(Source:http: //www.dtes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/airbnb-a8707ed9_original.jpg)
In class, we had a lesson on the importance of establishing trust between companies and consumers. With respect to marketing, trust is one of the most important ingredients to success and also the hardest to earn.
Most of sustainability marketing and the outcomes are intangible. One cannot physically measure the full extent of reducing CO2 emissions or avoiding waste from a landfill.
Before watching Joe Gebbia, Co-founder of Airbnb’s TED Talk, I personally thought these elements were essential to establishing trust in a company:
- 3rd party labels
- word of mouth (WOM)
- brand associations created from visual elements
Joe Gebbia’s background is in design and he knew from the beginning of Airbnb that establishing trust came in the design of the app. For anyone that’s ever used the app, it’s simple to use and prompts for specific details about ourselves.
As a result of trial and error, Airbnb’s customer exchanges are based on user reviews and personal details – both of which combine to establishing trust between guests and hosts. Enough trust to share one’s home.
Learning from Airbnb, I’m curious to explore how these elements of word of mouth and dialogue can be used to establishing trust in other products. Yes, there are third parties that explore this, but few companies engrain WOM and dialogue in every user experience.
I’m picturing a clothing shopping experience where we aren’t prompted with sales associates and instead previous reviews and words of advice to future buyers and basing our wants off of these descriptions.
There is no textbook definition on how to earn trust. But we do know is how easily it is to break.
Great post Shomas! I felt drawn to read this when I saw ‘Airbnb’, because I hosted my apartment all summer, so I completely understand what you’re talking about when discussing trust. It was honestly nerve-wracking to imagine strangers sleeping in my bed and *potentially* burning down my home, but the way Airbnb allows you to have dialogue with guests before you accept them (and review their profile- even check if they have identification verification) makes it so much less scary. Honestly looking back, I put SO much trust in Airbnb- but trust is completely vital to their business. It definitely can be tricky to imagine other products engraining WOM + dialogue, especially if their core product doesn’t absolutely require trust to succeed like Airbnb does. When you talked about shopping and reviews/words of advice, I immediately thought of Amazon- maybe Amazon-esque shopping will be the future!