Capturing higher market share by building a customer base is the primary motto of every organization. Customers often select the brands which facilitate their needs while adding value. An essential factor in the journey of earning customer loyalty is gaining their trust. It is the building block of any relationship.
According to the Edelman Brand Trust Survey, “consumers ranked brand trust as one of the top factors they consider when making a purchase”. It reported that over 81 percent of the 25,000 respondents across eight major global markets including the United States, Brazil, China and Germany who undertook the survey placed brand trust over criteria such as convenience and value. It further reported that 66 percent of the respondents chose to stick with their brand compared to a competitor that is more innovative or technologically advanced.
Let’s dive deeper to understand the factors that impact and build brand trust.
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Factors that Influence Brand Trust
Good Ratings and Reviews
Global businesses like Airbnb and Amazon have a business model that revolves around trust. The hospitality giant Airbnb resorted to ratings and reviews to encourage customers to use their platform. Reviews and ratings play a crucial role as they motivate people with intent to make a purchase. Good reviews strengthen belief in the brand but ensuring that reviews are real is just as important. This has necessitated the use of constant monitoring and online review management platforms.
Good Quality Products and Services
Quality of a service or product provided by a business plays a vital role in establishing a link with customers. While businesses heavily invest in brand awareness activities, no amount of marketing can make up for inferior quality of products or services. The trust which is gained from offering verified products and services is an essential factor that strongly influences customer loyalty.
Addressing Customer Issues Quickly
Despite every attempt to ensure 100% customer satisfaction, brands often fail to please every single customer. Studies show that when customers who had a bad experience are responded to quickly, they are much more likely to respond in kind, and could even become more loyal as a result. Online review management ensures that the negative experiences of the customers are reported and addressed quickly and efficiently.
Fair Charges for its Services or Products
While customers are willing to pay a premium price for exceptional products or services, they expect brands to remain fair in price. Increasing the premium without innovating the product or service upsets most customers and damages their trust in a brand. Experts believe that when a brand behaves unethically and fails to stay reliable and truthful, the impact on their reputation is enormous.
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Ways to Build Brand Trust
Know the Present Brand Value?
Brand value is the ways in which customers perceive your brand. It is essential to know that online reviews have a direct impact on your brand reputation as they influence potential customers. While your brand value might not be high initially, it can be increased by simply maintaining a positive online reputation. For example, if a customer has left a negative remark or low rating, acknowledging the customer and resolving the issue quickly and sincerely can reap benefits for your brand.
Enhance Your Customer Experience
In such a competitive time, it is vital to establish trust among the customers by enhancing user experience. While it can be challenging, online review management can play an integral role in ensuring enhanced customer experience as it monitors and reports customers who have had a bad experience. Such a platform eases the task of getting feedback from each customer individually.
Engaging with the Customers
As mentioned earlier, engaging with customers is of the utmost importance. There are multiple ways of doing so, like feedback surveys which are a simple yet effective technique to understand your customers. Allowing customers to connect with brand employees through a website or another platform directly enhances their trust in the brand.
Managing Online Ratings
An average consumer today holds more purchasing power than ever before. People voice their opinions and instigate other consumers to do the same. This poses a challenge for brands today as they fail to use these voices to their advantage. The best solution is to manage your online reputation by managing online ratings. It is essential to respond to every customer comment.
Importance of Brand Trust in Driving Sales
Online review management is imperative in today’s world to establish brand trust among customers. Tatvam is an online review management platform which facilitates brands to connect with its users. With the right online review management tool, brands can see their current standing with their users and easily come up with strategies to enhance the customer’s overall experience.
Matt Canada has a background in graphic design, customer service and management. In his current role, he oversees marketing activities for Tatvam and also supports in sales and support activities. In his free time, Matt enjoys playing video games, spending time with his wife and running his own production company which is centered around creating inspirational content for others.
