Every day, people buy millions of dollars worth of goods and services from companies that operate solely or partially online. Some of these goods and services are bought within seconds, others require buyers to develop some sort of affinity, or trust, for the company and its product or service.
But where does this trust come from?
Believe it or not, there are actually studies on the topic of trust that you might be interested in. The 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer and Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient (RQ) survey are just two of the more popular sources.
If you dig into the Edelman survey, you’ll find that people have historically trusted industry leaders, doctors, lawyers (mostly when it’s YOUR lawyer) and even government officials. This year’s Edelman survey brought a very new type of person to the list of people we trust.
This year, the number one answer to “Who do you trust?” was: “People like me.”
And while people are touting this “I trust people like me” trend as something new, I don’t see it as new at all. I think most people have always trusted others who have a certain familiarity to them. I think the difference is that people have developed a certain distrust of the industry leaders, et al, who used to top the list. So who does that leave to trust? Ourselves…or people like us.
In fact, there’s a quasi-famous line that’s been morphed through the personal development bookshelves for years: “People tend to like people who are like themselves.”
The fact is, trust does not come from million-dollar Superbowl ads. It doesn’t come from funny spots about cavemen, Mr. T or the truth fairy. Trust occurs between you and someone like you.
In business, trust comes from people on you front lines – the ones who interact with with customers on a daily basis. The ones who really, truly solve problems, who understand the product and genuinely believe in their work.
Richard Edelman put it very succinctly when he said “Employees are the new credible source of information. We have data that shows an employee blog is five times more credible than a CEO blog – and I say this as a CEO blogger.”
Jason Pedley is a professional copywriter and Internet marketing consultant based near Raleigh, North Carolina. Contact Jason Pedley today – mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.
