Are Consultants Trusted?

The gurus at Edelman PR published the 2006 Annual Trust Barometer, which measures levels of consumer trust in government, businesses, and other institutions. Of eleven industries tracked, professional services ranked in the top five in terms of trust in the US, Europe, and Canada. That's good news for consultants in those areas of the world.

The story is different in Asia and Brazil, where professional service firms are close to the bottom of the pack.

Overall, the most trusted industries in the study were the retail and technology sectors, while the energy industry is being battered in most parts of the world.

Edelman's study found that if people lose trust in a company, they are highly likely not do business with that company--no surprise. What's intriguing is that 33 percent of dissatisfied customers are spreading the word widely about their opinions: they are now posting their views on the Web.

Comments

[Suzanne Lowe]

Thanks for the link to Edelman's annual "Trust Barometer." It verifies much of what many of us already understand ("offer quality services, attend to clients' needs, price fairly, etc.").

But there's a nugget buried about 3/4 of the way through the report that should be of particular interest to professional service marketers. It's the graph about change in the relative importance in how people are influenced in their trust for a company: traditional media is becoming less influential than comments from "people like you and me."

It appears to me that professional service marketers are still overly focused on getting their firms' names favorably covered in the media; the majority have yet to fully grasp the tremendous importance of managing their messages in more informal networking situations.

I'm not talking here about PSFs beginning to utilize new "communication vehicles" like blogging and podcasting (which is appropriate, nevertheless). But I'd wager that in PSFs' embrace of these "new media," they are still leaving the question of TRUST off their radar screen. Kudos to the folks at Edelman for finding a way to remind us that trust starts with the individual.