Brits buy more from brands they trust and ditch those they don’t

71% of UK customers are willing to stop purchasing from a company altogether if their trust is broken, according to research from Adobe.

At the same time, however, the data also shows that the rewards for building better customer relationships through trust are significant.

Adobe surveyed 2,017 consumers in the UK, along with 409 marketing practitioners and 181 marketing leaders (SVP or higher).

The main ways customers demonstrate their trust in a brand is by: Making more purchases (71%); Recommending to friends (61%): Joining a loyalty programme (41%); Posting positive reviews or comments on social media (40%).

The top three reasons customers left a brand during the past 12 months were because: they are creepy (49%); annoying (39%); and they do not listen (39%).

If a brand oversteps the mark, customers are more than willing to take their business elsewhere: 54% stopped purchasing from a company last year after their trust was broken. Younger generations are the least likely to forgive a breach in trust.

Alvaro Del Pozo, Vice President of International Marketing at Adobe, says: “If customers lose trust in the brand they are buying from then, as our research proves, they are highly likely to walk away and take their money with them.”

“To earn and maintain trust, businesses have a responsibility to build more direct and personal relationships with them, by using customer data in a transparent and responsible manner, and that ultimately starts with marketing.”

When it comes to how their data is used, the research shows that customer expectations are reasonable and achievable, with ‘asking permission to use their data’ ranking as the most important thing a company can do to earn their trust (45%).

Their next most important consideration is more ‘open and transparent’ use of their data (40%), closely followed by having more ‘control over their data’ (39%).

The research also shows a gap has emerged between how highly brands rank themselves and differing customer opinion.

In fact, despite the fact 93% of British marketers say they are either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ at delivering personalised experiences at scale, only 32% customers say the quality of digital experiences has improved over the past year.

With the third-party cookie landscape soon to become obsolete, brands are shifting their focus to first party data strategies to earn customer trust, building more direct and personal relationships with their customer, based on data they have willingly shared.

The good news is that 85% of British businesses already possess a first-party data strategy, with 42% saying it has always been a top priority.

However, 43% were prompted by recent changes in privacy regulations to create one, suggesting their understanding and use of first-party data is still in its infancy.

And, while many brands remain sensibly cautious about data governance (90% of UK respondents express some level of concern about complying with customer preferences and government regulations), the majority of businesses understand the importance of data compliance and preparing for a first party future, with 67% of UK marketing leaders saying their executive team prioritises data governance.

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