Our research reveals multiple disconnects between what business leaders and consumers perceive about the mechanics and realities of trust. It also reveals significant headroom even for consumers’ most trusted brands to improve their performance in ways that deepen trust. To get there, it’s important to connect your brand’s intentions with its actions across the four trust signals.
The reality is that most companies are failing to show that they genuinely care about the experience and well-being of individual customers—and those companies often don’t even realize it.
Gaps to close:
40% vs. 13%
Leaders are 3x more likely than consumers to strongly believe that their company consistently exhibits humanity through empathy and kindness toward customers.
81% vs. 51%
Four out of five leaders somewhat or strongly believe that their brand treats customers like valued friends; only half of consumers said that about their most-trusted brands.
Consumers want to clearly understand your company’s motives, information and choices in plain language.
Gaps to close:
75% vs. 37%
Leaders are 2x more likely than consumers to believe or strongly believe that their companies show transparency through their actions and communications.
39% vs. 18%
Leaders are 2x more likely than consumers to believe their companies always are proactive with important messages and alerts.
Creating quality products, services and/or experiences is core to building trust. Here too, many companies don’t realize that they’re falling short in the eyes of customers.
Gaps to close:
38% vs. 20%
Leaders are 2x more likely than consumers to strongly believe that their brand shows capability through quality products, services and/or experiences.
38% vs. 73%
Leaders are significantly less likely than consumers to believe that fair prices are critical to building trust in a brand.
Consistently delivering on promises and expectations should be table stakes, but leaders significantly overestimate the reliability of their brands and products.
Gaps to close:
40% vs. 19%
Leaders are 2x more likely than consumers to strongly believe that their companies always show reliability by delivering on their promises.
35% vs. 13%
More than 1/3 of leaders think they always send customers the types of information that they want to receive—yet less than 1/7 of consumers agree with that even about their trusted brands.
