Mistrust 'Rife' in IT Sector
March 11 2004
Fewer than one in six IT professionals (15%) believe that 'most IT companies can be trusted completely', according to a new TNS survey evaluating the drivers of IT brand trust. Findings from the UK, US, France and Germany all suggest that IT professionals are wary of their suppliers.
Sixty-nine percent of IT professionals think that 'some IT companies are likely to take advantage of you', while less than a third believe they are 'honest in describing their product'. There is far more scepticism in Western Europe than in the US: 19% of American respondents felt 'IT companies can be trusted completely', compared to only 9% in the UK, 8% in France and 7% in Germany.
Results suggest that the most important factors contributing to trust are:
- marketing high quality and reliable products
- selling products and services that perform as promised
- operating a well-run company
- operating a company that is honest and has integrity
. The highest levels of brand trust are reserved for 'multi-service' providers (global IT companies that operate in a number of IT product and service categories including hardware, software and consulting), with 50% of respondents saying the brand was 'completely trustworthy'. IT service providers (global IT companies that provide IT consulting and outsourcing services) were least likely to be trusted by IT professionals - just 10% trusted the brand.
IT companies are seen to perform better on product-related drivers of trust and the people that support these products, and less well on drivers of trust that are related to the quality of the end-user vendor relationship. The latter include 'acting in the best interests of customers' and 'sharing information frankly and clearly with customers'.
According to Thomas Finkle, IT Practice MD, 'These findings suggest that the IT industry worldwide needs to do a lot to address the levels of mistrust which are rife within this business sector. While the industry has always understood that the consistent delivery of high quality, reliable products and the ability to meet client expectations are critical drivers of client trust, the findings underline the importance of communicating the stability of business operations and the integrity with which the business is run. It is also clear that IT vendors do not sufficiently emphasise these themes in their branding efforts, but rather focus predominantly on the use of technology to solve business problems'.
The survey, entitled 'The Four Pillars of Trust in IT Brands' was undertaken by the IT division of TNS, via online interviews with 830 IT decision makers in the UK, US, France and Germany between August and September 2003.
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
