aheadCRM - Blog #Edelman Trust Barometer

The Edelman Trust Barometer: From Innovation Anxiety via Grievance to Insularity

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 17:52:44 -0500

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer is out. What do its results mean from a #CX angle?

Based on the trajectory from Innovation Anxiety (2024) to Grievance (2025) and finally Insularity (2026), we can see five critical impacts on Customer Experience (CX). The data suggests that CX strategies must pivot from purely functional service delivery to acting as engines of trust, fairness, and local connection, i.e., become more strategic (pun intended).

The Shift to "Polynational" CX: Localizing the Experience

The 2026 report identifies a sharp rise in "Geopolitical Insularity," where consumers (i.e., people) significantly distrust foreign companies compared to domestic ones.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2026, p6

Impact: Global brands cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all customer journey anymore. They must adopt a "polynational" model where the brand feels deeply local.
Actionable CX Strategy: To overcome the distrust of foreign entities, companies must demonstrate long-term commitment to local communities. This includes hiring customer support staff from the local community (38% say this earns trust) and investing in long-term local projects (27%) rather than just transactional interactions.

MyPoV: Zoho does something very right with its strategy of transnational localism. Many companies, including enterprise software vendors should have a hard look at this book.

AI Implementation Must Be "Vetted" and "Inclusive"

The reports reveal a deep divide in how customers perceive technology. In 2024, acceptance of innovation hinged on it being "vetted by scientists" and understood by the public. By 2026, a new fear emerged: 54% of low-income respondents believe they will be "left behind" by generative AI rather than realize its benefits.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2026, p12

Impact: Implementing AI in customer service (e.g., chatbots, automated resolution) carries a high risk of alienating low-income and skeptical customers if not managed cautiously and with extreme transparency.
Actionable CX Strategy: Prove safety and benefit. CX messaging must explicitly demonstrate how innovations lead to a better future for the customer, not just efficiency for the business. Apply a scientist-led communication. Because scientists remain among the most trusted figures (76% trust, p45) while CEOs and government leaders are less trusted, technical experts should explain product innovations and safety features to customers, rather than corporate executives. Financial and food/lifestyle influencers might be a good help in achieving this, too (see below).

MyPoV: This is highly depending on being trusted. Businesses must show their credibility by communicating values and demonstrating that they live them. That is a core source of trust. So, businesses must communicate the benefits for customers while actively showcase them.

The Definition of Value Has Shifted from "Affordability" to "Local Security"

The consumer view of "fair pricing" has evolved from a demand for economic justice to a protectionist value proposition. While 2025 marked a demand for lower prices to offset systemic inequality, 2026 reveals that over a third of consumers are now willing to pay higher prices if it guarantees the reduction of foreign influence and protects national autonomy. Value is no longer audited solely against inflation, but against the safety of local jobs and protection from external threats like AI and trade conflicts. But bear in mind that the sentiment of the system being rigged, which drove the 2025 view on pricing, remains the foundation of the 2026 mindset.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2026, p18

Impact: Customers are at the moment applying a "Geopolitical Filter" to their experiences. They are auditing brands not just for price and convenience, but for their physical contribution to their local economic safety.
Actionable CX Strategy: To overcome the barriers of insularity and the distrust of foreign entities, global brands must abandon "one-size-fits-all" efficiencies and adopt a "Trust Broker" CX strategy (see also next point). This approach focuses on proving local allegiance and facilitating connection rather than just delivering a product. with de-escalation techniques that validate the customer's economic reality.

MyPoV: This ties directly back into transnational localism. While being global matters (after all, customers continue to look at prices with a grievance lens), local commitments are important.

The Demand for "Trust Brokering" in Customer Relations

With 70% of the global population holding an "insular trust mindset" in 2026 (unwilling to trust those different from them), there is a breakdown in shared reality. However, customers are demanding that institutions bridge these divides.

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2026, p28

Impact: Brands are expected to be "Trust Brokers." The act of listening is no longer passive; it is a primary trust-building activity.
Actionable CX Strategy: Listen! Across all three years, "hearing our concerns" and "letting us ask questions" consistently ranked as top requirements for building trust. Be a neutral ground. When responding to divisive social issues, 35% of consumers say a business earns trust by "encouraging people to cooperate on finding solutions without taking a side," which is more effective than supporting a specific position (28%), p26.

MyPoV: It is not only about listening and addressing the customers' concerns. It is also about having values and acting according to them. Some of the current skepticism toward tech companies comes from them being perceived as treating their values as somewhat arbitrary.

Leveraging "My Circle" for Validation

There is a massive decline in people seeking information from opposing viewpoints (-6 points globally in 2026). Trust has migrated to "someone like me," "my neighbors," and "my coworkers".

