[Editor’s Note: Stein Broeder, a marketing executive at Microsoft, explores the components and value of trust in the new book, “The Business of Trust: How Experiences Build Trust and Drive Business Impact” Excerpt published with permission.]
“Do you trust me?”
This was a question a surgeon once asked me prior to a procedure. I thought it was a funny question. But upon reflection it underscored something very fundamental. It was only funny because he asked the question. The answer was yes, and that was implied. That same implied trust is the reason you are reading this book.
Just about every action we take, no matter how mundane or how critical, on some level, involves trust. Trust is so woven into the fabric of our lives it is rarely discussed. As Warren Buffet pointed out, it is like the air we breathe, rarely noticed, but when it is absent, when trust is broken, everyone notices.
“Trust is not an issue; it is the issue.”1
Nowadays, trust is indeed the issue. Trust is being broken right and left. Read the headlines. Look at your social media feed. There is a crisis of trust.
And what is one of the primary culprits? Technology.
As technology introduced many conveniences into our lives, it also introduced increased complexity. And the pandemic we are collectively experiencing magnifies the need to reduce that complexity and to bring us meaning. The leaders and organizations that figure out how to navigate this complexity and how to build lasting relationships with the employees and customers are the ones that will succeed.
This means you need to be proactive about earning and nurturing trust from your employees and your customers. And if you happen to break it, you will need to know how to rebuild it.
“Nurturing trust is a constant endeavor, yet one that can be derailed in the fraction of a second. This is especially true in the digital age, where social platforms act as catalysts for spreading information, and search engines are permanent collective memory.”2
Techlash
“Techlash” was term coined by The Economist that describes a strong negative reaction or backlash against the largest technology companies, or their employees or products, according to Dictionary.com.3
This phenomenon was initially described as hypothetical or theoretical but has now become very real.
If you use technology in any form, you have undoubtedly felt some of the emotions that have led to the “techlash” phenomenon which was born, in part, from actual events.
“[I]ncluding, among others, the revelations Russia used social media platforms to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections, Cambridge Analytica misused Facebook data for political purposes, and Google was investigated for antitrust violations. Panic spread on a parallel track as new technologies such as deep learning, certain forms of artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous vehicles came to be seen as both transformative and imminent.”4
While the effects of “techlash” have been felt by just about everyone, people aren’t abandoning their phones, computers, or the internet. However, people have become more cautious and more skeptical. According to the 2019 Edelman Brand Trust Survey 45 percent of consumers say they would never again trust a brand that is unethical or suffers a controversy, and 40 percent would never buy from that brand again.5 To make it real, Uber is a good example of a brand suffering from a lack of trust. Its brand index rating plummeted by 141.3 percent in 2017 when it disclosed its data breach.6 Anecdotally, I can tell you I stopped using its service because of its mishandling of data, and I know many friend and colleagues that did so as well.
“In fact, if a breach is poorly managed, consumers are likely to lose trust, dissociate from the business, tell their network about the breach, and shop with a more secure competitor.”7
In addition to lost trust, organizations need to think about the ripple effect. People like to talk, especially about good or bad experiences. It relates directly to having their information stolen because of a data breach:8
- 85 percent tell others about their experience
- 33.5 percent use social media to complain about their experience
- 20 percent comment directly on the retailer’s website
And it isn’t just consumers who can lose trust. It can also happen in the business-to-business world as well; because at the end of the day, businesses are run by people.
This example again finds Facebook in the crosshairs. As a direct result of its lack of addressing advertiser concerns regarding the spread of hate messages, one thousand brands attached themselves to the #StopHateForProfit movement. This list of brands that participated ranged from small businesses to the big spenders like Disney, Microsoft, Starbucks, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Unilever, Ford Motor Company, The North Face, Ben & Jerry’s, and Levi’s. A Pathmatics study found Facebook’s top one hundred advertisers spent about $30 million less in July year over year. Even for Facebook, that’s a significant hit to the bottom line.9
When you examine the cause of “techlash,” it can be traced back to one thing: the proliferation of data.
Currency
Data is vital to a brand’s success, but data is not the new oil. This mantra is deceptively simple.
While true that data, like oil, powers much of the technology we use today, unlike oil, it is more susceptible to misuse by bad actors. And the examples of the misuse in our present highly connected information networks elevate the importance of trust. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Uber’s data breach cover-up, and Google’s data privacy issues are all examples.
Fundamentally speaking, a company’s data is worth a vast sum, but only to that company. It would never sell it to the competition. Sure, there are companies that sell things like location data, but for the most part, first-party data stays with the company where it was generated. And if used appropriately, this data ultimately benefits the consumer in the form of personalization. This then helps to build trust.
My research has shown that trust is the most important asset for a company, even more important than data. Trust is the currency, and experiences are how we transact trust. So how do brands build up their trust banks? Through delivering meaningful and memorable experiences with lasting impact. People will give you their trust if you give them the right experiences.
And leaders need to be thinking about every possible experience. Every interaction is an opportunity.
Opportunity
Earning, building, and maintaining trust is exactly what leaders need to focus on. Evidence shows they are aware of what they need to do. According to 76 percent of global marketers, trust is important to keep consumers buying their brand.10 Beyond the table stakes of privacy and security, 47 percent define trust as brand loyalty, and the same percentage define trust as customers being brand ambassadors.11
The question is, how?
Trust is a funny thing. From a neuroscience perspective, we want to trust.
“The willingness to trust others is built into our DNA. Working together has always been key to the survival of our species. Having faith in one another is in the best interest of both the individual and the collective—especially in times of risk and uncertainty.”12
From a fundamental perspective, trust is woven into the fabric of our lives. It permeates just about every action we take and every interaction we have.
“Trust; the reason behind stability of global financial markets, the motivation for rise of political parties, the human trait that makes placebo drugs effective. Trust has always been the foundation for durable relationships, the power at play in the development of every positive aspect of our societies.”13
It is the fundamental principal that rules how we interact with each other. The question is, how can leaders and organizations seize this opportunity? Through purpose and values.
Values drive value, according to MJ DePalma, Head of Multicultural & Inclusive Marketing at Microsoft Advertising. And they do so by building trust.
Trust is the foundation on which every business, organization, or team should be built.
Excerpted with the permission of the publisher, New Degree Press, from The Business of Trust by Stein Broeder. Copyright © 2020 by Stein Broeder. All rights reserved.
