It is this time of the year when Edelman publishes its renowned annual study of the state of global consumer trust. Trust is the basis of building relationships with consumers and clients, and thus is the core of all meaningful business relationships. I’ve been genuinely interested in the findings of the survey and followed it for the past several years. For a third year, I will share key points of the survey below and direct the attention of my friends and colleagues to this insightful tool. Hopefully, you also find the subject of building and retaining trust as intriguing as I do. Please consider how the lessons from this survey might affect you and your clients’ organizations directly.
General Findings
While there’s an overall decline in trust over the past year, there are significant variations on a regional basis. There was a decline in trust in the USA, France, Mexico, and an increase in trust in the UAE, Argentina, and Indonesia, to name a few. Similarly to 2013, NGO’s and businesses are leading the way in terms of keeping the public’s trust, while governments and media continue to lose it. The trust gap between the informed and the general public is staggering, underlining the importance of constant communication and education when earning and retaining trust.
Technology remains the most trusted industry sector. The banking and finance sectors are yet again at the low end of consumer trust barometer, with those selling financial advisory/asset management services at the very bottom.
Size and location matter
While general trust in business is leveling in comparison to the past, businesses in the West have to work harder than their colleagues in the developing markets to maintain that level, reflecting the overall growth market expectations.
Diving deeper into geographical segments, it is interesting to note that Germany is on the bottom of the list of financial sector trust level, alongside Spain and Ireland. Again, I found it surprising to see Germany, Sweden and the UK on the bottom of that list in the energy sector.
A note for multinationals: HQ location matters. BRICs nations suffer trust deficit compared to Western-based companies. One might argue that governance and compliance are attributable to those results. Size also matters. Family-owned, as well as small and medium sized businesses, show a near-global advantage (except in Asia) when it comes to trust, which seems related to the overall perceptions of the companies. Family owned, small- and mid-sized companies are perceived to be more responsive to customers’ needs, more entrepreneurial and innovative.
What and who do you trust most?
Trust in media is on the decline, which should prompt us to question the communication channels used to deliver key messages. On-line search however leads as a source to turn to for general business information, breaking news, and confirmation of news about business; assess how much importance is put into SEO and adjust it accordingly.
CEO’s/business leaders are still not the most trusted source. Peers/regular employees have gained significant ground in being perceived as trusted sources, which may be attributable to the dominance of social networks and the increasing importance of "friends’" recommendations.
How do we build trust?
Following last year’s introduction of five key trust building segments: engagement, integrity, product & services, purpose and operations, this year the study underlines engagement and integrity as high-priority segments with significant opportunity for improvement. It also draws a direct correlation between certain positive behaviors, such as “pays appropriate level of tax,” “ensures quality control,” etc. with increased trust, and negative indicators, such as “unethical business practices” and “misrepresents the company,” with decreased trust levels – these are key segments of trust building.
This short article provides only a snapshot of this report’s many insights. I highly recommend that you make time to review the study and take into consideration its results in your 2014 strategic development planning.
For copies of Edelman’s 2014 Trust reports, visit the following website:
http://www.slideshare.net/EdelmanInsights/2014-edelman-trust-barometer
For past articles and reports, click here:
http://mirailievaleonard.blogspot.com/2013/01/where-is-trust.html
© 2010-2014 Copyright Mira Ilieva Leonard / iStile All rights reserved
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