Source: Edelman Trust Barometer, p14

Impact: Traditional top-down corporate messaging is losing efficacy. Customers trust peers and specific influencers over corporate spokespeople.
Actionable CX Strategy: Influencer Partnerships. 57% of people say that if a trusted financial influencer endorsed a distrusted company, they would reconsider trusting that company. Even more would do so, if a trusted food and lifecycle influencer did so (p 34). CX strategies should integrate trusted niche experts to validate products. Employee Advocacy: Since "My Employer" is the most trusted institution (78% in 2026, p28), companies should empower their own employees to be brand ambassadors. Employees are seen as credible voices and can bridge the gap between the corporation and the customer.

MyPoV: "People like me" and "companies like me" are trusted for a long time. While "influencers" are often trusted by people, businesses need to make sure that they themselves team up with the right influencers, i.e., influencers that share beliefs that correlate to the business's values.

What do you think? How should businesses address these developments?

Trust in Crisis - Customer Experience is the Way Out

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 23:29:17 -0500

Trust is eroding. Not only in governments and media as we could clearly observe but also in independent organizations like NGOs and businesses. And in business leaders, experts, even into the famed ‘people like me’. According to the recently published 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer NGOs and businesses are barely not distrusted. Especially businesses are now on the brink of distrust. They are often seen as part of the problem: While Automation may be good on a society level there are vital job concerns for individuals. Wealth distribution becomes increasingly unequal. While societies improve economically this is not felt on an individual level. In fact, amongst those who think that the current social-economic system is failing only NGOs are not actively distrusted. On the other hand amongst those who are uncertain about the current system businesses are the most trusted entities. So there is a way! Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2017

A Focus on Customer Experience Guides on the Way

The trust barometer lists as the 5 most important actions that businesses can take:

Treat your employees well
Offer high-quality products/services
Listen to your customers
Pay your fair share of taxes
Engage into ethical business best practices

Although one doesn’t need to fully agree with these findings, which are partly overlapping, the points have two things in common: They are key ingredients of a positive brand image and of good customer experience. These five points are also about company values and the culture lived by the company – as opposed to the one that is written down. A positive brand image is a result of good customer experience. And here is how it helps.

Treat Your Employees Well

There is little doubt that employees are the ones who are providing customer experiences, be it on the shop floor, in a sales or marketing capacity, or in customer service. Even in back office capabilities – following the thought that a business’s reason for existing is fulfilling customers’ needs. A highly motivated employee is far more likely to give good experiences than an unmotivated one. Employees that have clear responsibility, authority, and accountability, who are recognized for their good work, feel paid well for their efforts, compared to other people, and have the tools at hand that help them doing their job tend to be more motivated. Employees who feel forced to create phony bank accounts, will do so, making only the employees responsible does not help – and employees are the most trusted people within a company. So it pays off to keep them engaged and invested into the company.

Offer High-Quality Products and Services

I do not fully agree to this one and would prefer to speak about value. The quality must be high enough to meet customers’ expectations and of the value that they intend to get out of what the company offers. So the key is quality in relation to price. Customers want to get a solution to an issue at hand. Be it preparing the next meal, getting from A to B, or implementing and running an enterprise software system. A customer’s positive assessment of the value of a solution, well after the transaction(!), makes for a good experience.

Listen To Your Customers

Continuing on the thought that customers do want a solution for an issue at hand and that a business’s purpose is to provide good solutions, it is important to not only focus on ‘completing the transaction’. Instead companies need to consider how their customers are behaving, what they are doing and saying – pre- and post transaction. And this consideration needs to lead to adaptations to products/solutions, and services as adequate to fulfill both, the customers’ and the business’s needs. Customers get their value only after the transaction, by leveraging the solutions and services. This requires constant interaction. Positive interactions and the perception of creating sufficient value out of the earlier expense are the ground for good customer experiences.

Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes

People are sensitive to companies’ business practices. Paying taxes is part of these, and paying a ‘fair share of taxes’ is regarded as a commitment to the society that a company is part of. Not paying taxes by using international loopholes is considered greedy, and might also lead to dead capital that cannot be used to full advantage to provide an improved customer experience. And it leaves a bad taste with the customers, especially when combined with record-breaking profit announcements. Look at discussions about Apple, Google, and Facebook, and many more. Not everything that is (or appears to be) legal is also legitimate.

Engage Into Ethical Business Best Practices

This one is similar to, but far broader than, the tax topic. It also covers sustainability, paying fair prices to suppliers, not abusing market power, and delivering up to promise. Company culture, too. One can consider topics as diverse as privacy, destruction of rain forests, water rights, acknowledging IP, phony bank accounts, or defeat devices in automobiles, and many more here. A part of the brand image (and value) still lies in ‘a company like me’. And many people prefer to make business with companies that exhibit ‘moral behaviour’ and not greed.

My Take

The Trust Barometer clearly shows that people want to be valued, e.g. exhibited by fairness, correct information and solutions to their needs at fair prices. Providing customers with a consistently good experience throughout the customer liftetime is the best way of demonstrating this value. Looking at relative levels of trust companies that understand this and implement an outside-in approach to serving their customers stand good chances being more successful than businesses that continue an inside-out model.