Brand trust is central to building your business. Described as the ‘make or break difference for brands’ it relates to how customers expect to have a positive experience when they interact with you. It involves consistency in delivery of high-quality products and services. But it goes further, with 53% of respondents in a <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/contact">2020 Edelman survey</a> stating trust in the brand was second in importance only to price when purchasing from a new brand.All age groups, gender and income segments saw brand trust as more important now than ever before and looked at the impact that a brand has on society, as well as how brands can protect individuals during times of uncertainty and change.<h2>What is brand trust?</h2>Brand trust acts as a signal to let your customers know that you’re worth spending their valuable time and money on. It’s invaluable, hard won and based on consistency. Your customers want you to meet their expectations, every time.As Elizabeth Arden, founder of Elizabeth Arden, Inc. said: “Repetition makes reputation and reputation makes customers.”<h3>Shoppers trust brands when they:</h3><ul><li>Deliver high quality products or services</li><li>Receive good ratings and reviews</li><li>Charge a reasonable price</li><li>Treat customers fairly</li><li>Handle any problems quickly&nbsp;</li></ul>Brand trust comes from a combination of great products, consistently good service, meaningful customer interactions, great content, and glowing <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/advanced-analytics">customer feedback</a>.<h3>Why is it important to build brand trust?</h3>People buy brands rather than just products or services. Brand trust is what distinguishes you from your competitors.&nbsp;Brands add value – we all know that a small white T–shirt from Balenciaga will cost significantly more than one from Primark.&nbsp;Brands provide peace of mind -consumers are comfortable with what they’re offering, which saves decision-making time. And they express who consumers are – we identify with them – everyone can choose whether they’re a PC or a Mac.A positive outlook on your brand, created through the delivery of consistently high-quality products and services, drives sales and creates loyal customers.<h2>How to gain brand trust</h2>Start with a clear value proposition - define what it is that you offer your customers and focus on providing that in as honest, fair and transparent a way as possible. Once your foundations are in place, then use social proof and reviews to build up brand trust.People trust people, especially when they know their opinions are the real deal. In fact, <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/business-insights/review-and-brand-growth-advice">84% of shoppers</a> trust real reviews from genuine customers even more than the recommendations of friends and family - making your customers your best salespeople.&nbsp;The more reviews you’re able to collect from your genuine customers, the more trust in your brand increases. And once you have a stream of positive reviews pouring in, you can start promoting them on your website, in your search ads, and in marketing materials to spread the word even further and continue to build a positive brand reputation.<h3>Prove the quality of your products</h3>Collecting product reviews gives you the perfect opportunity to showcase the quality of your products. <a href="https://www.edelman.com/research/brand-trust-2020">Honest reviews from real customers</a> help shoppers feel more secure they are making the right choice, as they get an unbiased view of the products on offer. <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/customer-reviews">Reading feedback</a> from other customers helps make the buying decision so much simpler. <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-acquisition">Photo and video reviews</a> add an extra layer of trust by giving customers the chance to show off their experiences firsthand.<h3>Focus on your customer experience</h3>Improving your <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/negative-reviews">customer experience</a> will create greater brand trust. Reach out to your customers to see how they feel about their interactions with you to find out where you’re doing well and where you need to improve. Feefo Surveys allow you to find out about any part of the buying journey, so you can gain insight on all your customer touchpoints.<h3>Climb the Google search results</h3>Collecting feedback provides search engines with plenty of user-generated content, which pushes your website up the rankings. Higher ranked sites show off your brand and help to build trust. As a Google Premier Partner, you can show your Feefo ratings and reviews on your Google My Business page too. If you want to read more about how reviews can help, check <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/category/digital-transformation/">our SEO guide</a>.<h3>Keep an eye on what people are saying</h3>Monitoring what people are saying about you allows you to keep track of how you’re perceived. Brand trust can fluctuate over time and Feefo’s Customer Sentiment Insight tool can accurately measure the positive and negative customer sentiment from within your reviews.    <h3>Create loyal brand advocates</h3>Reviews carry on working long after they’ve been posted. If your customers are happy enough to sing your praises in a review, they’re likely to continue to do this on and offline, promoting your brand amongst their network and strengthening your reputation. Consumers respond well to recommendations from people that don’t work for the brand and haven’t been paid, making your reviewers credible and influential brand ambassadors.