The Trust Consumers Have In Businesses Continues To Decline

The degree to which consumers trust what companies say or will do about a crisis can be critical in the efforts of executives to manage and recover from disasters, scandals, and other emergencies.

But business leaders who assume that consumers trust their organizations may be in for a rude awakening when a crisis strikes. Indeed, a new survey by PwC found the gap in the trust that consumers have in companies continues to grow.

Trust Gap

According to the poll’s results:

• 90% of business executives think customers highly trust their companies, while only 30% of consumers actually do.
• That differences of 60 percentage points is greater than the 57 points PwC surveys found in 2023 and 2022.

“One reason companies may be overly optimistic about trust levels is that they don’t have internal structures in place to consistently identify where the trust expectation gap exists,” according to an analysis of the survey by PwC.

“Many companies say that they measure trust but, based on our conversations with business executives, those metrics are often subjective and don’t fully capture the current sentiment across stakeholder groups such as employees, customers and investors.

“These often include metrics such as customer satisfaction and employee engagement, which are related to trust but are only part of the picture when it comes to trust. Companies that move beyond these partial measures can better identify where they should focus,” the report said.

Distrust

Metrics are important, but so are actions and policies of organizations that matter to consumers.

One example of where companies should focus their attention is their use of AI.

A Gallup survey published in September asked people if they trusted businesses to use AI responsibly. The majority, 79%, said either “not much” or “not at all,” Business Insider reported.

A Journey That Demands Empathy

There are steps businesses can take to help increase the trust that consumers have in them.

“Restoring consumer trust in a company is a journey that demands genuine empathy and proactive engagement from corporate executives,” Courtney Haywood, CEO of Courtney Haywood Partners, said via email.

“It begins with a humble acknowledgment of past mistakes, showing consumers that their concerns are heard and taken seriously. Transparent communication is very essential, as executives must openly share what went wrong and the effective plans that are in place [to] make things right.

Transparency

“The best way to restore consumer trust is to be completely transparent and honest about whatever crisis or mishap has happened. Don’t skirt around it or give typical corporate speak, because people see right through that. Be willing to share some insights and vulnerability,” Jeannie Assimov, head of content and communications at Way, a car ownership platform, said via email.