How do you believe we should greet and establish trust with alien life?

With space travel getting more accessible in the next 10 years, the possibility of humans finding another life form is bound to happen. I've been pondering all the possible outcomes of this event and I think the most difficult task is going to be building trust and making contact with aliens. Should we send robots first to communicate? How do we ensure we don't start conflict by accident? I believe that humans would not be effective at first contact for our species, due to the emotional response a lot of humans would have that would ultimately lead to conflict due to fear.