<h3>Show you can deliver on your promises</h3>Reviews give you the platform to publicly engage one-on-one with your customers. providing a platform to spark conversations, respond to queries, show that you’re willing to make improvements, and let everyone know when you make those changes. Just by addressing your current customers, you’re not only more likely to keep hold of them, but <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience">attract new ones too</a>.<h3>Turn critics into advocates</h3>Believe it or not, negative customer reviews can be just as useful as positive ones. They let you know how you can improve your business and help to build on your customers’ trust. The best opportunity lies within how you go about replying – a well written response could even turn your grumpiest customer into a loyal brand advocate.Much better to receive a negative review highlighting an issue that lets you take action to address the problem than having negative feelings towards your business passed on to a customer’s friends and family by word of mouth.Collecting customer reviews lets you take back control of that conversation and use the platform to publicly respond to negative feedback and help solve the customer’s issue long before it damages brand trust. In fact, openly and honestly admitting fault, and going above and beyond to solve the issue they’ve raised, shows your company in a positive light and helps further cement the level of trust people have in your customer service.Find out more about <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/negative-reviews">responding to negative reviews</a>.With <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-retention/how-to-effectively-build-and-measure-customer-loyalty">95% of shoppers saying</a> they are more likely to be loyal to a company they trust, there’s no better time to start collecting customer reviews to build brand trust and prove to the world just how great your products and customer service really are.Nine-in-ten customers are worried about fake reviews affecting their experience with a business - which is where we come in. As an invite-only review and insight platform, Feefo is proud to only collect real reviews from your genuine customers.

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What is brand trust and how can you build it? 

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<div class="riddle_target" data-rid-id="410464" data-fg="#fddc47" data-bg="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)" style="margin-top: 0px;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: auto;width: 100%;" data-auto-scroll="true" data-auto-scroll-offset="5"><h2>What are the Trusted Service Awards?&nbsp;</h2>The Trusted Service Awards are a unique reflection of the commitment our customers make to delivering exceptional customer experiences and are awarded solely on the genuine opinions of your customers.&nbsp;Previous winners know that Feefo’s Trusted Service Awards enable your brand to stand out for your quality of customer experience, giving your consumers greater confidence, as well as inspiring your staff and improving your overall business performance.&nbsp;<h2>What are the Exceptional Service categories?&nbsp;</h2>Our Exceptional Service categories are a new part of the Trusted Service Awards which launched in 2023. The Exceptional Service badge gives your business the opportunity to go even further when it comes to delivering exceptional customer service.&nbsp;&nbsp;We've based the Exceptional Service categories on consistent service performance, customer interaction and engagement, with one award for each size of business (small, medium and large) across eight different industry sectors. That means these new awards are exclusive - we'll only select one winner per industry, per category.&nbsp;We have more information about our new categories, including eligibility criteria, <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/how-winning-a-trusted-service-award-gives-our-clients-the-edge" target="_self">in our blog</a>.&nbsp; <h2>Frequently asked questions</h2>We’ve also answered some of the most common questions we’re being asked about the Trusted Service Awards. If you need more help or have a question we haven’t answered here, please get in touch with your Feefo Account Manager or our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/enquiry/get-in-touch" target="_self">Support team</a> who will be happy to help.<h3>How do I qualify for the new Exceptional Service badge in 2024?&nbsp;</h3>There are two ways to win one of the exclusive new Exceptional Service badges for 2024. We will award one badge across eight different sectors for:<ul><li>Most exceptional small business (up to 50 employees)</li><li>Most exceptional SME business (51 - 250 employees)</li><li>Most exceptional Enterprise business (over 250 employees)</li><li>Demonstration of exceptional customer service improvements </li></ul>To be in with a chance of winning an award for Exceptional Service in 2024, your company must already qualify for a Trusted Service Award from Feefo, with additional criteria for each category outlined in <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/how-winning-a-trusted-service-award-gives-our-clients-the-edge" target="_self">this blog</a>. <h3>Do I have to do anything to claim my award?&nbsp;</h3>No – if you meet all the requirements above by 31 December 2023, we’ll notify you by email when the awards are announced 16th January 2024. Make sure you’re&nbsp;signed up to receive emails from Feefo. Please contact <a href="mailto:support@feefo.com" target="_self">support@feefo.com</a> or your customer success manager to check if you are on our mailing list.<h3></h3><h3>If I win an award, what’s the best way to promote our win?&nbsp;</h3>All award winners get access to a Winner’s Pack, which includes different assets you can use across your marketing, including social media GIFs, images and award badges. We recommend reading our guide on<a href="https://issuu.com/feefo/docs/guides_how_to_make_the_most_of_your_trusted_servic" target="_blank"> how to make the most of your Trusted Service Award</a> for inspiration.</div>

