Consumer Trust: A Key Driver For Business Growth In 2023

Forrester’s extensive research into global consumers’ trust has been tracked annually since the beginning of the pandemic. Our data shows that a consumer’s level of trust in a company drives revenue-generating behaviors such as the likelihood to purchase again, preference for a company over competitors, trial of unrelated products, and propensity to share personal data. Simply put, trust is an imperative for every company — big or small, new or old. Trust isn’t a one-and-done tactic, and it’s important to proactively build it, rather than only work on it in reaction to a crisis.

Trust In 2023 Is Essential For Business Growth

Forrester’s Consumer Trust Imperative Survey, 2023 provided insights on customers in 13 countries across three regions: Australia, Hong Kong, Metro China, Metro India, and Singapore in Asia Pacific; France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK in Europe; and Canada and the United States in North America. Globally, we found that consumers:

• Have stayed fairly trusting, even amid volatility. Even in a volatile year with the war in Ukraine, post-COVID economic turmoil, and the threats of artificial intelligence, consumer trust is remaining generally consistent — with some caveats, such as European consumers being more guarded than Asian or US consumers.
• Increasingly trust their professional networks. Consumers are relaying more trust in their colleagues and employers — even amid news headlines of layoffs or company mismanagement. Of the 13 countries we surveyed, employer trust outweighed colleague trust, with the exception of Spain. The rise of the importance of employee experience functions in companies and larger organizations is not only a key to employee retention but a reflection of your brand.
• Act when trust is lost. Trust must be continually built, or you risk backlash when a crisis occurs. Consumers will take action if trust is broken, such as warn friends/family to avoid the company or stop doing business with the company if they find a product or service error from a company that they have been doing business with for a long time.
• Reward trusted brands with their wallets. On the flip side, when a company is trusted, consumers will reward that trust with their wallets. “Doing business with a brand” is the most popular method by which consumers will honor trusted brands.

Trust Dynamics Vary By Region

Each country has a distinct cultural fabric that influences how willing – or not willing – its citizens are to trust the people and organizations around them. Forrester’s 2023 data also surfaced distinct regional patterns in how consumers trust. We found:

• APAC consumers hold a more optimistic view of humanity. Consumers in APAC – particularly Metro China and Metro India, generally demonstrate a higher baseline of trust than their European and North American counterparts.
• European and North American consumers have less faith in institutions. We asked consumers across countries to what extent they trust different entities, ranging from friends and family to commercial organizations. European and North Americans tended to be more conservative in their responses. For example, 50% of Chinese and 33% of Singaporeans believe social media companies will follow through on their promises, which drops to 18% of Canadian, French, and German online adults.
• Privacy regulations dictate how citizens protect their data. While data privacy is a global concern, our analysis revealed that regions with stricter privacy legislation are more vehemently anti-surveillance, but do less to preserve data privacy at the individual level: less than thirty percent of all European countries, except Italy, are comfortable with companies sharing and selling their personal information vs. 67% in Metro India. Yet, respondents in metro India consistently use the most tools to protect their online privacy.

This post was written by Principal Analyst Audrey Chee-Read and it originally appeared here.