Building Customer Trust — Statistics in the US for 2025

The Gist

• Trust as a CX differentiator. Customer trust is no longer optional — it’s a defining factor in customer loyalty, with transparent communication and proactive service leading the charge.
• Sentiment analysis and secure tech matter — but not universally. While 80% of CX leaders back sentiment tools, CMSWire data shows actual adoption is far lower, pointing to a perception-reality gap.
• Personalization and proactive employees are power moves. Tailored offers and staff who guide — not just respond — were named top strategies for building brand credibility.

As building and maintaining customer trust becomes integral to long-term success, US customer experience (CX) leaders are stepping up with new strategies and tools aimed at strengthening brand credibility and loyalty across every touchpoint. 

Our recent research findings highlight the latest trends shaping how companies are elevating customer experience and how the focus on authenticity and reliability is becoming a defining factor in winning and retaining consumer confidence.

Table of Contents

• Key Data Takeaways
• Which Element Most Strengthens Customer Confidence in Your Brand?
• Which Customer Touchpoint Plays the Biggest Role in Earning Customer Loyalty?
• How Do You Most Often Measure Trust With Customers?
• Which Technology Best Supports Trustworthy Customer Interactions?
• Which Employee Behavior Most Influences Brand Credibility?
• Which Content Style Is the Most Effective for Building Trust With Customers?
• Which Personalization Strategy Feels Most Authentic to Customers?
• Which Response Cadence Best Supports Customer Confidence?
• What Is Your Preferred Action When a Customer Service Error Occurs?
• Which Data Policy Topic Do Your Customers Ask About Most?
• What Aspect of Brand Consistency Matters Most Across Customer Communication Channels?
• Which External Signal Most Reassures Prospective Customers?
• Which Transparency Practice has the Greatest Impact on Customer Trust?
• The Future of CX Leadership in the Trust Economy
• Methodology

Key Data Takeaways

Expand the section below for a concise summary of research findings.

Which Element Most Strengthens Customer Confidence in Your Brand?

44% of CX leaders agree that transparent communication definitely strengthens customer confidence in their brand

Of the four key elements, one is clearly the most crucial for strengthening brand trust:

Global reports show that 60% of consumers believe trust and transparency are the most important brand traits, and that figure is increasing annually. Our audience agreed that these elements are crucial, with 44% saying that transparent communication definitely strengthens customer confidence, followed by 27% who said it might. There were, however, 28% who said that it might not strengthen customer confidence in their brand, which may be due to the type of brand or communications involved.

"In my experience, transparency is really an element of trust," said Trish Wethman, a CMSWire Contributor and chief experience officer at Pontem Technology Partners. "If you are giving [your customers] clear, accessible, relevant information, it builds trust. The relatively small 27% who are saying it might strengthen confidence need to be talking to their customers more."

Other elements that most strengthen customer confidence came in very low, with just 5% saying ethical business practices definitely do so, and 3% who said it might strengthen it. This was followed by the 1% who agreed that a responsive support team definitely strengthened brand confidence. 

Despite consistency being integral to marketing and establishing and maintaining trust, 2% were adamant that this element does not strengthen confidence in a brand, which paints an interesting picture of the divide between industry best practices and individual perception.

Which Customer Touchpoint Plays the Biggest Role in Earning Customer Loyalty?

66% of CX leaders agreed that a contact center might play a significant role in establishing customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is earned in various ways, with obvious trends emerging: 

Customers want to feel heard and understood, and their expectations now go beyond functionality. According to the CMSWire State of the CMO 2025 report, 56% of marketing leaders reported a rise in expectations for customer service interactions, making service channels like contact centers increasingly central to loyalty efforts.

There’s a huge demand for empathy, consistency and proactive support, and contact centers play a major role in delivering this. 

That’s why 66% of the audience agreed that these support hubs might play a significant role in earning customer loyalty.

That number should be a lot higher, according to Wethman.

"If you have a contact center that is interfacing directly with customers on a daily basis and you DON'T believe that it is critical in building trust with your customers, I'd like to know what business you're in," Wethman said. "This number tells me that there is still a divide between CX strategy and customer service operations in some organizations."

Thirteen percent expressed the same sentiments about company websites, while 10% said that the in-store experience was definitely the most important, 2% said it might be and 7% said it might not be the most important. 

Despite the ongoing rise in mobile use, only 2% said that this touchpoint may not play a significant role, highlighting the continued importance of human-centered interactions and the growing trust placed in contact centers as key drivers of customer loyalty.

Related Article: The New Rules of Customer Loyalty: Connection Over Convenience

How Do You Most Often Measure Trust With Customers?

