How to win the hearts and minds of your customers by building trust

Lego was ranked number one for global reputation in 2021. Why?

Trust

But most businesses fail at building trust with their customers

Here’s how to win the hearts and minds of your customers by building trust.

 

To become a brand that people won’t substitute for love or money you must build trust with your customers.

When people don’t trust your brand it won’t last.

Trust is the foundation of any healthy relationship.

This couldn’t be more true for brands.

 

People have a very low threshold for brands.

If a brand does something wrong and deals with it poorly customers will leave in droves.

Fortunately for you. We can build trust.

Overtime.

Trust is directly connected to being authentic.

If you aren’t authentic forget trying to build trust.

 

If you aren’t authentic people will be able to tell you don’t care.

They won’t trust you.

The connection with customers will be weak.

And they will be open to trying new brands.

 

The weaker the connection the faster they will be to move when their expectations aren’t met.

Be warned.

Lack of authenticity is a silent killer.

 

Be authentic in every part of your brand.

What type of brand do you have?

Will customers expect you to act and say things in a certain way?

Of course.

 

We all have expectations for the brands we know.

But when these expectations aren’t met we pay more attention.

Make sure your key messages are aligned with your mission.

A health food brand would be expected to talk about living a healthy lifestyle.

If they suddenly started talking about fast food their audience would move on.

 

Think about your brand’s character and tone.

A professional service business like a lawyer might have a brand that is serious and professional.

If the brand started making jokes people will leave.

 

Having an authentic brand means aligning your brand with your customer’s expectations.

Once you know your brand character, tone and key messages turn your attention to consistency.

Consistency plays a big factor in building trust.

Be consistent across all your touchpoints.

 

Write down every touchpoint your brand has and rank them.

10 – Builds a deep level of trust

1 – Builds a shallow foundation of trust

Social media would be relatively shallow.

A face to face meeting would be very high.

 

Make sure you have touchpoints across the scale.

Then make sure all touchpoints are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Is the tone aligned with your brand?

Are the messages phrased in a way that your customer would expect?

Is each touchpoint aligned with your brand character?

 

Any touchpoints that don’t align with your brand are damaging it.

Breaking the bond with customers.

Fracturing your brand equity.

Fix them or drop them.