Data use is key to trust

Brands that earn customer trust are rewarded by more sales, loyalty and positive recommendations – and new research reveals better use of data as the key building block. 

Why it matters

Seven in ten UK consumers are ready to stop purchasing from a company altogether if their trust is broken, according to Adobe’s survey (of 2,017 consumers, 409 marketing practitioners and 181 marketing leaders); more than half (54%) claim to have stopped purchasing from a brand in the last year for that reason.

How brands compromise trust

The top three reasons customers left a brand during the past 12 months were because: 

• They are creepy (49%) – tracking consumers online/on mobile devices without permission, sending emails/other communications when consumers don’t remember giving them their information. 
• They are annoying (39%) – sending too many communications, not being clear about their privacy policies or what they do with consumer data. 
• They do not listen (39%) – continuing to send ads or communications even after people have opted out. 

 How customers demonstrate their trust in a brand

• Making more purchases (71%)
• Recommending to friends (61%)
• Joining a loyalty programme (41%)
• Posting positive reviews or comments on social media (40%). 

What brands can do 

There’s a digital experience gap to be addressed: almost all (93%) British marketers believe they are either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ at delivering personalised experiences at scale, but only 3 in 10 (32%) customers say the quality of digital experiences has improved over the past year (although younger people are more likely to rate their digital experiences higher).

Changing that will revolve around how marketers use first-party data that customers have willingly shared. But the fact that 43% of businesses have only recently been prompted, by changes in privacy regulations, to develop a first-party data strategy suggests that their understanding and use of first-party data is still in its infancy. 

Sourced from Adobe