BBB Serving Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT - In the two previous pieces of this series, we looked at how to identify your target market and how to develop a customer persoane. In the final piece of this series, we’ll examine how to attract customers by building a trustworthy brand.
Brand development can be a complex process, often requiring a significant amount of resources. There are departments and even entire companies dedicated to brand management. That’s because brands are important to people and very fragile. Brands perceived negatively by the public can severely damage a business.
Building a trustworthy brand is one of the most important aspects of brand development. A 2019 Pew Research Center Survey recently found that adults 18-29 tend to have the least trust in others, followed by people aged 30-49. The survey found that 71% of adults under 30 believe that most people would try to take advantage of you given the opportunity.
This is why it’s important to build a trustworthy brand. Below are a few simple but actionable ways to do so:
Be Transparent
This could mean a variety of things depending on what you do. Examples include being transparent with your product development process or with your business model. Transparency communicates to your customers that you’re not hiding anything. It’s a central focus for many organizations already, including BBB’s eight “Standards of Trust.”
Humanize
This allows people to relate to your brand. You can make your brand more “human” in a variety of ways:
- Hire personable customer service and sales representatives
- Show your company culture through pictures or videos in your visual content
- Incorporate real stories in your communications
- Include testimonials
Address questions, complaints, comments, and reviews
You should seek ways to increase the value you provide to your customers, so feedback should be encouraged, welcomed, and taken into consideration.
- Own up to mistakes
- Respond to compliments
- Reach out directly to customers
- Answer questions quickly
People want to be heard, and taking customer feedback can be a tremendous benefit by generating positive word-of-mouth. According to a recent Nielsen study, 92% of consumers say they trust word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising, meaning a pleasant customer experience could go a long way for your business.
Become a trustworthy business
It’s one thing to try to show people that you’re a reliable business - it's another thing to prove it. Becoming a BBB Accredited Business shows potential customers that you’re a trustworthy business with the highly-recognizable BBB Seal. In fact, 83% of consumers who are familiar with BBB are more likely to purchase when a business displays their BBB Accreditation Seal.
These four steps are a few ways to start building a trustworthy brand, but it takes time and requires continual upkeep. Doing so is well worth it - yielding long term results for your business and allowing you to take pride in your brand.
For more information you can trust, visit us at BBB.org. You can also like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.