Brand Rebuilding: Communicate to rebuild customer trust

The pandemic has been a tough one for many sectors that are still in a rebuilding mode, as they are trying to reemerge from the challenging landscape of the last 18 months. What made the last year and a half a tough journey for brands was it stripped people of personal connect, often essential for building trust.

Here are some key takeaways from the #CommsChat session on LinkedIn that explored how brands navigated their communication efforts to stay relevant as they tried to rebuild consumer trust.

Bring compassion in communication

Any great customer experience requires brands to listen, learn, and respond. During the crisis, the approach becomes all the more imperative. Don’t be the brand that misses out on the basics of communication amidst a crisis. Reply quickly, honestly, and most importantly, repeatedly.

Farzana Baduel has observed that most of her clients increased the frequency of communication in the recent past to give transparency and assurance during uncertain times. “The communication has mostly been driven by empathy and purposefulness,” added the CEO, Curzon PR & Resident PR Expert at Oxford Foundry, University of Oxford.

Acknowledging the efforts of the employees and the challenges of the affected employees make the difference in whether you will succeed or fail in the long run. Additionally, creating forums where clients or customers can share their concerns and addressing those concerns on time is the most important measure amidst the crisis.

But Gabriel Torres-Brown, Head of Public Affairs, Advocacy and Communications, Johnson & Johnson forewarns brands about the balance between quantity and quality. He advises that “the thought process behind any communication must be based on the audience’s needs and how brands are responding to their commitments towards society. The rule of thumb here is to ensure their approach provides the necessarily shared value to the customers in times where they need a valuable connection the most.”

Reinforcement of a sense of hope and optimism is a symbolic gesture that will resonate with the audience for a very long time.

Empathy: A key to rebuilding trust

The public is interested in what brands have to say and people are wondering whether they can continue to trust the brands as the world reopens. Brands can create an opportunity at this time – either reposition themselves or meet –the-moment to drive greater relevancy and sustainable growth.

Are you supporting a cause? Do you care about your teams? Were you engaged in greater team-building exercises during the lockdown phase? Tell your customers about the impact you are creating. Whatever industry you’re in, do not forget to feed customers with engaging content to create trust.

Tim Bravo, Head of Global Communications, Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S believes there is no trust without transparency. Therefore in times of a crisis like this, you can’t just hide and wait for the storm to blow over – you have to show yourself. “Customers, stakeholders, fans – but also the employees – might feel insecurities that need to be addressed and dissipated. Nobody knows how this crisis will evolve or the full impact it will have had on our economy. So the only thing we can do is constantly monitor and assess the situation, build up different scenarios, and be very open and honest.”

In an attempt to reach out to a larger number of people, Twitter, Facebook, Shopify, and Google announced their permanent remote-work policy till the end of the year. This is a visible precedent that changes are not just for the pandemic period.

Brands are keeping their ecosystem cohesive and managing to keep themselves afloat during the crisis but wondering how can they ensure their reputation and relationships keep strengthening rather than weakening during this period.

A simple way could be to communicate that their brand’s product and service portfolio remains relevant to the current and changed needs of the customers by engaging in stronger content play through digital channels and embedding empathy in action.

Empathy is the new currency of trust, says Farzana Baduel, who believes transformations across work, play, and communications built on the foundation of sensitivity will define the buying decision of the customers.

“Brands and organizations seeking genuine opportunities to help communities rather than being opportunistic are winning hearts and minds. Stakeholders are looking for compassion, not quests for consumers’ cash. The wider public does care about how brands and companies are treating their employees and increasingly becoming part of their purchase decision making,” she explains.

Communicate to activate the advocates internally

Leveraging the power of recommendations goes a long way. Internal marketing of your brand value to your employees lets them have a powerful emotional connection to the products and services you sell. Straightforward advocacy coming from your most valuable assets – employees – motivates customers to experience the company in a better way. In a crisis situation, getting your employees onto your side and asking them to act as brand ambassadors means doing the right thing.

A team of passionate employees can result in improved trust, reputation, and credibility for the brand. Therefore, a lot of companies are engaging employees- working remotely- with online meditation sessions, lunch and tea breaks, social catch-ups, and leadership communication from time to time. Senior leadership is also showing its vulnerable side by admitting their sense of uncertainty about the times ahead and communicating with different departments in the company to do business better.

Show how your brand is supporting the valuable employees and their families and be a positive voice for them amidst the chaos and confusion amidst the crisis. “There has been a marked increase in informality and empathy in senior leadership communications with personal anecdotes on their struggles with working from home and navigating the divide between work and family. Line managers are using the app HOUSEPARTY for ‘drinks after work’ which has a less work feel than ZOOM. Some companies are often going beyond government measures to protect and support their employees and this is particularly well-received by employees,” Farzana Baduel shared her observation.

Being intentional about your employees’ wellness will keep them motivated and focused on things they can control and sustain for your brand during and after the crisis.

Carefully crafted content strategy for the future

Once you are on a strong footing, your communication should represent the recovery process. Now that you have taken steps for your reputation management in the short term, it is necessary to assess steps to sustain the brand value in the long term.

The development of engaging and informative content that illustrates transparency and authenticity, in turn, will result in bringing the company back to a position of loyalty and trust. “Clear, crisp, concise, and compelling honest communication is determining the name of the game,” believes Gabriel Torres-Brown.

He suggests that brands can engage with clients and customers through a bank of favorable testimonials, case studies or blog posts posted regularly on their social media platforms. He further adds that digital communication has played, and will continue to play, a key part in the current scenario. Only look at Zoom that had roughly 10 million users before COVID-19 and is now a leader in video communication with hundreds of million users.

And besides relying on sound strategizing with effective execution internally, brands can count on their external communication partners aka PR agencies to help them sail smoothly through the crisis. How can your agency fit into the role?

Abhinav Kumar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, TCS recommends key areas for agencies to focus on. “Agencies can help clients with their own transformation such as assisting them to drive a stronger virtual events strategy. Help brands engage with their audience according to the changing needs so flexibility is the key. Lastly, bring in best practices & relevant ideas to deal with your client’s business challenges so they can still find new avenues of growth,” added Abhinav.

PR agency partners have trusted constituents of the communications team, and their agility and understanding are an absolute must during uncertain times.

Conclusion

Consistent communication with the customers about crucial business operations, somewhere, is the key in the current situation. The tone and relevancy of messages, in other words, honesty and transparency should be the brands’ top priority when communicating amid the coronavirus outbreak. Positive stories of change, resilience, and internal growth help inspire customers and communities, bringing back the brand trust to an upturn.

About the author

Ruchika Mehta, Corporate Director, Communications & PR at Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels & Aman Dhall, Founder, CommsCredible