How can your brand build Reputational capital?

Building reputational capital does not happen overnight. It takes time to build trust, and you can do this by doing exactly what you promised the consumer. If you promise them door to door delivery, make sure it’s executed just like that. If you promise them refunds if they are unhappy with the product, refund them no questions asked.

Your brand’s ethics matter and it’s the first thing people will be talking about if you violate their trust. If you find yourself in a position where you can no longer fulfill your promises, change your policies to something that you can deliver on. Keep in mind that ‘re-building’ a brand reputation is an extremely hard thing to do – Just ask Old Mutual.

Another thing brand’s struggle to do is admitting when they’re at fault. If this is the case, you’ll lose customers faster than you can reach them. Remember your brand isn’t the only one competing for these customers. When you make a mistake, admit it and rectify it. Avoiding complaints will leave you with a tarnished reputation, word of mouth is much more powerful than we care to realise.

If someone you trust tells you about a new product or site, the chances of you feeling comfortable with it are much higher than just another ad you see on the internet. This is largely due to the fact that you trust the information because it comes from a reliable source.

So too, if someone has had a bad experience with your brand, you’ll end up losing much more than just the one customer who had this bad experience.

Take Tiger brands for example. After the listeria outbreak, they had to regain consumer trust and officially admit that it was their fault. To this day they are working harder than ever to regain consumer trust and ultimately retain their market share.