Top 5 Reasons Why Your Brand is Losing Trust

Patti Glenn

3 min read

I often see businesses underestimate the impact of brand inconsistency on customer trust. Trust is the foundation of any successful brand. Without it, customers are unlikely to engage with your products or services. If you find that your brand is losing the trust of your customers, it's crucial to understand why.

Your brand is more than just a logo or a product—it's the sum of every interaction and impression customers have with your business. Here are the top 5 ways brand inconsistency can degrade trust with your customers and how to avoid or fix the issue.

1. Visual Style/Design

Problem: Inconsistent use of colors, fonts, and imagery can confuse customers and dilute your brand's identity.
Solution: Make sure you have up-to-date brand guidelines that clearly define your visual elements and ensure they are consistently applied across all platforms and materials through a library of assets and templates (or use a digital asset management system for large teams).

2. Tone of Voice

Problem: Inconsistent messaging and tone can make your brand seem disjointed and unprofessional.
Solution: Develop a brand voice guide that outlines your brand's personality, values, and communication style. Use this guide to ensure all messaging is consistent and aligned with your brand. Have a document of pre-written on-brand snippets that anyone on your team can copy and paste, or share with outside creatives for developing new materials.

3. Perception vs Portrayal

Problem: If customers perceive your brand differently from how you portray it, trust can be eroded or if you have a clash between your visuals and your tone of voice, that can feel in authentic to your customers.
Solution: Conduct regular brand audits to ensure your brand's personality is consistent across all touchpoints. Make adjustments as needed to align perception with portrayal. If you don't have brand styles for visual elements and tone of voice, take all of your copy and visual elements and examine it all at once. Put yourself in your audience's shoes and look for ways that elements are detracting from your story. Make sure you understand your audience's point of view.

4. Brand Messaging

Problem: Inconsistent messaging can confuse customers and undermine your brand's credibility. This is very much like tone of voice but it comes down to
Solution: Develop a comprehensive messaging strategy that clearly defines your brand's positioning, values, and key messages. Ensure this messaging is consistently communicated across all channels.

5. Customer Service

Problem: a bad customer service experience can lead to frustration and mistrust, or even abandonment of the brand. How you treat your customers along their entire journey with you will be a reflection of your brand.
Solution: Map out the customer journey and identify areas where inconsistencies or problems may arise. Implement processes and training to ensure a consistent experience at every touchpoint. The exact same thing can be said of the user experience on your website. But that's a different topic.

How Making Consistent Designs Can Help

Consistent designs play a crucial role in building trust with your audience. When your brand's visual elements, such as logo, colors, and typography, are consistently used across all touchpoints, it creates a sense of reliability and professionalism. Consistency also helps customers easily recognize and remember your brand, reinforcing their trust over time.

By investing in a well-designed and consistently applied brand identity, you can demonstrate your commitment to quality and attention to detail. This consistency extends beyond just visual elements and should also be reflected in your messaging, customer service, and overall brand experience at any point along customer interaction with your brand.

Trust is not built overnight, it's a garden that must be tended regularly at every season with a consistent effort and a genuine commitment to delivering on your brand promises, By addressing any reasons why customers may not trust your brand and implementing consistent designs, you can more easily establish long-lasting relationships with your customers.

Feeling lost? I can help guide you on your journey to a stronger brand.