What if we told you that without this one element to your brand, 81% of customers would never buy from you?
That’s the case with customer trust, one of the most important elements in the world of business. But building trust from scratch is tricky. You can’t solve it with a well-placed ad. You can’t build it overnight. It takes a dedicated strategy—and multiple steps.
Here are five steps we think will put you on the fast track to gaining more trust as a brand:
Step One: Build an Authentic Brand
First things first: unless your brand is worthy of trust, everything else is going to be an uphill struggle.
You don’t convince your way to trust. You earn it, one step at a time.
The problem: authenticity is a big, honking buzzword without much practical value. Aren’t most businesses primarily about earning a profit? Don’t they at least have to think about profits as well as other values if they’re going to stay afloat?
86% of consumers said authenticity was key in determining which brands to support. But that’s not going to help you until you figure out what “authentic” looks like within your industry.
Let’s narrow down on what authenticity means:
- Is authenticity “baked in” to the way you do things? Consider the example of Patagonia. While working, former Patagonia CEO Kristine Tompkins helped conserve millions of acres of land in South America—including Patagonia. Later on, Tompkins went on to donate land back to Chile for conservation efforts. The amount of land given to Chile would be enough to fit in three cities the size of Los Angeles. That’s a brand that cares about its name.
- How do you communicate that real people run your business? You might be authentic and worthy of trust. But if your social media accounts and public relations make you come across as robotic, corporate shills, who’s going to care? In corporate communications, don’t be afraid to share personal sides to your brand stories. Customers want to know that you’re a real business run by real people. And they won’t know that unless you make a decision to show that side to them.
- Do you put your customers’ priorities first? One study found that 58% of customers will switch company loyalty simply because of customer service. Your brand can be as authentic as it wants. But keep in mind that every brand is a two-way street. For your customers, they don’t feel your authenticity until they buy from you or interact with your representatives. Everything else? In the minds of your customers, mere PR and advertising.
Step Two: Avoid Reverse Psychology
Let’s travel back to Patagonia. In the ad above—”Don’t buy this jacket”—the brand was being authentic to its values. “Don’t buy this jacket” was an ad all about sustainability and having a positive impact on the environment.
It seems like a great idea. A company that puts environmental policy ahead of profit must be trustworthy, right?
Yet the ad didn’t do as well as it could have.
In fact, surveys show customers don’t respond particularly well to this kind of reverse psychology. That means there’s not a shortcut to writing an advertisement that comes across as “more” authentic.
It comes back to the “pink elephant” rule in psychology. Ever heard of it? It goes something like this: try not to think of a pink elephant. Of course, it’s hard to do that. In all likelihood, you pictured a pink elephant while trying not to. In psychology, it’s known as ironic process theory.
What does it mean?
Customers are savvy. They know that if you’re talking about not buying your products, but you’re showing a picture of one, then you’re still thinking about your products. Customers see right through this brand of reverse psychology.
Ads that were about the environment—and not about your products, for good or ill—show customers where your attention is. To build authenticity, don’t try any fancy psychological tricks. Just show customers where your focus is.
So how do you avoid this while building authenticity? Let’s stick with the same company. When Patagonia ran a campaign focused less on their products and more on matching product sales for environmental causes, customers responded like gangbusters.
For their Black Friday campaign in 2016, Patagonia donated 100% of their sales to environmental causes. They expected to give between $2 million and $4 million. Over the course of the campaign, they ended up donating $10 million to environmental causes.
–Better Marketing
The takeaway: building customer trust is less about what you say, and more about what you do. 41% of people already say they don’t currently trust that brands’ marketing efforts are trustworthy. Don’t give them another reason not to trust you.
Step Three: Build Better Customer Service
Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.
-Arthur Ashe
Now that we know what not to do, let’s address the steps toward building customer trust that lasts.
There’s a reason we’ll start with that quote by Arthur Ashe. It’s time to start building trust brick-by-brick. And in the world of brand trust, you can think of each customer interaction as a brick.
Customer service matters to people. A lot. It helps drive sales: 67% of respondents agreed that they won’t make a purchase until they trust the company behind the product.
Easy to say. But how can a company build a reputation as trustworthy through customer support alone? Let’s look at some successful examples of customer support done right:
Small gestures.
A man named Paul Brown was frustrated when he didn’t have time to grab a Starbucks coffee before a JetBlue flight. He happened to tweet out his frustration. The customer support team at JetBlue sprang into action, making arrangements to deliver a coffee to Brown on his flight.
It was a tiny but powerful gesture, and earned rave reviews on social media. This just goes to show that even small tokens of customer appreciation—a coffee, a thank-you note—ring more true than just about anything else you can do as a company. Why? Because small gestures reveal the people behind the company.
Personalization.