80% of US CX leaders definitely believe sentiment analysis tools are the best way to measure customer trust regularly

One preferred way of regularly measuring customer trust stands out: 

Sentiment analysis tools play a pivotal role in enhancing customer experience by evaluating tone, intent and emotion across conversations. By analyzing data from surveys, social media and support interactions, these tools uncover valuable insights into customer perceptions. It’s no surprise, then, that 80% of the audience reported using them most frequently to gauge customer trust levels.

The remaining 20% definitely believe that they use direct feedback sessions the most often to measure customer trust, proving that there’s still plenty of space for highly personalized feedback sessions.

According to Wethman, the best way to measure trust is to look at business outcomes.

"Your sentiment analysis may indicate trust, but what indicates trust in reality is retention and return," she added. "At the end of the day, trust is one of the hardest things to measure with any metric, and, therefore, CX leaders need to be looking at a number of variables and overlaying that with business expertise and outcomes to determine how much their customers trust them and the brand."

Our data at CMSWire shows interest in sentiment analysis tools, for sure, but not so much at that level. According to CMSWire's State of Digital Customer Experience 2025 report, 39% of respondents currently use sentiment analysis tools, and 38% plan to adopt them in the next two years.

This will likely start to shift dramatically as the cost of entry to sentiment analysis will decrease in direct proportion to adoption of accessible AI tools, according to Wethman.

"However, is this really a branding problem?" Wethman asked. "When I talk to executives about customers, the word sentiment doesn't often resonate. It feels 'squishy' and difficult to action. Maybe we need to be thinking about — and branding — sentiment analysis differently."

Which Technology Best Supports Trustworthy Customer Interactions?

83% of CX leaders agreed that secure chat platforms are absolutely essential for supporting trustworthy customer interactions 

One technology is a definite frontrunner for supporting customer interactions:

"It has become mission critical for businesses of all sizes to be able to intelligently capture customer information, behavior patterns, understand their needs, keep data secure and manage the data and patterns to deliver personalized experiences across channels," Brice Dunwoodie, president and publisher of CMSWire, said in the CMSWire Customer Data Platform (CDP) Market Guide for 2025.

The majority (83%) of CX leaders analyzed agreed that secure chat platforms were absolutely essential technology for supporting trustworthy interactions and 1% said this technology was somewhat essential. This aligns with reports that show 70% of small business owners have reported an increase in client engagement after integrating secure chat, as this feature is viewed as a hallmark of reliability. 

In contrast, verification services were cited as absolutely essential by 7% of CX leaders, 5% said they were important, followed by 3% who said automated feedback tools were absolutely essential. This split in opinions makes it abundantly clear that secure chat far surpasses other tools, especially in an era where data privacy and customer confidence are non-negotiable.

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What Makes Secure Chat Platforms Even Better?

According to Marietta Allison, fractional customer experience principal with Sterling Hearted Consulting, businesses that strive to securely transmit and receive PII or account information need to make chat as easy as sending and receiving texts.

In that scenario, customers would be able to:

• Look back at historical messages and responses at any time
• Reengage at any point that suits their schedule; no more “we are ending the chat because we haven’t heard from you in 2 minutes” messages
• Receive message alerts that function even when the customer has navigated to another page or website.

"The tech is there now," Allison said, "but it’s shocking how few companies use it."

Related Article: Customer Trust: The Backbone of Digital Age

Which Employee Behavior Most Influences Brand Credibility?

For 33% of CX leaders, proactive guidance is the employee behavior that most influences brand credibility 

Employees help to build customer trust and brand credibility in various ways:

CEO of Blue Focus Marketing, Cheryl Burgess, said, “Employee advocates are the new authentic marketing channel for brands. By sharing helpful content that engages communities, employee advocates encourage others to share and amplify their brand’s message, leading to increased social chatter, web traffic and sales.” This also reinforces the important role employees play in building customer trust and establishing brand credibility.

For 33% of CX leaders, the employee behavior that is definitely the most significantly influential in this regard is the proactive guidance they offer, while 6% say this might significantly influence brand credibility. Active listening is the second most influential, with 24% saying it definitely significantly influences brand credibility and 12% saying it might do so. 

Lastly, empathetic language was cited by 19% as being a definite significant influence and 6% agreed it might significantly influence brand credibility, showing that the way employees interact with customers remains crucial at all points. 

Wethman, however, is not buying this data narrative.

"This rings false to me," she said. "Empathetic language can actually have the opposite effect. 'I'm so sorry' followed by 'but ...' is not going to influence brand credibility in a positive way."

Allison agrees. "I’m sorry you feel that way” is another CX buzz kill, she said.

