This is the best way to restore trust, according to consumers

Earlier this week, the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer proposed that ethics is 3x more important than competence when it comes to trust. From where I’m sitting, this felt like a bit of a bomb shell. It’s huge. It’s another compelling data point to support my perspective: The most verifiably trustworthy organisations will eventually become the most valued. They will ‘win their market’.

In late 2018, Accenture’s Competitive Agility Index revealed that trust disproportionally impacts bottom line business outcomes.

If this is the case — that ethical conduct enhances trust, and trust enhances business performance — why the f^*k are we still “selling ethics”. Shouldn’t boards, executive committees, public market investors, analysts, policy influencers and everyone else be ‘sold’ already?

I’m genuinely baffled by this.

Don’t get me wrong, I ‘get’ it’s hard. It’s confronting. It requires us to ask some of the most challenging and confronting questions we’ve ever asked. It requires us to quite literally change the way we behave on a daily basis, specifically within the context of our work.

So let me propose a really simple and effective starting point: Terms and Conditions.

In 2019, a research program that reviewed the Terms and Conditions ‘experiences’ of Financial Services in the U.S. found nothing new. Terms and Conditions suck! But, what’s interesting is the consumer research that supported this. The number one way to restore trust (in the eyes of these consumers) was to design easier to understand Terms and Conditions.

Even AirBnB, a company with a TED Talk on designing for trust, fails miserably at disclosure.

It’s for this very reason that we launched our Better Disclosure Program.

If you want to start taking steps to restore trust, we can help.

Comment if you’re interested to learn more.