Running A Business? Here’s How You Build Trust With Consumers
Stop all of your marketing efforts and focus on one thing for a moment: trust. It’s a vital thing for all businesses to gain, which is why you need to start building trust with as many consumers as possible. The best marketing campaign in the world means nothing if your target audience never truly trusts you.
Trust has become more critical than ever in recent times, with an Edelman report throwing up two remarkable statistics:
- 59% of consumers are more likely to purchase new products when they trust a brand, irrespective of price
- 67% of consumers are more likely to stay loyal and advocate for a brand they trust
As a quick summary, this basically means that establishing a trustworthy business can help you gain and retain more customers. The proof is out there for all to see – you probably have a few brands that you personally trust and go back to over and over.
Taking those important statistics into account, let’s switch back to the main focus of this article: how do you build trust with consumers? If you look at various reports and studies, the same things crop up over and over as excellent trust builders.
Keep Your Promises
It doesn’t go well for businesses that don’t keep their promises. While keeping a promise might sound like an obvious thing, there’s a surprisingly high number of examples of companies that didn’t do this. Most of them follow a common theme: promising something during an advertising campaign that never comes to fruition.
Listverse has a great dossier of examples for you to look at, with some of the worst ones including:
- Nutella claimed that it was a healthy breakfast option for kids, only for consumers to point out that it actually contains 20g of sugar and 11g of fat per serving. This resulted in a lawsuit and damaged the brand’s trustworthiness.
- Volkswagen promised that its cars emitted clean diesel, but it lied about this and was using emission defeat devices to fool testers. It was a huge scandal back in the day, and people still struggle to trust the brand right now.
There are two key lessons to follow when it comes to keeping promises: don’t make false claims in advertising, and don’t promise things unless you’re 100% certain you can deliver. Many businesses are guilty of the latter during the consultation phase when dealing with clients. You want to get someone’s business, so you promise to over-deliver, which will set you up for failure.
Consumers trust businesses that stick to their claims and don’t break promises. It’s a simple concept to get behind, yet you’ll be amazed at how many businesses struggle. If you can stick to this, then it’s an easy way to earn trust over other enterprises.
Commit To Sustainability
Initially, you question the link between sustainability and trust. In fairness to you, there probably wasn’t a very strong link a decade or two ago. As sustainability becomes a significant part of everyday life, consumers are more likely to turn towards businesses with strong sustainable practices.
Research shows that 92% of consumers trust environmentally friendly brands, and 55% are willing to pay more for eco-friendly brands.
Those are some big claims, but they demonstrate the need for your business to be environmentally conscious. Consumers trust brands like this because they clearly care about the environment and aren’t just doing everything to make a profit.
The good news is that it’s not hard to commit to sustainability. You’ll find loads of new solar energy companies out there that can help you set up solar power installations for your commercial premises. Or, you can set something up to connect your premises to a solar grid – either way, you instantly become more eco-friendly, and this builds trust with the consumer market.
Put even more thought into this, and you discover a host of ways to cultivate a sustainable company that people will be drawn to. Make it a big part of your branding and a key aspect of your marketing strategy; consumers will see how eco-friendly you are, and this makes them trust you more.
Be Open & Transparent
This ties into the point about keeping promises, though it’s more to do with what your business says and does. You should aim to be open and transparent about everything – this could involve:
- Your supply chain
- Salaries for board members and CEOs
- What you do with your profits
- How you make products
Consumers want to know as much about a business as possible before they commit to one. Transparency makes a good impression on the customer and shows that you’ve got absolutely nothing to hide. Be as upfront about everything – of course, there could be laws or legal issues that prevent you from disclosing certain aspects of your business, but that’s okay.
The bottom line is that you shouldn’t shy away from being open with consumers about things. Encourage them to ask questions and develop detailed pages on your website telling people about your business and the various things that you do. This is super important with regard to stuff like supply chains because consumers want to know where their products originate from.
Behave Responsibly & Ethically
All that talk about supply chains leads us nicely to the final way you can build trust with consumers: behave responsibly and ethically at all times. There’s a bit of an overlap between this and transparency because you need to work with ethical suppliers. All of your goods and services should come from ethical sources if you want to establish yourself as a trustworthy business.
It should be noted that 78% of consumers are more likely to trust a company with ethical and transparent supply chains.
In terms of behaving responsibly, you simply need to avoid doing irresponsible things that consumers will frown upon. As a common example, don’t embezzle business funds or get involved in any shady practices.
The more you start thinking about it, the more you realize that running a trustworthy business is surprisingly simple. It requires extra research and care on your behalf to avoid accidentally working with unethical suppliers or doing things that aren’t sustainable, but it’s worth it.
FAQs:
Why is it important to build trust with consumers in today’s market?
To build trust with consumers is to secure customer loyalty and advocacy. In a competitive landscape, trust becomes the reason consumers choose and stick with your brand, even over cheaper alternatives.
How does sustainability help businesses build trust with consumers?
Sustainability shows that a company cares about more than just profits. When you adopt eco-friendly practices, it helps build trust with consumers who prioritize environmental responsibility.
What’s the connection between transparency and the ability to build trust with consumers?
Transparency allows customers to see exactly how your business operates. When you’re open about sourcing, pricing, and values, it helps build trust with consumers and shows you’re a brand they can believe in.
Can broken promises affect your ability to build trust with consumers?
Absolutely. Misleading advertising or unfulfilled commitments erode confidence quickly. Brands that consistently deliver on promises are far more likely to build trust with consumers over the long term.
What ethical practices help build trust with consumers?
Using ethical suppliers, practicing fair labor, and operating responsibly across your supply chain all help build trust with consumers. People want to support businesses that align with their values.
