Trust: The MVP of relational metrics

Like most researchers, I’ve spent a lot of my career helping companies drive retention. It’s good business sense. When customers stick around, that’s less money and time spent in customer acquisition and a signal that something about the dynamic is valuable. The hard part is most metrics (NPS, customer satisfaction, etc) are not always strong predictors of a customer’s intention to stay. So I’ve been on the hunt for something better - measuring trust.

I like the way trust shows up in the research of Susan Fiske and Chris Malone. Their work centers around the idea that humans relate to brands the same way humans rate to other humans. We also judge brands the same way we judge other humans - by our perception of their warmth and their competence.

• Warmth: what intentions others have toward us

• Competence: how capable they are of carrying out those intentions

Trust is built when consumers perceive a company to be both warm and competent. This makes people feel admiration and pride and respond with alliance. Trust is a core piece of loyalty and retention. Some studies have even shown for every 1 point increase in competence and warmth perceptions, loyalty to the brand increases by .91 points.

I’ve spent the last few years convincing companies to introduce trust measures in their experience surveys - measuring trust and using it to signal the health of our relationships with customers. From that, we generate a warmth score, a competence score, and an overall “trust score.”

I tend to agree with Thomas Kelvin, “What is not measured cannot be improved.” So I’ll keep fighting to define trust, measure it, and be on a mission to improve it.