This example comes from a small company, but is no less noteworthy. T-We Tea in San Francisco noticed a repeat customer named Francesca making orders from home. So in one of their packages, they included a note—using Francesca’s name—letting her know that they recognized the customer and wished them the best.
As with “small gestures,” a touch of personalization can go a long way. People don’t often expect to see their names handwritten in a package. It’s the surprise factor that’s so memorable. In your own company, you may not have the resources to personalize every package, but look for elements in which you can add a personal touch, even if it’s at scale.
Speed.
To 41% of customers, the biggest frustration is being placed on hold. You might do everything else right, but if you can’t respond to a customer’s query fast, their frustration builds up. The result: lost trust.
When Lexus had to deal with customers with a frustrating recall, they were willing to provide instant solutions to help ease frustrations.
Step Four: Show Your Human Side
People will always be social creatures. We trust brands that other people trust. We trust brands that we can see as people. In your efforts to build trust, it will help if you can incorporate both elements into a trust-building campaign.
What does it look like? The key concept here is social proof. Let’s define it in practical terms.
Social proof: A picture, testimonial, or review from someone else that helps demonstrate that someone else has tried your product and given it a positive review.
Traditionally, social proof works by enlisting a celebrity endorsement. We figure that if a sports drink is good enough for Michael Jordan, it should be good enough for us.
It works for brands, too. But rather than getting someone to associate your product with a celebrity, you want to engender trust. How do you do it? Show them that you’re more than a faceless company. You’re a real brand with real people behind it.
Let’s look at some brands that do this well:
- Southwest Airlines. The airline is one of the few to consistently deliver profitability, and for good reason. They consistently show their human side by allowing flight attendants to pep up their safety instructions with their own personalities. One particular flight attendant began, “Position your seatbelt tight and low across your hips like your grandmother wears her support…” Well, you get the idea. By showing off flight attendants’ personalities, Southwest humanizes their services and keeps customers coming back.
- Wendy’s. For most fast-food chains, the instinct on social media is usually to ruffle no feathers. Wendy’s humanizes its brand by giving its social media team free rein to show off their personalities. On “National Roast Day,” for example, the team even pokes fun at other brands.
Of course, pure snark isn’t necessarily your brand’s voice, either. If you need to project a more professional air, there are still plenty of ways you can humanize your brand to boost trust:
- Share photos of the team. This is particularly important on a website that has to establish trust. You might also want to consider adding in team bios that “humanize” each individual, down to their personal hobbies.
- Provide “behind the scenes” looks. Across the NFL these days, you’ll notice social media teams providing exclusive access to behind-the-scenes practices and team meetings. This doesn’t just give fans an excuse to check out your content, but it shows the people behind the brand.
- Use video when possible. Short of hitting a customer’s doorbell and introducing yourself, video is the next-best thing to show that you’re a brand made of real people. Believe it or not, only 32% of businesses use video, making this a unique opportunity to differentiate yourself.
Step Five: Identify Your Story, and Start Telling It
It’s one thing for a customer to see who you are. It’s another thing for them to know who you are.
What’s the difference? It’s in how well a customer knows your brand’s story. Tesla is a popular brand because so many people know the story of its CEO, Elon Musk. Musk is an enterprising, visionary eccentric with the goal to put a human being on the surface of Mars. People trust Tesla because they buy into the story of world-leading innovation. The headlines almost write themselves.
What’s your story?
If you don’t know, now’s the time to start figuring it out.
Stories are so powerful that when people love the story behind a brand, they’re 55% more likely to buy your product.
The problem? Not everyone has a land-a-person-on-the-surface-of-Mars story to tell about their brand. You have to find what’s engaging about your brand, even if you don’t have exciting visions of Mars domination.
You don’t have to have a story that big to make your brand more worthy of customer trust. You simply have to figure out what it is you’re doing to change the world, and then tell that story.
Take the example of Chase Bank, which followed its H Street Branch for a unique customer service story.
What made it a compelling story? It wasn’t an ordinary bank. The H Street Branch in Washington, D.C. strives to be one of the most accessible branches in the world. Already in a location where lots of languages thrive, H Street also includes visual elements for the hearing impaired.
Notice all of the things going on with Chase’s story:
- A unique angle. It’s not telling the story of an ordinary day at the bank. A good story has to start with something unique. In this case, it’s something that separates the H Street Branch from other banks.
- Visual elements. A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words. Notice pictures of Paula Sorto in action, performing sign language that is designed to help the hearing impaired.
- People. A brand’s story isn’t still art. Ultimately, people only connect with a story if they feel they understand the people involved. In Chase Bank’s case, that’s the story of Paula Sorto. For Tesla, it’s the ongoing saga of Elon Musk—and his tweets. Who are the people that define your brand’s story?
Your story—like your brand—is at the heart of why customers do or don’t trust you. Take control over your own destiny by shaping that story. When you do that, you can be sure that customer trust will follow.