"Or," she added, "when someone starts apologizing when nothing is wrong because that's what they were trained to do. It feels so fake."

Empathetic language is only effective when it is genuine and fits with the situation, according to Allison.

"Empathy makes the customer feel they have a reliable and truthful advocate and guide," she added. "Dare I say it in a world of stats and ROI, empathy is heartfelt. That is what makes it so powerful."

Which Content Style Is the Most Effective for Building Trust With Customers?

Detailed case studies are definitely the most effective content style for building trust for 67% CX leaders

Content plays a major role in building trust and credibility:

Case studies remain one of the most influential content formats in the B2B buying process and they’re often integral to B2C purchases too. For 67% of the audience, they are definitely the most effective for trust building, while 25% say they might be the most effective and only 2% say they might not be so. 

The only content style that is also considered most effective is thought-leadership articles, of which 3% said they were definitely the most effective and 3% might be so. 

The overwhelming majority of CX leaders who chose case studies as the most effective reinforced how much proof matters and how customers rely on real-life results.

Related Article: What Makes a Great Customer Case Study?

Which Personalization Strategy Feels Most Authentic to Customers?

82% of US CX leaders agreed that tailored product offers are the most authentic personalization strategy

One type of personalization strategy is considered the most authentic:

Personalization has become critical for brands wanting to engage and retain customers, and tailored product offers are clearly the strategy that CX leaders feel is seen as the most authentic. 

"This makes total sense," Wethman said. "But we need to be aware that personalization is becoming less of a differentiator and more of an expectation."

Personalization clearly matters. We see it clearly. According to the CMSWire State of Digital Customer Experience 2025 report, 67% of organizations have some form of personalization in place, up from 49% last year. A further 19% are budgeting to actively evaluate it.

Eighty-two percent agreed that tailored product offers are sometimes authentic and 18% said they were very much so. Considering that the Attentive 2025 Consumer Trends Report shows that 96% of customers are likely to make a purchase when brands send personalized messages, this is wholly understandable.

But personalization isn't exactly easily accomplished, even with the penetration of artificial intelligence. According to the CMSWire State of the CMO 2025 report, positive outcomes due to AI related to personalization and customer engagement lag nearly 20 percentage points behind content creation and productivity. "Although personalized marketing is a popular use case for generative AI, the gap suggests that many teams are still refining their ability to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with customers," said Sarah Kimmel, VP of Research for CMSWire.

Related Article: Mastering Personalized Customer Experience for Growth

Which Response Cadence Best Supports Customer Confidence?

49% of CX leaders said that next business day updates best support customer confidence

Rapid responses are an excellent way to support customer confidence: 

According to a PwC 2024 Trust in Business survey, 74% of US customers said that quickly responding to and resolving queries were very important in earning their trust. This proves that response cadence is crucial and explains why 49% of US CX leaders said next business day updates might best support customer confidence, followed by 40% who said rapid follow-ups may do so. 

Conversely, 11% said rapid follow-ups may not best support customer confidence, which indicates that speed alone isn’t enough. A poorly timed or unhelpful response can undermine trust just as quickly as a delayed one, highlighting the importance of a response cadence that balances urgency with meaningful support.

What Is Your Preferred Action When a Customer Service Error Occurs?

100% of CX leaders said they prefer to make a preventive promise to avoid customer service errors 

Being proactive and avoiding customer service errors is the only desired action:

When asked how they prefer brands to handle service errors, 100% of CX leaders favored a preventive promise. By taking steps to avoid issues before they happen, brands are seen as proactive. This helps to build trust by showing foresight and responsibility, assuring customers that the brand has already thought of every eventuality and created a plan to address it upfront. 

Which Data Policy Topic Do Your Customers Ask About Most?

81% of CX leaders’ customers sometimes ask about data deletion 

Data policies are a major talking point, and there’s one most-discussed topic:

Although there’s currently no comprehensive federal data privacy law that guarantees a universal right to delete across all US states, there are state-level laws, most notably in California, which has the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). However, the storing of data is something that’s obviously important to customers, and for 363,121 CX leaders, it’s the data policy topic they get asked about the most.

"I haven’t yet found a business who does this well," Allison said. "I am very curious about how those companies who get deletion requests on the reg handle it. I have found it always requires a phone call, usually a transfer to somebody who knows what I’m talking about and that there is not much followup to confirm the deletion was done."

Eighty-one percent sometimes get deletion requests, 6% always do, and 8% do occasionally, compared to 1% who never get asked about deleting data. Comparatively few (4%) somewhat get asked about third-party sharing, while 0% have questions about usage transparency. The overwhelming focus on deletion requests shows just how many customers have concerns about how their data is stored, shared or accessed long-term. 

