What role does trust play in customer experience, and how can brands rebuild trust after a significant failure?
As many of us are familiar with - how you recover the service when something goes wrong, is one of the best things you can do to create advocates. Most companies have good CX when things go well, but the true test of a brand is when something doesn’t go wrong. This in itself builds the trust, that even if something goes wrong, this is a Brand I can trust to do the right thing by me.
I think where it’s feasible going above and beyond just fixing the issue is the best way to do that, considering long term gains and seeing this as an opportunity, not just a short term cost. The risk is always not doing enough. I’ve sat through a few crisis moments in my career - and when the response is not equal to the impact, it has considerable long term effects. The cost of rebuilding a brands trust, when not handled appropriately at the time, is so much greater. I would always encourage CX professionals to be at the table of any crisis discussions - and consider the impact of every element of a response.
Building trust after the fact, is harder - but possible, building trust slowly over time through consistency and genuine improvement. However hard to do, if customers have already left.
+62the 2 most important things one can (should!) do after a failure is:
- authenticity: be open and honest in your communication. Avoid shifting blame, rather focus on empathy, apologize and assume responsibility for the follow up
- walk the talk: make 100% sure whatever promises are made and expectations expectations generated, that these get delivered on. On time and if possible over compensate.
A particular favourite of mine when it comes to failures is the Service Recovery Paradox. Every failure is an opportunity!
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