Trust and the 20 second hug

We found this interesting headline the other day:-

"A hug that lasts 20 seconds releases Oxytocin which can make someone trust you more" (www.unbelievable-facts.tumblr.com)

There are lots of articles around the web associated with the benefits of Oxytocin  - the challenge for businesses is how do they generate a virtual hug with existing and potential customers.

Chime's recent Power of Good research showed that of the 3 Good aspects consumers look for in brands, ENGAGEMENT (or Brand Warmth) was the hardest to score highly in.

Brands that managed this, such as Samsung, Waitrose and Warburtons, make great efforts for their customers to be able to interact with the brand at many levels, getting to know what the brand stands for and understanding how they can get involved beyond just buying products.

Pets at Home also were seen to perform well in this area- of course they, through their open door policy for owners bringing their pets into stores, do get the opportunity to hug the end customer!

If you want to find out more about the work we have undertaken around Trust, please click here.

Background to the Trust Accelerator

Wherever you look in the media today trust seems to receive a battering. We just need to mention the names and you will know the details – Horse meat, LIBOR, Jimmy Saville, data protection at NOTW, Starbucks tax issues.

People, brands and authorities at one time trusted and held in regard, have their reputations under the microscope. The political arena has always been susceptible to scepticism, the sense now is that this pervades many areas of society. It is now much easier than ever before to pick up an opinion, pass it on and voice our own opinions in a wide, publicforum. Stakeholders feel more empowered to give their views. With more transparency comes more questions. With more questions comes more suspicion. More suspicion leads to lower trust. If we encounter it in one area of our lives then it can quickly create suspicion in others too.

With consumers demanding more from organisations and an increase in availability of new experiences and products both on and offline, those crucial elements of corporate trust and recommendation become paramount and yet are more tentative than perhaps ever before.

 Taking trust as our inspiration, Chime Insight & Engagement has been working to understand what trust means to today’s consumer, and how they value it using a unique metric called The Trust Accelerator - a tool designed to help organisations identify and measure the strength of trust in their business, what the key drivers are and how to benchmark that data against competitors and other industries.