Recently I was in a world leading banking conference in Paris.
Probably one of the most discussed words among leaders in financial services was ‘trust’. Banks want to earn customers’ trust.
Yesterday I had this moment that evoked a new thinking on gaining trust. I uploaded my LinkedIn mobile app, that routed me to the new privacy policy – that often appears as pages of legal statements followed by a meaningless ‘agree’ button.
But this one was different.
It was the most human, most engaging, simplest way of communicating privacy policy. What blew me away is that LinkedIn turned this easily ignored moment into something memorable that created reason to trust the brand.
This brought me to this conclusion.
Gaining trust is not about doing big things, such as PR or campaign.
It starts with communication – in the corner of easily forgotten, or areas where complexity is just assumed as default.
Having led many projects in financial services to turn legal documents into documents that communicate in plain English, I know how hard this process must have been for LinkedIn. Yet they did it well. And they went even further by empathizing users through humanized language and putting a great effort to summarize the contents. That earns customers’ trust.
Look at your fact sheet. Look at your terms and conditions.
Perhaps you are ignoring them to stay as it is while wanting to earn customers’ trust.
Put a great effort to make it simple in the eye of a customer.
Nothing is too small. Gaining customers’ trust starts from here.
Trust is such a key enabler, or discourager for the digital generation. In a world full of transparency, simplicity and designed experiences, they see complex legal disclosures like those most banks, insurance companies and credit cards have as ‘hiding’ the truth. Not a good foot to start on with a new customer.
The mistrust escalated during the 2008/9 financial crisis, where many consumers found ‘loopholes’ or ‘back doors’ i products, as banks recalled loans, foreclosed on homes and raise APRs.
Simple, easy to read disclosures have built strong brand loyalty and trust for brands like Simple, Fidor, Betterment and Square.
Transparency is the new Green. Companies that hide behind complexity will be called into question by a generations that demands more.
So true that The digital generation won’t tolerate complexity, demands higher level of transparency. If they don’t understand t&c they won’t just buy with one eye closed.