Survey: Value, customer service keys to brand trust

PR pros and marketers spend a whole lot of time trying to convince customers that the brands they represent are trustworthy. Often, it takes months or perhaps years of campaigning to persuade someone to take the plunge and give a product or service a try.

It takes very little time for a customer to decide a product is not for them, however. A new survey of 1,000 consumers conducted by Tenet Partners found two key reasons for why customers ditch brands: Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they quit brands in part because they felt they weren’t getting their money’s worth, and 56 percent said a major problem was poor customer service.

The former is a complex mix of price, product quality, competitor offerings, and so forth, but the customer service piece seems straightforward. In brief, it pays off to be helpful and kind to your customers.