A Crisis of trust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

A Crisis of trust - Essay Example After the recession hit, trust has been the key in holding on to one’s place in the market. The post-recession world is one where trust delivered by the company has been ensuring brand loyalty by the consumers. But from time to time, high profile companies and organizations such as Google, Barclays, and Starbucks are surrounded by controversies not only damaging their image but also their relationship with their consumers. Controversies only find their way to the organization when the company fails to provide excellent customer service and starts rating their profits above their customers. Businesses and markets rely on the fundamental entity of trust to demonstrate stability and long term profitability. Barclays Plc. and LIBOR Recently one such example of rigged trust was seen with Barclays LIBOR scandal. Barclays is the 2nd largest bank in the United Kingdom and the 15th largest in the world. Barclays has established a strong reputation for itself over the years. But recentl y it became part of a controversy that has resulted not only in the resignation of its chief executive (Zhong, 2012) but also a fine of ?290 million (Bolger, 2012). Barclays plc suffered a serious blow to its reputation when it was found involved in lying about its LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offered Rates) rates. This resulted in Barclays illegally and unethically ending up with their consumer’s money in their pockets. ... ick Cooper of Millward Brown believes, ‘The situation for Barclays is incredibly serious; it has turned Barclays from being the hunter into potentially being the prey. That is a huge and very rapid turnaround. It would be a crying shame if Barclays disappeared but a lot of consumer trust in the brand has been lost’, (2012). In YouGov’s August 2012 poll, 17% of Barclay’s customers are considering switching their service (Rowe, 2012). Google Privacy Issues and Shattered Trust Ever since Google has been the leading search engine of the world, it has also been closely followed by issues in its privacy policy and how it handles its customer’s information and data. It is surrounded by privacy concerns in most of its products and services that it offers. A survey was recently conducted, which interviewed 1,317 people. 57% of the people were of the view that the Google Street View service was an intrusion in the private lives of the laymen (Do you know whoâ €™s watching you?, 2012). Consumers in this time of awareness are quite accustomed to their data being collected and used, but if the company does not follow adequate rules and regulations with regard to privacy management, the consumer is more than likely to show lack of trust and leave the use of that service altogether. Google has been encountering a number of privacy scandals for some time. According to the 2012 YouGov Brand Index, Google has been replaced by Amazon as the top Internet brand in Britain, due to its privacy controversies (‘Google’s â€Å"on Wane†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, 2012). Google, due to its flawed privacy policy, may be subjected to fine by the European Union as it has not fixed its privacy policy as per the CNIL request, and the EU has considered Google’s response to the request as ‘unsatisfactory’