What Aspect of Brand Consistency Matters Most Across Customer Communication Channels?

21% of CX leaders said service standards are what matter most in cross-channel brand consistency

Various aspects of brand consistency have an impact across customer communication channels:

For 68% of organizations, brand consistency has contributed at least 10% to their revenue growth. However, this consistency comprises different aspects, and for CX leaders, the aspect that matters most across channels is service standards.

Twenty-one percent say these standards might be the aspect of brand consistency that matters most, compared to the 3% who say the same about policy alignment, 2% about pricing accuracy and 1% about visual identity. There are also 33% who said that service standards might not be the aspect that matters most, as well as 40% who expressed the same sentiments about policy alignment. 

This indicates that while service standards are the most likely candidate for driving perceived brand consistency, there's still significant ambiguity among CX leaders about which elements have the greatest impact. 

"Service standards" is something you put on a slide when you're trying to explain away customer friction, according to Wethman.

"In fact," she said, "what really matters to customers is consistency in tone, messaging and outcomes. If a customer calls a contact center and gets a different answer than they received on a chat or even from a different agent the day before, the actual problem is that you have not crafted a holistic experience strategy that can be deployed easily, effectively and consistently across channels."

Which External Signal Most Reassures Prospective Customers?

7% of CX leaders thought that industry certifications would definitely reassure potential customers

External signals reassure prospective customers to varying degrees:

BBB accreditations, SOC 2 Compliance, PCI DSS and B Corp certifications give a brand credibility and reassure customers they’re getting the security, ethical standards and quality service they expect from a trustworthy business. Of all the external signals that most reassure prospective customers, CX leaders are most confident in these types of industry certifications, with 7% saying they definitely reassure customers and 1% saying they might do so. 

In contrast, only 1% said that media coverage definitely reassures potential customers, and, while it might reassure 22%, it might not reassure 43% and does not reassure 6%.

Another 1% agreed that third-party reviews might be the most reassuring, but influencer endorsements did not inspire trust, with 19% saying this definitely did not offer customers reassurance. With user-generated content being so popular and consumers generally trusting their peers over brands, this lack of support for influencers paints an interesting picture of CX leaders who prioritize formal, verified credentials over perceived popularity.

Which Transparency Practice has the Greatest Impact on Customer Trust?

34% of CX leaders said supply chain visibility has a significant impact on customer trust

From supply chain transparency to open pricing details, transparency practices have varying impacts:

Because it provides transparency, accountability and reliability, supply chain visibility is essential to building and maintaining customer trust. Thirty-four percent of CX leaders agreed, as they said it significantly impacts customer trust. This was followed by 26% who shared the same sentiments about public performance metrics.

Executive Q&A sessions drew mixed responses, with 20% saying this had a tremendous impact and 26% being less certain, saying it might have. Meanwhile, open pricing details barely registered, with 4% who said it might enhance customer trust. Overall, this indicates that operational transparency and clear accountability mechanisms carry more weight in building customer trust than promotional tactics or partial disclosures.

According to Allison, this is true across the board, not just the supply chain transparency.

Allison says companies that take customer feedback seriously — not just collecting it from customers and employees, but actually using it to make visible operational changes — can set themselves apart in the market. When organizations fail to act on feedback, or when people can’t see that anything was done, it creates a sense of futility, like their input disappeared into a void.

"It’s the old Seinfeld sketch: 'You know how to take the reservation, but you don’t know how to hold the reservation,'" Allison said.

The Future of CX Leadership in the Trust Economy

The data make it clear that customer trust building is a compound effort, but that some facets of the project have an outsized impact.

Top performers will advance customer relationships through a combination of transparency, technology, consistency and human empathy.

Today's customer experience leaders consistently emphasized the value of clear communication, proactive service and secure digital tools, reflecting a broader industry shift toward customer-first thinking. 

While opinions vary on the finer points of what influences trust most, the common thread is meeting rising customer expectations with authenticity, timeliness and consistency.

Methodology

To determine what 363,121 CX leaders' opinions in the US were about establishing customer trust, AI-driven audience profiling was used to synthesize insights from online discussions over a year ending July 7, 2025, to a high statistical confidence level of 95%.

Sourced using an independent sample of 363,121 United States CX leaders' opinions across X, Reddit, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads and BlueSky. Responses are collected within a 95% confidence interval and 1% margin of error. Engagement estimates how many people in the location are participating. Results are derived from opinions expressed online, not actual questions answered by people in the sample.

About the representative sample:

• 43% of US CX leaders are between 45 and 64 years of age.

• 58% identify as female and 42% as male.

• The largest percentage (35%) earn between $120,000 and $200,000 annually.