Brand trust is central to building your business. Described as the ‘make or break difference for brands’ it relates to how customers expect to have a positive experience when they interact with you. It involves consistency in delivery of high-quality products and services. But it goes further, with 53% of respondents in a 2020 Edelman survey stating trust in the brand was second in importance only to price when purchasing from a new brand.
All age groups, gender and income segments saw brand trust as more important now than ever before and looked at the impact that a brand has on society, as well as how brands can protect individuals during times of uncertainty and change.
What is brand trust?
Brand trust acts as a signal to let your customers know that you’re worth spending their valuable time and money on. It’s invaluable, hard won and based on consistency. Your customers want you to meet their expectations, every time.
As Elizabeth Arden, founder of Elizabeth Arden, Inc. said: “Repetition makes reputation and reputation makes customers.”
Shoppers trust brands when they:
- Deliver high quality products or services
- Receive good ratings and reviews
- Charge a reasonable price
- Treat customers fairly
- Handle any problems quickly
Brand trust comes from a combination of great products, consistently good service, meaningful customer interactions, great content, and glowing customer feedback.
Why is it important to build brand trust?
People buy brands rather than just products or services. Brand trust is what distinguishes you from your competitors.
Brands add value – we all know that a small white T–shirt from Balenciaga will cost significantly more than one from Primark.
Brands provide peace of mind -consumers are comfortable with what they’re offering, which saves decision-making time. And they express who consumers are – we identify with them – everyone can choose whether they’re a PC or a Mac.
A positive outlook on your brand, created through the delivery of consistently high-quality products and services, drives sales and creates loyal customers.
How to gain brand trust
Start with a clear value proposition - define what it is that you offer your customers and focus on providing that in as honest, fair and transparent a way as possible. Once your foundations are in place, then use social proof and reviews to build up brand trust.
People trust people, especially when they know their opinions are the real deal. In fact, 84% of shoppers trust real reviews from genuine customers even more than the recommendations of friends and family - making your customers your best salespeople.
The more reviews you’re able to collect from your genuine customers, the more trust in your brand increases. And once you have a stream of positive reviews pouring in, you can start promoting them on your website, in your search ads, and in marketing materials to spread the word even further and continue to build a positive brand reputation.
Prove the quality of your products
Collecting product reviews gives you the perfect opportunity to showcase the quality of your products. Honest reviews from real customers help shoppers feel more secure they are making the right choice, as they get an unbiased view of the products on offer. Reading feedback from other customers helps make the buying decision so much simpler. Photo and video reviews add an extra layer of trust by giving customers the chance to show off their experiences firsthand.
Focus on your customer experience
Improving your customer experience will create greater brand trust. Reach out to your customers to see how they feel about their interactions with you to find out where you’re doing well and where you need to improve. Feefo Surveys allow you to find out about any part of the buying journey, so you can gain insight on all your customer touchpoints.
Climb the Google search results
Collecting feedback provides search engines with plenty of user-generated content, which pushes your website up the rankings. Higher ranked sites show off your brand and help to build trust. As a Google Premier Partner, you can show your Feefo ratings and reviews on your Google My Business page too. If you want to read more about how reviews can help, check our SEO guide.
Keep an eye on what people are saying
Monitoring what people are saying about you allows you to keep track of how you’re perceived. Brand trust can fluctuate over time and Feefo’s Customer Sentiment Insight tool can accurately measure the positive and negative customer sentiment from within your reviews.
Create loyal brand advocates
Reviews carry on working long after they’ve been posted. If your customers are happy enough to sing your praises in a review, they’re likely to continue to do this on and offline, promoting your brand amongst their network and strengthening your reputation. Consumers respond well to recommendations from people that don’t work for the brand and haven’t been paid, making your reviewers credible and influential brand ambassadors.
Show you can deliver on your promises
Reviews give you the platform to publicly engage one-on-one with your customers. providing a platform to spark conversations, respond to queries, show that you’re willing to make improvements, and let everyone know when you make those changes. Just by addressing your current customers, you’re not only more likely to keep hold of them, but attract new ones too.
Turn critics into advocates
Believe it or not, negative customer reviews can be just as useful as positive ones. They let you know how you can improve your business and help to build on your customers’ trust. The best opportunity lies within how you go about replying – a well written response could even turn your grumpiest customer into a loyal brand advocate.
Much better to receive a negative review highlighting an issue that lets you take action to address the problem than having negative feelings towards your business passed on to a customer’s friends and family by word of mouth.
Collecting customer reviews lets you take back control of that conversation and use the platform to publicly respond to negative feedback and help solve the customer’s issue long before it damages brand trust. In fact, openly and honestly admitting fault, and going above and beyond to solve the issue they’ve raised, shows your company in a positive light and helps further cement the level of trust people have in your customer service.
Find out more about responding to negative reviews.
With 95% of shoppers saying they are more likely to be loyal to a company they trust, there’s no better time to start collecting customer reviews to build brand trust and prove to the world just how great your products and customer service really are.
Nine-in-ten customers are worried about fake reviews affecting their experience with a business - which is where we come in. As an invite-only review and insight platform, Feefo is proud to only collect real reviews from your genuine customers.
