Some redemption for the big banks, but there is more work to be done…

Times of adversity can often present great opportunities for service providers to regain Trust, and financial services is no different.

In recent the weeks, financial institutions across Australia have been making moves to provide support for their customers, in the form of deferred home loan payments, reduced rates etc.

While events over the last year or so have seen the big banks lose a lot of the Trust their customers hold in them, and fall far behind the second tier providers and mutuals, there would be hope that by appearing proactive and genuine in their desire to help customers, some of this Trust would be regained.

And the evidence would appear to show that this has worked. Since the start of the year, we have seen our Trust Index for customers Main Banks improve by 11 points, but there are some marked differences across the banks. Overall, while the Big 4 have regained Trust, other providers have made even stronger gains and widened the gap further still. This is particularly true for two of the big 4.

So, despite regaining Trust, there is even more work to be done for some.

Sagacity Research 2020

If you are measuring Trust with one question, you have got it all wrong

The concept of Trust may seem simple, it is the degree to which one person trusts another. However, the construct of Trust is complex and subjective, and simply cannot be accurately measured through a single question asking the degree to which you are trusted.

To accurately measure Trust, the context must first be provided to reduce the subjectiveness of the term. One needs to assess the degree which you are trusted to do something. So not simply ‘To what degree do you trust xyz?’, but ‘To what degree do you trust xyz to do……?’.

To deal with the complexities, and provide an overall measure of Trust for an organisation, we need to ensure that we cover all the facets that make up Trust. The Trust Framework we have developed at Sagacity, and executed to great effect, does just this.

The Sagacity Research Trust Index measures Trust across a number of attributes that range from Brand Promise through to Corporate & Social Responsibility (CSR). While we have a core battery of attributes, we tailor these to each organisation, to ensure they are relevant and that we capture the right elements of Trust.

We believe this is the only way to truly measure and understand Trust in your organisation, helping provide actionable insights that the business can use beyond just measurement.