Businesses Most Likely to Trust Independent Reviews When Evaluating B2B Vendors

A study completed this Fall by The Alternative Board (TAB) revealed 68 percent of business owners believe outside reviews (done by some person or entity not related to the company) are the most important indicator of whether or not they can trust a new B2B vendor.

Vendor Trust

Many of the study participants indicated that they use a variety of factors to asses the trustworthiness of a specific vendor. While 70 percent named themselves as “somewhat trusting” at the start of the process, 21 percent said they were “somewhat distrusting,” signifying that many customers are willing to give vendors the benefit of the doubt, but B2B vendors do need to work to get their customers’ full trust.

Besides looking to outside, independent reviews to evaluate a business’ trustworthiness, 46 percent say that they look to other business owners they know for a referral of a service or product that is already working for them.

Important Attributes in Decision Making

The study also found that when asked what is most important when making a major purchasing decision, 56 percent said adding value (to their business), 32 percent wanted to increase revenue, and 12 percent wanted to reduce cost.

When looking for more information to make a decision, B2B customers said that they first look to vendor representatives, the company website, and conversations with their own colleagues in order to get a better idea of what the vendor can offer the company. When it comes to talking to B2B vendor employees, customers prefer email or phone.

TAB asked 401 business owners about their decision-making process and what qualifiers they use when deciding to trust a new B2B vendor to compile the results.

The study results can be viewed here, after filling out a contact form.

Photo via Pixabay.