Trust is one of those words brands love to use about themselves. Trusted partner. Trusted provider. Trusted adviser. Trusted by thousands.
Lovely.
But trust isn’t something you get to award yourself. You can signal it, demonstrate it and give people evidence for it, but ultimately someone else decides whether you’ve earned it.
You don’t get to write it into the About Us page, add it to a brand framework and voilà… trusted.
Trust is an outcome… and for your communications, it’s the currency that makes everything else possible.
Every time we communicate, we’re asking somebody to give us something. Their attention. Their data. Their belief. Their time. Their money. Their action.
The bigger the ask, the more trust matters. And pensions is one hell of an ask.
We ask people to believe in things they can’t see
Ah… the intangible product marketers are trained in. We ask people to put money away today for a future that’s decades away. We ask them to engage with products they don’t always understand, make decisions with long-term consequences and hand over significant amounts of personal and financial information along the way.
Then, inexplicably, we sometimes communicate with them in language that sounds like it was written by a committee trying very hard not to get sued.
Providing information isn’t the same as building trust. Neither is being technically accurate.
P.S. putting “we’re here to help” at the top of an email doesn’t magically make the rest of the experience feel helpful!
Trust is what happens when what you say and what you do add up.
There’s a reason marketers love the word “trusted”
Behavioural science helps explain why.
When people are uncertain, they look for shortcuts (our brains are efficient… some might say lazy). What are other people doing? Who else uses this? Has someone credible endorsed it?
That’s social proof and authority at work, and it’s why reviews, ratings, accreditations, awards and recognisable client names can be powerful. They reduce uncertainty.
But there’s an important difference between demonstrating trust and simply declaring it.
“Trusted by 20,000 customers” gives me something to go on. An independent five-star rating gives me something to go on. A recognised accreditation gives me something to go on.
“We’re a trusted provider” gives me… your word for it.
And whilst our brains are lazy, they’re far from stupid. So when trust feels a little too manufactured or overused – it can have the opposite effect.
So use the evidence. But don’t confuse the evidence with the outcome.
You can’t communicate your way out of a trust problem
A warmer tone. Add a testimonial. Show more smiling people. Talk about purpose. Tell everyone how transparent you are.
None of that’s necessarily wrong. But if the underlying experience is poor or inconsistent, the comms are just lipstick on a pig… so to speak.
By the way… your customers won’t write on your feedback form: “I’ve detected an inconsistency between your brand promise and operational delivery.” They’ll likely feel less confident. And with low confidence comes inaction and inattention.
Transparency isn’t telling people everything
This is another area where good intentions can go badly wrong.
Transparency is not a volume exercise: disclosing more, explaining that as well, including every possible caveat doesn’t mean it’s job done.
Good communication helps people understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, what it means for them, what they need to do and what comes next.
That takes judgement and, quite often, restraint.
Stop telling people to trust you
We should probably use the word “trust” less… it’s too important to be treated as a claim.
If you want people to trust you, give them reasons to. Be clear. Be consistent. Make complicated things understandable. Do what you said you would do. Own mistakes. And make sure the experience backs up the message.
Trust is what’s left behind when your words and your behaviour keep matching. It takes time to earn, but moments to break. So instead of saying you’re trusted – focus on giving them reasons to conclude that for themselves.
Karen Quinn, Co-founder, Untamed Consulting
