By “Fake news” has taken a big bite out of consumer trust in brands. Here’s how to Earn Consumer Trust in an Untrusting Era.
Consumers tend to treat businesses the way they treat other people — holding them to certain standards and building relationships with ones they have faith in. They’re expressive with their dollar and want to engage with companies that won’t let them down.
So what does that mean for you? Well, with those trends in mind, the question becomes, “How can I demonstrate that my business is one of the good ones?” How can you prove to customers that you have their best interests in mind? What does it take to gain customer trust and confidence?
Trust has always been an important part of brand-consumer relationships; without trust, customers may not feel confident in their purchases or may opt for a more trustworthy competitor brand, leaving that perceived untrustworthy company high and dry.
This is particularly important in the digital age: We’re now on pace to see 60 percent of retail transactions happening online, and face-to-face interactions are on the decline. That’s why trust is more important than ever. Yet, at the same time, trust is harder than ever for brands to earn.
So, why is customer trust so hard to build, and what can brands do about it?
Why trust Is rare.
Customer trust was never easy to win, per se, but it has also never been this difficult. We’ve entered an era of distrust, due to a perfect storm of different factors:
Misleading advertising. The overabundance and misleading nature of advertising are partially to blame. Only 4 percent of Americans believe that the marketing industry acts with integrity, and the remainder is skeptical of advertisers’ intentions. They know companies are out for a profit and are willing to bend the truth to get it.
Economic turmoil. The financial crisis of 2008 didn’t improve consumer trust, especially with regard to the financial industry. With so many homeowners misled and with the subsequent troubled financial times that damaged people’s savings, our generation is dubious of corporate goals.
Western society. We live in a capitalistic society that strongly encourages individual achievement. For better or worse, those conditions force consumers to look out for themselves, and not always be generous toward others.
Content overload. The digital era has millions of businesses all clamoring for attention. That sheer overabundance makes it harder to figure out what’s real and what isn’t.
“Fake news.” Of course, the recent (and ongoing) “fake news” epidemic is also meddling with consumers’ trust. Everything is to be doubted, and nothing is to be believed.
Here, we’ll go over the steps you can take to build that kind of faith, and address those questions and concerns.
How to Gain Customer Trust and Confidence
- Provide top-notch customer service.
- Share positive reviews and testimonials
- Be honest and transparent.
- Ask for and act on feedback.
- Be reachable.
- Give before you take.
- Be human.
- Sympathize.
- Prove yourself.
- Remain consistent (and be patient).
1. Provide top-notch customer service.
One of the most, if not the most, important ways businesses gain customer trust and confidence is through customer service. It’s the most immediate forum for interaction between both parties and, in turn, the biggest show-and-prove moment for a business to demonstrate value and legitimacy.
Exceptional customer service demonstrates compassion, a commitment to customer interests, and a focus on accountability. It shows that your company cares enough about its customers to patiently and reliably walk them through any issues they might be having with your product or service.
It lets them know they can expect to be in good hands should they run into trouble, and that, in itself, is what trust is fundamentally built on.
2. Share positive reviews and testimonials.
Consumers tend to trust their fellow customers more than the businesses they’re buying from. Real customers’ experiences are often seen as more objective and hold more weight than a company’s clear-cut marketing.
That’s why it serves you to promote and project satisfied customers’ positive experiences by asking for reviews and sharing testimonials. If you have real customers vouching for your product, service, or customer experience, you can add a certain legitimacy to your offering and messaging.
Most customers don’t have an agenda. They don’t have anything to gain or lose by offering their input. Their fellow consumers understand that, so if you can borrow some of your customers’ credibility, you can cultivate some trust with your target base.
You may even want to put together a case study, especially if you’re offering professional services. In the meantime, building your personal brand through guest blogging can help you build your reputation by proxy.
3. Be honest and transparent.
Hardly any consumers have ever complained that the companies they purchase from aren’t shady and deceitful enough. No one has ever said, “I trust this brand because its parent company is really good at lying to me and burying all of its mistakes.”
No, consumers trust honest, transparent companies — that trend extends across your organization. Your marketing can’t be misleading. Don’t make promises in your sales copy that you can’t or won’t deliver on.
And be straightforward and ethical beyond that. Your sales team has to be upfront about pricing and how your offering can legitimately help prospects. If your organization makes a significant misstep, own it, and address it as quickly as possible.
