Brand Trust: Why It Matters and How to Build It

Brand trust is a simple question: Will people believe in your company to do what it says it will do? It is about good products, honest communication, good experiences with customers, and how a company deals with problems when things go wrong. Trust takes years to build and only minutes to lose.

Trust today is no longer just a nice thing for a brand to have. It can directly affect a person’s decision to purchase from you. Price and trust now stand shoulder-to-shoulder, according to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report on brand trust.

The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report on brand trust found that trust now ranks alongside price and quality when people decide what to buy. The report also found that 80% of people trust the brands they personally use. With growing changes in trust for large institutions, consumers are looking more and more to the companies they interact with every day to provide consistency and reliability.

So what does it really take to develop that trust? And what if your online reputation starts working against you? This handbook explains why brand trust matters, what can erode it, and what companies can do to build and protect it.

Why Brand Trust Is a Revenue Issue

Trust can impact nearly everything in the customer journey. It can determine whether someone prefers your company over a competitor, returns after the first purchase, or refers someone to you.

Even the best product can have trouble converting customers without trust.

PwC’s 2023 Trust Survey shows how quickly trust can affect buying behavior. Half of consumers surveyed have had a trust-damaging incident with a company, and 63% of those consumers stopped buying from that company because of it.

Interestingly, poor customer service was one of the leading causes of the loss of trust. It does not always require a scandal to affect the perception of a company. One negative interaction can be enough.

There is also an enormous gap between what companies believe their customers trust them for and what consumers actually report. According to research conducted by PwC, 84% of executives believed their customers trusted them very much, versus only 27% of consumers who shared the same opinion.

That gap matters.

Strong brand trust can help a business:

Win customers who are comparing multiple options
Keep customers loyal even when prices increase
Recover more quickly from mistakes or negative publicity
Turn satisfied customers into advocates
Stand out in a crowded market

What Erodes Brand Trust?

By Studio Nova

Brand trust rarely disappears overnight. More often, it wears down slowly as customers encounter small inconsistencies between what a company promises and what it actually delivers.

Some of the biggest trust killers include:

Poor customer service. Slow responses, unanswered questions, and dismissive interactions can leave customers feeling like the company does not care.
Negative search results. An old news story, viral complaint, or negative blog post appearing on the first page of Google can shape a potential customer’s opinion before they ever contact you.
Unmanaged reviews. A string of unanswered one-star reviews can make it look like a company is ignoring its customers.
Fake or manipulated reviews. Trying to manufacture positive feedback can create an even bigger reputation problem. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission adopted a final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, including certain AI-generated reviews and undisclosed insider reviews.
Silence during a crisis. When a company disappears during a problem, people can start filling in the blanks themselves. Silence can look like avoidance.
Inconsistency. If your website says one thing, your social media says another, and the actual customer experience tells a completely different story, people notice.

How to Build Brand Trust: 7 Proven Strategies

Building trust is not about making your company look perfect. It is about being consistent, transparent, and giving people real reasons to believe in your brand.

Here are seven practical ways to do it.

1. Deliver on Your Promises

The foundation of trust is reliability.

Do not promise something simply because it sounds good in marketing. Make sure your team can actually deliver it.

If something goes wrong, address it quickly. Explain what happened, take responsibility when appropriate, and show customers what you are doing to fix it.

A company that consistently does what it says it will do does not need to convince people that it is trustworthy. Its actions do that for them.

2. Make Customer Service a Trust Engine

Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to build trust or lose it.

That includes everything from answering a simple question to handling a frustrated customer whose order went wrong.

Respond quickly. Listen before becoming defensive. Own mistakes when they happen. Most importantly, follow up.

A customer who sees a company genuinely trying to fix a problem can sometimes end up trusting that company more than they did before the problem happened.

3. Be Transparent

People do not expect businesses to be perfect. They do expect them to be honest.

Be clear about pricing, policies, timelines, and expectations. If something changes, explain why.

And when something goes wrong, do not wait until customers discover it themselves. Tell them what happened and explain what you are doing about it.

Transparency can turn a difficult situation into an opportunity to demonstrate that your company can be trusted when things do not go according to plan.

4. Let Real Customers Speak for You

People naturally want to know what other customers think before making a decision.

Encourage satisfied customers to leave honest reviews, participate in case studies, or share their experiences. Real customer stories often carry more weight than polished marketing copy because they provide evidence from someone who has actually worked with your company.

The key word is real. Do not manufacture reviews or try to make every customer sound perfect. Authentic feedback is more valuable.

5. Take Control of Your Search Results

For many potential customers, your Google results are their first interaction with your brand.

Before they visit your website, speak with your sales team, or follow you on social media, they may search your company name.

What do they find?

A strong search presence should accurately represent who you are today. That can include creating useful content, keeping business listings accurate, building out executive and company profiles, earning legitimate media coverage, and publishing content that demonstrates your expertise.

You cannot control every result that appears when someone searches your name. But you can work to make sure the overall picture is accurate, credible, and representative of your brand.

6. Show Up With a Human Voice

People connect with people, not logos.

Show customers who is behind the company. Share your team’s expertise, values, milestones, community involvement, and even some of the personality behind the business.

That does not mean turning every social media account into a personal diary. It means giving people something real to connect with.

A brand that feels human is often easier to trust than one that only talks in polished corporate language.

7. Prepare for a Crisis Before It Happens

Every business is vulnerable to negative reviews, unhappy customers, misinformation, or unexpected publicity.

The worst time to figure out your crisis plan is when the crisis is already happening.

Know who is responsible for responding. Know which issues require an immediate response. Have clear messaging ready, and establish a process for monitoring what is being said about your company.

The faster you can identify and respond to a reputation issue, the more control you have over what happens next.

The Role of Online Reputation in Brand Trust

By blacksalmon

Your online reputation can influence whether someone trusts your business before they ever speak to you.

Think about what a potential customer can find in a few minutes: Google results, reviews, social media profiles, news articles, Reddit discussions, videos, and mentions from other websites.

All of that becomes part of the picture they use to decide whether your company is credible.

Reviews are particularly powerful. Research from Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center found that products with five reviews had a 270% greater likelihood of purchase compared with products with no reviews. In higher-priced categories, reviews increased conversion rates by as much as 380%.

But there is an important detail here: perfect does not necessarily look more trustworthy.

The research found that customers tend to favor products with ratings in the 4.0 to 4.7 range rather than a perfect 5.0. A few critical reviews can actually make a collection of positive reviews feel more authentic.

That is why responding to negative feedback matters.

Trying to hide every complaint is not the goal. Showing potential customers that you listen, respond, and take concerns seriously is what builds lasting trust.

Sources

Edelman, Richard. “The New Role for Brands: From Change the World to Change My World.” Edelman, June 16, 2025.
Edelman Trust Institute. 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust, From We to Me. Edelman, 2025.
Strickland, Bryan. “Trust and Consequences: Leaders Who Don’t Listen Pay a Price.” Journal of Accountancy, April 5, 2023. (Reporting on PwC’s 2023 Trust Survey.)
Federal Trade Commission. “Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials.” FTC, August 14, 2024.
Medill Spiegel Research Center. “How Online Reviews Influence Sales.” Northwestern University.