Trust has never been scarcer in businesses as it is today. The way brands lose trust is clear, but the way they earn and sustain it is not obvious. Jake Athey, VP, marketing and customer experience, Widen offers three underrated approaches to building trust.
I do not have a magic cure for all the trust issues documented in studies by EdelmanOpens a new window , Pew Research CenterOpens a new window , and other authorities. The more answerable question is, what can brands do to earn and keep trust?
Creating distrust is simple. Set abusive prices and never honor warranties, guarantees, or return policies. Exaggerate the quality and capabilities of your products. Do not deliver the product or service you promised to deliver. Never be available to call, email, or text with customers.
Yet, doing the opposite only meets the public’s most basic expectations of a brand. So, let us discuss some not-so-obvious but powerful ways to build a reputation of trustworthiness.
1. Develop Content Around What People Should Trust You For
 Generally, a brand’s values and mission statement amount to this: “Trust us because we say we are good people.†That is weak.
The better pitch is to ground trust in something specific: The quality of your engineering, the track record of your expertise, your ability to deliver on time, or a commitment to speaking your mind, even if it is not what your client wants to hear. Your images, videos, graphics, writing, and overall content strategy should concentrate on a few demonstrable sources of trust.
For a straightforward example, look at Labdoor, a startup that independently tests supplements in chemistry labs. Their business is to inform consumers about the label accuracy, nutritional value, and safety of supplements. If a shopper clicks a link from Labdoor to a marketplace selling the reviewed product, Labdoor receives a commission. They do not take funding from the brands they oversee.
Notice that Labdoor does not overextend itself. They don’t tell you whether you should or should not take certain supplements or favor any brands. They tell you what they found in the lab, and that is it.
What should the public trust you for?
2. Build Community Among Your Customers To Foster Trust
 Trust is contagious. When customers, influencers, industry professionals, etc., self-identify as members of a brand community, they signal to newcomers that the brand is trustworthy. Indeed, they form a bond normally seen in a tight-knit family or religious community—a trust that says, I know you want the best for me because we share genes, beliefs, and history.
Take GitHub. It is not merely a place to find open source code for your projects. Instead, it is a platform where total strangers collaborate on code. Members ask each other for help, mentor one another, and acknowledge each other’s accomplishments. The experience of being in the GitHub community develops trust in the code, and by extension, the brand. Likewise, Harley Davidson, Lululemon, and Salesforce all thrive on community-driven trust rather than affordability or value. It is not luck—these brands consciously design community through their product offering, user experience, storefronts, etc.
Frankly, it might be impossible to build a community around commodity products that compete only on price. But if you offer something meaningful to your customers, you may be able to foster a community that genuinely feels and signals a high level of trust in your brand.
3. Have a Post-Sale Strategy
Have you ever ordered food from a restaurant and received a call from the owner later asking how you liked everything? When that happens, it is delightful. You think you are being called because a credit card did not go through. Instead, you are speaking to a business owner eager to know if she earned your trust.
At most brands, that window of opportunity after the purchase goes unused. At best, they send a generic email asking customers to review the product (usually for the brand’s benefit, not the customers’).
A better approach would be to anticipate and address common needs after the sale. For example, let us say you sell high-end bicycles online. You could send a post-delivery email welcoming the buyer to your community and then help this member get the most out of the bike with messaging like:
- Need help finding the perfect settings for your new bike? Enter your weight into our widget to get recommended base settings for your fork and shock.
- Looking for places to ride? Based on your shipping address, here is a link to the nearest local trail organization.
- Have technical questions about using and maintaining your bike? Schedule a one-on-one with one of our experts by clicking this link.
That outreach to new customers would cost almost nothing yet build an invaluable amount of trust. The message is that you care about people’s experience with the brand, not just the revenue. No matter what industry you are in, there is an opportunity to build trust after the sale.
Learn More: 74 Potent Customer Experience (CX) Stats To Succeed in 2021
Trust Is a Human Need
To question who and what to trust every day is a burden, no one should have to bear. Hopefully, we will overcome that in 2021.
Trust is not a business tactic. It is a human need. Trust (or a lack thereof) affects employee and company performance, national economic vitality, and personal health. The more trust we build in our brands—and in each other—the more opportunities we’ll have to flourish together.