Trust: the foundation for business, the first expectation of the customer and the employee

Earning trust is critical factor to business in a constantly changing environment. We studied PwC’s 2022 Consumer Intelligence Series Survey on trust gap between businesses and their customers and employees. PwC conducted a survey of 503 business executives, 2,508 consumers and 2,002 employees in the United States. Two questions were asked to help see if any gaps were there.

• Do you think your customers trust you? (opinion)
• Do your customers trust you? (fact)

The finding came out as quite surprising i.e., 87% of executives think customers highly trust their companies, while the fact is roughly 30%. There is 57% gap. Likewise, 84% of business leaders believe employee highly trust their companies but only 69% of employee feel so. However, more employees trust their companies compared to customers. The survey also revealed that 71% of consumers say they won’t buy from a company if they lose their trust. In addition to that, 71% of employees say they’ll leave a company if it loses their trust.

Industry wise, the survey (PwC 2021) found health industries have more trust early in the COVID-19 pandemic whereas public service/government have less trust by customers in comparison to other industries such as telecom, financial service and energy service.  So, leaders should engage in proactive measures to do so and pay close attention to stakeholders.

Employees and customers hold a wide range of opinions about trust. Several key areas of alignment include believing that trust must be a priority for organizations, that organizations have a responsibility to build trust and that trust is essential to innovation. In trust, in US Business Survey 2021, 47% of leaders say trust is more bottom-up than top-down, built from customers and employees rather than senior executives. Only 27% of customers and 35% of employees say the same, indicating that they are looking to the leaders to lead more on trust.

So, to minimize or eliminate the trust gap, the leaders must consider investing time in following areas.

• The companies should always keep their promise and deliver the products and services as per the set commitment. Companies practice to under-promise and over-deliver.
• The leadership must be transparent about their policies, process, delivery times, delays and more to the customers. The more customers know, the more trust they will have doing business.
• The business must always focus on enhancing the operating procedures and technologies to make it easy for customer to connect effortlessly and maintain the quality standard.
• The companies should always protect the data of customer information without abusing the trust of the customer. This is vital in the dynamic technology, now more than before.
• The business should always be helpful and approachable while delivering a consistent and positive experience that increases trust and gets customers to come back.
• The executives should always focus on providing excellent customer service. The research found that 84% of customers trust a company or brand more if it provides excellent customer service and positive experience.

Customer and employee trust are essential to establishing and fostering long-term relationships with the business. After all, it enables business to deliver better experiences, increase loyalty, and retain more customers as well as employee. Trust, for the customer and the employee, is the foundation of a long-term bond with the brand. Invest wisely, know the customer, know the employee. Make the bond, and you gain a lasting loyalty.