Harris Interactive recently published a survey that measured the percentage of Americans who believe the statements made by spokespeople from certain types of companies. The results are revealing about the opinions American’s have about specific business categories. Here are the results:
Accounting Firms: 67 percent believe, 33 percent don’t believe
Banks: 62 percent believe, 38 percent don’t believe
Health Insurance: 51 percent believe, 49 percent don’t believe
Mortgage: 49 percent believe, 51 percent don’t believe
Credit Card: 36 percent believe, 64 percent don’t believe.
Where does your organization stand in terms of credibility with customers?
Piggyback PR 
My organization has to stand for credibility with its customer; after all, in the hospitality world, if people are unhappy, they tell you about it and anyone else who will listen. I worked for a commercial bank a long time ago. I quit after being told that we were not there to help people but to make money… really? Acting like a place that people can go for information and trusting advice. Guess that only comes after I open a new account with 22% interest, right?
Those statistics are not surprising to me. It’s hard to trust the people who only want your money. I am currently doing the marketing for a construction company. Credibility is big in this industry. If your construction company is know for screwing your client either by dollar amount or by scheduled time, that completely ruins your chance of working with the client again in the future. All the employees here believe in building relationships with their clients. This keeps people trusting our company, as well as recommending us to other firms. If banks, mortgage, and health insurance representatives spent a little time getting to know their clients, than those numbers of credibility would be much higher.
The last place I worked for was Nike, and credibility would depend on the subject that the spokesperson was talking about. If more news of unfair child labor practices and sweat shops involving Nike were released, I would, along with many other people, probably would be inclined to not believe what a Nike representative would say. Mostly, because they are repeatedly implicated in such practices.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/banker-insulting-waitress-tip-hoax-165556900.html
This link here is about a hoax, a phony “tip.” The receipt was said to be digitally altered, but no one believes it because the altered receipt was circulated so widely and frequently. This reminds me of the confirmation bias. You see something often enough, then it must be true. Who is more credible though, the original distributor of the photo of that receipt or the restaurant coming forward and saying it was digitally altered.
I think many would like to believe that the altered receipt really exists because it is more appealing and interesting. It spark laughter as well as disgust, and relates to the state of our economy. If it really was altered though it becomes another mundane receipt at some restaurant the only the purchaser and the restaurant owner care about. Then again, maybe that is what the Restaurant would like to be. What restaurant owner in their right mind would want such a receipt to be widely spread in the media. It is disheartening. It brings disinterest to potential job applicants.
The statistics weren’t that suprising to me, but it could be influenced by the fact that these statics are from a year ago and recently many of the categories have been cast in the news in a negative light. Which is why the numbers are what they are, when the media talks about something they choose the subject or organization that will probably bring the most drama. It is more likely that the the news will cover the bad aspects rather than the good things someone does. For my organization we’re all about credibility because we deal with clients who use us to be the face of theif company or brand. If we don’t represent ourselves well, it reflects on the brand we are promoting and so if we perform poorly then it is likely we’d never be hired again and the company would tell others about their bad experience with us.
I wouldn’t say I’m surprised either to see those numbers. Credit card companies, banks, accountants, govt, etc. are not easily trusted because of so many issues that happened in the past. Anyone who is dealing with money is technically profiting off of you, and they have their ways in getting your $, often unethically. That;s why we look at those companies with skepticism and have a hard time trusting them….
These stats do not surprise me. It takes a lot for individuals to have trust in industries and companies as well. It was interesting to me that people have trust in healthy insurance companies. I would think this would be lower with the amount of money people have to pay and the constant denials and money this industry keeps stealing from people. Credit cards have a low trust rate. That doesn’t surprise me, however many credit cards are connected with banks, so banks which a majority of people do trust.
I work for a local manufacturer and I believe since they are responsible for producing products, the are a very credible source. We make a very high-end product, so customers will know right away, if the product lives up to its name and company. They know that they can trust us because they can trust our product.