How to build and maintain your brand trust: 4 practical tips
Aleš Randa
3 min
A trusted brand has a loyal clientele, benefits from repeat purchases, and can withstand competition and crisis. How to build brand trust? And how to maintain it in the long term? Get inspired by tips from our daily practice.
You can't get by in today's world without a brand trust
When the elite SEALS team, the best organization in the world, selects new members, they often prioritize credibility over performance. Why is that? Because if people don't trust you, you're in trouble, even if you promise blue sky.
Even the customer has to trust that the brand will satisfy them in the way it promised. They'll reward it with loyalty, repeat purchases, reviews and referrals to their family or friends.
Brand trust is essential for the success of any company, especially for high-risk sectors (healthcare, security systems, etc.). At Brand Testing Club, we work with it every day. In our time, we have come up with several practical ways that help build and maintain brand trust.
Today we will introduce you to them.
1) Be authentic
Brand authenticity is an essential element of credibility. It's not a perfect slogan or benefits. People care most about who you are.
- Brand credibility will be supported by quality storytelling. Buyers want to know the founders of the company, their story, insight into how the business operates on a daily basis.
- Use social media. Share Instagram stories from behind the scenes, post funny stories on Twitter, create polls and react to world events.
- Define your unique brand narrative. Unify your corporate communication style and stick to it.
- Be transparent. Where do you source your ingredients? What does it look like in your factory? What does a typical working day look like?
2) Cultivate quality customer support
For the vast majority of customers, customer support is synonymous with brand appeal and credibility. You'll only verify a company's capabilities when you're solving a problem. Is the process efficient or am I waiting hours on hold? A satisfying experience increases positive reviews by 77%.
- Communicative, helpful, transparent customer service is the foundation of quality customer support. The ability to resolve any issue is a given.
- Teach staff to represent the brand by their behaviour, especially in the service sector.
- Encourage company spirit through team-building events. The best team is the one that lives the brand.
- Streamline the support process with chatbots.
- Respond to negative feedback!
- Reward loyal customers with discounts and other benefits.
3) Customers demand corporate pro-activism
Racism, global warming, caring for the environment. 81% of customers want companies to take action, 71% will lose trust forever if a brand prioritises its profits, more than half are willing to actively boycott a brand.
- Today, you're no longer just selling a product or a lifestyle. Gen Z is also buying world opinion.
- Define clear company values. Make sure they are easy to follow on your website.
- Be proactive. Don't just react to problems, point them out first.
- Meet your customers' needs in a sustainable way (recyclable materials, etc.).
4) Create quality social proof, for example through online reviews
People are losing trust in institutions. But they still trust their environment. Up to 92% of people will give personal recommendations, especially from loved ones. 87% of shoppers actively seek online reviews, and for 93% of them they are a deciding factor in their purchase.
A large number of positive reviews is the best insurance of a brand's credibility. Unfortunately, getting quality web reviews is not easy. They are often too short, flawed, off-topic or downright fake.
Fortunately, you're not alone. Quality objective reviews from Brand Testing Club will positively impact your brand's word of mouth and ratings on community sites. They build long-term relationships, community and trust.
