meters away, around the corner and no one would give you a second glance.

Now here is the crazy part (if you are American) - they gave you real wine glasses and real plates when you ordered food and drinks. No plastic. No paper. The real stuff. Here's a picture.

For Americans, it was a wild thing. How could these people risk losing expensive wine glasses and plates? Don't they lose a ton of them? Can people really be trusted with "the good stuff"?

I'm sure this bar, and all the other bars in the area (who also let you wonder with your drinks), lose some glasses and plates. But by trusting its customers, the bar showed that it respected its patrons, and the patrons did what they could to live up to that respect.

Trusting customers is a great way to show you respect them. Showing respect builds strong customer relationships.

So my thought for today is this:

What can your business do to show your customers you trust them?

Now you know what you can do, try it out and see what happens.