Why you should build Brand Trust among customers as well as employees

Only a trustworthy brand will win a loyal clientele that makes regular purchases, is not afraid to try new products and will persist in times of crisis. But how do you gain such brand trust? Quality product reviews help significantly. Find out why and much more in today's article.

Brand trust reflects how much people trust your brand

And without trust, you can't do business. If customers don't trust you to give them what they pay for, you'll lose, on average, one in two buyers and, with them, 30% of the value of your business. A trusted brand, on the other hand, enjoys better sales, is more stable in a crisis and can expand its product portfolio much more easily.

A brand with high brand trust maintains quality, has good reviews and does not overcharge

The most important reasons why people trust brands were gathered in a 2019 survey of 16,000 adult shoppers from around the world. They probably won't come as a surprise to an experienced manager, and are generally things a company should be doing as standard. See for yourself in the chart below:

Source: Edelman-Why-Consumers-Trust-Brands-Jul2019.png (1000×555) (marketingcharts.com)

How is brand trust measured?

In practice, a distinction is usually made between internal and external metrics.

• Internally, brand trust is measured through various types of questionnaires. These focus on different dimensions of trust, such as purchase intention, willingness to recommend the brand to friends or employee ratings. 
• Externally, brand trust is measured through word-of-mouth analysis. The best way to do this is through qualitative sentiment research in the media, on social media and on review sites. You want to know what words people are using to describe the brand, or perhaps emotional overtones.

A practical tool that measures brand trust at a satisfactory level is the different types of NPS. It is a proven measure of customer experience and overall customer satisfaction with a brand. For each question in the questionnaire, you express a level of agreement from 1-10, with ten expressing maximum agreement.

The questionnaire then divides you into three groups according to your score:

• Promoters (scores 9-10) are loyal customers who will buy, spread word of mouth and contribute to growth. If there is a majority of them, the brand has a high level of trust.
• Passives (scores 7-8) are satisfied but somewhat passive customers who are easily poached by competitors. If they are the majority, the brand has medium brand trust.
• Detractors (skins 0-6) are dissatisfied customers who can potentially threaten the growth of the brand. If most are detractors, the brand has low brand trust.

Brand trust begins with employees

As recently as 2016, 55% of global brand CEOs complained that a lack of trust was limiting their company's expansion. So you need to start at the bottom - with your employees. In doing so, you'll gain several invaluable advantages that you can then use to gain the trust of the end user.

• Employees of companies with high brand trust are up to half as productive. In fact, they're 74% less stressed, 106% more energetic and up to 13% less likely to be sick.
• Trust improves teamwork. And all the latest research shows that it is a more effective way to lead than a system based on competition.
• Brand trust also increases creativity and the willingness to try new things. Only in an environment of trust are people not afraid to make mistakes, which is an essential part of innovation

How to maintain brand trust

People's trust in institutions and companies is regularly measured by the Edelman Trust Barometer, which publishes a detailed report every year. In recent years, the data has not been very encouraging, so experts have been actively looking for a change for the better, especially as the pandemic fades and economic stability returns. 

However, it does not look promising.

Demands on credibility are rising and people are getting tougher

This was the conclusion of an Edelman report last year, which surveyed the views of nearly 14,000 respondents in 14 countries.

For 71% of respondents from around the world, brand credibility is more important than in the past, being perceived as one of the most attractive attributes and a key factor in their purchase decision, alongside price and quality. The effect is strongest among Gen Z, aged 18 to 26, where nearly 80% of respondents said this. 

Mistrust leads to more price research and fewer impulse purchases

In addition, 58% are taking the extra effort to do more research. Brands can no longer rely on winning customers by chance.

The importance of corporate values is growing

Most shoppers will research them before they buy. Are you socially conscious? Do you care about the environment? Do you care about diversity in your advertising and in your workforce? 64% of people across all cohorts want this to be clear at a glance, without having to track it down. And if you lack similar communication, 62% feel you are either doing nothing or hiding something.

Even details such as where the brand is based matter. Location was a deal breaker for up to 77% of respondents.

Lack of trust changes the customer journey

Distrustful people behave in unique ways in the marketplace. Instead of the traditional sales funnel, where buyers move from initial interest and consideration to conversion and brand advocacy, the journey has become a loop:

For a distrustful customer, it all comes down to the brand of trust. Instead of sequential stages, each event becomes a feedback loop.

Source: PowerPoint Presentation (edelman.com)

In practice, this has the following implications:

• The purchase doesn't end the relationship, but rather begins it. 78% of people only notice what they like about the product and what they would change, even if they have done extensive research beforehand.
• Instead of a series of buying stages (discovery - research - purchase, and so on and so forth), people want a long-term relationship. If they already trust someone, they don't want to make a change. 79% of people actively engage with their brand, beyond a simple purchase. They follow brand communications, take part in competitions, vote or test products. The top three motivations for this behaviour are the desire to evaluate the brand on its own merits, beyond its commercial image, access to discounts and the simple desire to learn something new.
• People are most likely to learn about new products from advertising, about brand activity from the media and about the quality of the range from their own experience.
• Brand ambassadors are very important. And, according to the research, it makes little difference whether they are experts or ordinary shoppers with whom people can identify. The difference in credibility is only 3%!
• Buyers are most put off by irrelevance and fake. 76% are frustrated if the interaction with a brand is forceful, intrusive or pushy, 51% will choose a competitor even if the communication is simply out of date and out of context.
• The top three ways in which a brand can earn trust according to the report were a willingness to admit and actively address its mistakes, total transparency in its operations and working with government on new regulations.

Conclusion: reviews will help your credibility

Fortunately, the benefits of reviews, the needs of wary shoppers and the desired behaviours of trusted brands overlap. Learn how to take advantage of this with the following tips:

• Reviews themselves are one of the most trusted forms of business communication today. People don't trust marketing much anymore, but reviews still feel like their friend talking to them over a beer. They don't take his or her experience lightly; you know from previous statistics that it's easily as good as an expert's opinion. The reader just needs to get the impression that the reviewer is just like them.
• Changes in the customer journey put a lot of emphasis on content. It needs to be authentic, appealing to customers and reflect current trends and public communication styles. And it will be the reviews that will inspire you. Whether you use the message itself or the photos and videos that shoppers often attach to reviews, you'll get plenty of content for banners, competitions, email blasts or social media. And you do it without the need for complicated tone of voice research or expensive market research - you just let people sell to people.
• The text of reviews is the main thing that people look at when they do research. If you have enough of them and create your own reviews page, you can give buyers all the information they need without them having to leave your domain.
• Testimonials are a great way to gauge your current level of credibility. How many positive reviews are you getting? Are they coming from the same people? And what is the emotional content of the testimonials?
• Feedback also allows you to quickly identify any problems before they become a general scandal. So it pays to actively analyse even negative feedback and respond to it according to best practice. Then be sure to communicate the solutions to the problems in campaigns

If you have any questions about how to effectively use customer reviews and product testing for your business, don't hesitate to contact us. We're here to help you build a strong and trusted brand.