This article was originally published in Media Post
Trust is crucial for brand success in today’s competitive marketplace. The most successful brands are those that aren’t just taking a human-centered approach to their customer experience, but a trust-centric one. According to a PwC survey, 92% of consumers feel that organizations have a responsibility to build trust, 46% spend more at companies they trust, and 40% no longer purchase from a company due to a lack of trust.
To earn that trust, brands need to actively listen to what their customers really need—not just what they think they need—and use what they've learned to inform the design of their customer experience accordingly.
Meeting All Customer Needs: A Blueprint for Trust
Trust is a precious commodity—difficult to earn, easy to lose, and absolutely essential for long-term success. This is true across industries, but particularly so in sectors where customers have high stakes and complex needs. While some brands focus on addressing specific pain points or offering niche solutions, the most successful companies are those that strive to meet all their customers’ needs in one comprehensive package.
What makes a brand truly trustworthy is its explicit commitment to accessibility and understanding of its customers’ full range of requirements. For instance, Tia’s success stems from its holistic approach to women’s healthcare, seamlessly integrating various aspects of wellness into a single, modern model. Recognizing women’s hesitancy to trust healthcare brands due to access and expense, Tia has cultivated an intimate understanding of women’s needs, earning trust by demonstrating its commitment to meeting those needs fully.
Building Trust-Centric Customer Experiences
Earning trust with customers doesn’t come easy and goes beyond merely having good intentions. It begins with authenticity, a quality that allows brands to stand out in a sea of sameness. By crafting customer touchpoints that feel genuine, familiar and approachable, companies can create a strong foundation for customer trust. This authenticity is further reinforced through transparency whenever possible. Providing clear pricing models, readily accessible testimonials and using human-centric messaging instead of jargon are all effective ways to demonstrate transparency and build credibility.
The path to trust also lies in quality over quantity. This principle applies both to storytelling and customer touchpoints. While it might be tempting to cast a wide net, focusing on one emotionally captivating narrative is more impactful than several less compelling ones. Similarly, prioritizing key customer interactions that make the most significant impact can be more effective than trying to do too much at once.
At the heart of this approach is a deep understanding of the customer. Direct feedback from customers about their expectations and unmet needs is invaluable, as is purposeful observation to uncover latent needs that customers may not articulate but still very much experience. By adhering to these guiding principles—authenticity, transparency, quality-focus and empathy—brands can create trust-centric experiences that not only meet customer needs but also foster stronger relationships and drive long-term business success.
Bio:
Mary is a Senior Consumer Experience Strategist at Langrand. She combines consumer empathy with human-centered design to deliver engaging experiences that are elegant, functional and aimed at solving users needs.