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Grabbing your customers' attention can be tough. With more competition than ever before, especially online, businesses need something to set them apart. Genuine reviews and acclaimed awards, such as our Trusted Service Award can make a huge difference.We spoke to two Feefo Trusted Service Award winners about how they use their awards to attract more customers.“Awards differentiate us from the rest,” says Stuart Rolf, Customer Service Improvement Manager at <a href="https://invopak.co.uk/" target="_blank">Invopak.</a> “We’ve won multiple awards for our customer service - local, regional and national. It’s easy to gain online reviews, but to actually win awards and maintain this consistency year after year really gives you the satisfaction that you’re at the top of your game.”&nbsp;<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_3nTWuozkSM?feature=oembed" style="text-align: center;"></iframe>&nbsp;“It’s easy to take your foot off the pedal, to accept that you offer ‘good’ customer service. But for us, we want to offer more than good. We want to offer what we call a ‘world-class customer experience’, so having that end goal of obtaining a Trusted Service Award gives us that gold achievement and gives our customers the confidence that we care about them and their business.”Beth Roach, Ecommerce Manager at <a href="https://www.museumselection.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Museum Selection, </a>also values the power of their Trusted Service Award when it comes to standing out. “I believe the Trusted Service Award allows small businesses an opportunity to shine. If you listen to your customers and take their feedback on board, your score will only improve.”<h2>Reassuring customers when they need it the most</h2>In today’s challenging financial climate, customers are cautious about where and how they spend their money. A Feefo Trusted Service Award can offer them the reassurance they need to trust your business.“As a small business, the Trusted Service Award allows us to provide confidence to shoppers,” says Beth. “Typically, our customers are not the most confident when shopping online, so to have the award gives them reassurance on their journey to conversion.”&nbsp;<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LYbAbUG8YVc?feature=oembed" width="100" height="300" style="text-align: center;"></iframe>&nbsp;“The Trusted Service Award and the reviews that are available for everyone to see gives any new customer the confidence that they’re dealing with a reputable business that does what they say they will,” explains Stuart from Invopak. “It’s based on genuine customer reviews - it’s the voice of the customers, good or bad, and we learn from it and constantly improve what we do thanks to them and their feedback.”<h2>Encouraging good businesses to get even better</h2>Our annual awards give our clients something to aim for. They serve as a marker of improvement, and prove that clients are consistently providing excellent service.Beth from The Museum Selection explains: “It gives our team something tangible to work towards whilst presenting to our customers that we do value their feedback and take it on board. It’s a huge achievement and something that the whole company works towards.The tiers of the award allow you to grow, so you can win Trusted, but what’s stopping you from working with your team to be Gold Trusted? Then what’s stopping you from maintaining Platinum?”<h2>Keeping staff motivated</h2>Of course, many of our clients proudly promote their awards externally, but those businesses who share their winning news with their team see a positive impact on staff morale too.“The first thing that you want to do is scream and shout about it externally. That’s a given with an award. But use it internally,” suggests Stuart. “It’s a massive engagement tool. It’s a real way of giving your colleagues the confidence that they are doing the right thing.“Think about your customer cycle; all the people involved in offering customer service. Off the back of achieving our award, we saw a massive change in our operational teams’ behaviour. They quickly realised that what they did day-to-day really impacted what customers thought of us.”<h2>Giving businesses endless marketing opportunities</h2>We want to see you use your awards in every way imaginable, which is why we provide our winners with a pack full of assets to use across your marketing. Our clients have seen great results by displaying their awards throughout their customer journey.“Your award is something to shout about, so presenting it at key touchpoints along the user journey will only build confidence,” says Beth. “We do use it across a lot of marketing channels. We make sure to show it in a variety of places. It’s part of every footer, it’s part of every touchpoint that the customer sees. It’s even on pay-per-click messaging.”Similarly, Invopak makes sure they get the most from their award win.“We promote it on our website, it’s on email signatures and it’s on our social media,” says Stuart. “It’s a great tool for linking into any communications we send internally and externally.”2024 will mark the tenth anniversary of our Trusted Service Awards. To celebrate the occasion, a select few clients will win our brand new 10 Years of Excellence Award, which recognises businesses that have helped transform the standard of customer service over the past decade. To read more the Trusted Service Awards and how you can qualify, visit our website.We will announce the winners on 16 January 2024. In the meantime, keep an eye out for updates across our social media channels.