How companies can build credibility in a time of skepticism.
If people don’t trust a map to provide accurate directions, they won’t use it. If they don’t trust their partner in a marriage, the relationship probably won’t last.
Many things rely on trust to survive. Without it, they fall apart.
Brian Henry, SVP and CCO of CVS Health, knows this problem well.
“We are a healthcare company,” Henry said while speaking on stage at Ragan’s 2025 Future of Communications Conference last November in Austin, Texas. “You need people to trust you when it comes to your health.”
The best way to earn consumer trust today: keep it simple.
Henry highlighted three strategies for building credibility with a public that’s grown more distrustful of everything from brands to institutions to government.
Make bold declarations
In a recent earnings release, David Joyner, President and CEO of CVS Health, said, “CVS Health is committed to being the most trusted health care company in America.”
It’s a lofty aspiration. But also a clear one. To Henry, that’s the point.
“For us, it’s a call to action,” Henry explained. “It’s an opportunity to say this is what we’re going to step up into and be.”
Any statement more nuanced or weighted down by jargon and buzzwords wouldn’t send the same message, Henry noted, whether the target audience is employees, investors, or customers.
Be consistent
Few things damage trust as much as hypocrisy. Rather than try to align conflicting aspects of a company, it’s sometimes better to part ways with them.
CVS Health did this in 2014 when it made the difficult decision to stop selling tobacco products.
“It wasn’t just because we wanted to say, ‘$2 billion? Don’t need it!’” said Henry, referring to the loss in revenue. “We were making a transition from being a pharmacy company to being a health company. It was incongruent with who we were to sell cigarettes and be a health company.”
Henry noted people still remember this decision more than a decade later. It sent a clear signal that set CVS Health apart from its competitors.
“It’s something that’s become a calling card for our company,” Henry added.
Repetition, repetition, repetition
For cultivating trust, Henry said, “it really does come down to, ‘How can I make things very simple for people to understand? How do I make it memorable? How is it repeatable?’”
In other words, a message that appears over and over again is more likely to be heard than one that makes an appearance every now and then. And if consumers forget what a company is trying to tell them after the first or second encounter, another reminder might help the message stick.
“Repetition, I would argue, is more interesting than AI,” said Henry. “That’s my hot take: The new sexy is repetition and intentionality.”
Watch Brian Henry’s full presentation on Ragan Training.
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