Popular, widely recognised brands aren’t in their unique position by chance. Neither are brands that the public has consistently deemed trustworthy. You can improve not only your reach but also your reputation and perceived credibility with qualities like transparency, consistency and effective communication.
A brand’s “credibility” is the level of trust the public has towards a business based on their interactions. The most trusted brands in the world run the gamut from electronics to retail to automotive, yet they all deliver on what they promise. You know what you’re going to get, and you can trust you’ll be happy with the quality.
Some businesses take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach, believing that if they’re doing pretty well, there’s nothing to fix or focus on. Yet building trust for your company is a worthwhile endeavour wherever you are in your growth stage.
A good brand reputation starts with a strong brand strategy, and that’s something Anchor can help you build.
Building Your Company’s Trustworthiness
Research has found that while trust in a brand is a deciding factor for 81% of customers, just 34% actually trust the brands they use. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s never been more important to know how to check company credibility and take the right steps in building trust for your company. If you want to be known as a brand that customers can count on, here are some non-negotiable tips:
Produce quality products
Both high-quality products and pleasant, satisfying customer service experiences help boost your brand’s credibility. Look at improving your products and your service as an ongoing journey rather than a destination and don’t neglect customer feedback.
Focus on foundations
A 2021 PwC survey identified four foundational areas that help a business build trust: protecting data and cybersecurity, treating employees well, keeping business practices ethical and admitting to mistakes. While these steps may sound simple, sticking to them creates powerful results for building your brand reputation.
Understand client goals
Providing work your clients are happy with begins with understanding their wants, needs and long-term goals and tailoring your approach to suit them.
Be transparent in your messaging
One of the most effective ways a business can build trust is by just being open and honest. Some ways you can do this include providing clear and upfront pricing (and what’s included in the cost), connecting via storytelling, having an open dialogue with your audience and sharing genuine customer stories.
Be consistent in your brand voice
Consistency helps you maintain your brand’s values and voice across multiple channels, building recognition, credibility, and trust. However, consistency is hard to achieve without a strong brand identity and mission statement. It pays to be clear about who you are, how you stand out, and what you can bring to people’s lives.
Maintaining Your Company’s Credibility
A good reputation is harder to win than it is to destroy. In the digital age, most people know how to check a company’s credibility fast. Google reviews, Glassdoor, social media and similar platforms offer unfiltered insights into what real people are saying about businesses. Here are some steps you can take to ensure the buzz stays positive.
Nurture strong customer relationships
Maintaining positive relationships with your existing customers results in repeat business and good word-of-mouth referrals. Easy ways to care for your relationship with your existing client base include using data to build buyer personas, sending personalised follow-up emails, responding to social media comments in a professional way and measuring customer retention data.
Conduct original research
Undertaking original research and surveys and publishing unique reports enhances your credibility and helps you position yourself as an authority in your field.
Participate in workshops and speaking engagements
Facilitating and partaking in speaking engagements and workshops can showcase your company’s brand identity, successes and unique approach, helping you win over potential new clients and partners.
Use (and respond to) reviews
Reviews are an essential and unavoidable part of having an online presence, and there’s no getting away from the odd negative one. Responding to reviews benefits your brand, but there’s an art to doing so in a skilful way. As far as good reviews go, often a quick “thank you” is enough. If the reviewer has some negative things to say, responding in a timely manner and staying polite and courteous creates a favourable impression.
Stay ethical
Dodgy practices like deceptive advertising, unfair workplace practices or damage to the environment cause immense harm to your reputation and your credibility. But they’re far from the only factors that can damage your brand.
Factors That Could Negatively Affect Your Company’s Credibility
If you’re serious about protecting your company’s credibility, avoid all of the following:
Poor products
No amount of image management or shrewd marketing strategies can compensate for the damage to your reputation caused by inferior-quality products or services.
Poor relationships
Even if you’re confident that your product has a lot of value, partnering with dishonest, disreputable, or inferior brands can hurt your reputation by association.
Dishonesty
Honesty is key. Being shady or secretive about your business practices breeds mistrust among the public, and being caught lying will follow your brand around forever.
Data breaches
Research has revealed that 65% of people don’t trust companies to use their data responsibly. Yet, it’s difficult to avoid giving your personal data to corporations, from apps to banking and so much more. Data breaches happen when personal information is lost or accessed/disclosed without authorisation. The Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme stipulates that you must be told if a data breach is likely to cause you real harm. Data breaches are dangerous and kill your credibility fast.
Inconsistent messaging
As we’ve already established, consistency is a vital ingredient when it comes to credibility. Inconsistent messaging confuses your customers, leads to fewer conversions and sales and means your marketing efforts go to waste.
Trustworthy Brand Strategies with Anchor
A powerful brand strategy communicates your promise to your potential customers while acknowledging that your identity is fluid and subject to change. Anchor’s brand strategy services use diverse elements and techniques to ensure your brand inspires the right feelings and associations. We can help you with everything from knowing how to check company credibility to choosing the right words for your brand story to designing compelling visual assets.
As a creative digital agency, we never lose sight of the data, but the focus is on human visitors. Achieving your business goals takes careful planning, which is why every time we launch a campaign, we anchor it in a solid marketing strategy. Whether it’s facilitating a workshop to come up with a solid strategy, using brand positioning to emphasise what’s unique about you or conducting original customer research, we use every tool in our toolkit to personalise a strategy for you. Plus, we do it without lock-in contracts because we prefer to rely on the quality of your results to motivate you to do business with us again.
Are you interested in knowing how to better shape your story and improve your company’s credibility? Drop us a line and let’s connect.