Be sincere in your commitment to working for consumers’ best interests, and prove it by keeping them in the loop and remaining as open and honest as possible.
Transparency is important in an age where consumers feel like brands have something to hide. If you make a mistake, admit to it. If you have some bad news, reveal it in full. The more open and honest you are about what happens behind the scenes of your company, the more people will be able to trust you — even if everything you say isn’t 100 percent positive.
4. Ask for and act on feedback.
Consumers are willing to trust businesses they have some kind of stake in — companies that sincerely believe their customers matter. And one of the best ways to demonstrate that your organization fits that bill is to ask for and act on customer feedback.
Issue surveys, ask for feedback after any survey call, find ways to let customers contribute to and improve your operations. It’s one of the more effective avenues for letting customers know you value them for more than their money.
Hear what they have to say, and if something they bring up strikes a chord with you — or enough customers are raising similar points or issues — do something about it. Improve your business based on your customers’ insight.
It’s an excellent way to demonstrate that your relationship goes both ways — helping develop trust by letting your customers know you’re willing to hear them out.
5. Be reachable.
When a customer contacts you with an issue with your product or service, it’s in your best interest to have a support rep in touch with them as quickly as possible. This point is underscored by a recurring theme on this list — letting your customers know they matter.
Be reliably reachable. Don’t keep them on hold too long. And when they do connect with your support team, make sure the help they get is thorough, thoughtful, patient, and respectful. Your service reps need to be as composed and professional as possible — no matter how agitated a customer might be.
Providing them with readily accessible, exemplary customer service will show them that you value their business well beyond their initial purchase. If customers know you care, they’ll be more inclined to trust you.
6. Give before you take.
First, show your customers that you aren’t solely driven by profit, and give them a reason to interact with you for the first time. Give them something of value before you ask for anything in return. For example, if you have a landing page designed to capture email addresses, give your customers a downloadable white paper they’ll find useful. Thanks to the rule of reciprocity, they’ll be more likely to give you something in return in the future, and they’ll walk away with a better impression of your brand without having to sacrifice anything to get it.
7. Be human.
In order to sound more professional or corporate, hundreds of businesses have resorted to using a brand voice that, frankly, sounds robotic and cold. You may have perfect grammar and speak with a level of formality usually reserved for aristocrats, but none of that matters if your audience thinks less of you for it. Writing in a more conversational style, with all your personal quirks and defects, will make you seem more human and approachable.
8. Sympathize.
Next, try to connect with your customers on an emotional level. Show them that you know what struggles they’re going through by sympathizing with a core need. You can do this through messaging, advertising, or even a one-on-one conversation with a client. Whatever medium you choose, showing that you understand their main concerns helps them feel closer to your brand and makes you seem like a more knowledgeable authority — both of which can build trust.
9. Remain consistent (and be patient).
The best way to earn consumer trust is to do so naturally. Give your customers value on a regular basis, whether that’s in the form of a great product or a high-quality content marketing strategy, and provide excellent customers service. Over time, your most loyal customers will learn just how trustworthy you are, and word will spread about your business practices. The only downside here is the amount of time it takes; this is definitely a long-term strategy.
Though they aren’t all easy to execute, these strategies should give your brand everything it needs to build trust — even in this cynical age of consumer-brand relationships. New brands have much to prove, and brands with questionable pasts will have an even harder time rebuilding the trust of their customers, but even these underdogs can get the consumer trust they need to thrive.
All it takes is a better understanding of your customers’ psychology and a commitment to proving your worth.
How can you build customer trust?
So, how does it all come together? What’s the secret to building customer trust? Well, as I touched on throughout the list above, one of the keys is valuing your customers and thoughtfully conveying that appreciation back to them.
Take the time and effort to serve and delight them at every possible touchpoint. Demonstrate that you know they’re savvy and sensible through honest marketing.
Be considerate through your sales process, and don’t cast them by the wayside once they become customers. Provide the kind of customer service that they’ll want to talk about.
And once you’ve generated that goodwill and company fandom, do what you can to project it to the world around you. Consumers want to hear from other consumers.
If your customer base is delighted and vocal, you need to get their message out there. Ask for reviews, put together well-crafted testimonials, and let any interested prospects know that real people trust your business — and they should too!
In an age where consumers have unprecedented access to information and a massive platform to air out opinions and grievances, generating and maintaining customer trust and confidence is essential. That’s why you need to do everything in your power to serve, delight, and empower your customer base.
