Today, we continue our partnership with Forbes by powering the inaugural Forbes Best Brands for Social Impact 2023 list, which captures the brands selected most by consumers for their overall trust and values,  support of their communities, sustainability practices, and social stances. We congratulate the 300 businesses that stand out from the more than 2,200 brands within the HundredX coverage universe. These rankings are calculated based on millions of customer-reported interactions, combining customers’ sentiment towards the Brand Values & Trust driver of customer satisfaction overall, along with sentiment towards  'Sustainability,’ ‘Social Stances,’ and ‘Community Support,’ specifically.

Why Brand Values & Trust Matters

HundredX data suggests the most successful modern corporations need to deliver a combination of top-tier customer experiences and social impact that matters to customers – 'performance & purpose.’ Companies that do both are more likely to retain customers loyalty and drive sustainable, long-term growth.

Earlier this year, HundredX powered the Forbes Customer Experience All-Star List, covering performance, as measured by customer satisfaction and treatment of customers. The Forbes' Best Brands for Social Impact 2023 list covers purpose, double-clicking into the Brand Values & Trust driver of customer satisfaction to identify which brands have the most positive societal impacts, as determined by their customers.

The relationship between Brand Values & Trust and consumers’ Future Purchase Intent is notable. Only 22% of customers call out Brand Values & Trust as a key reason why they are positive or negative about a brand when providing their feedback on brands across our coverage universe. However, when it IS called out, it has the second highest impact on whether a customer intends to purchase or use that brand’s service or product more, less, or the same in the future relative to all the factors we track. The purchase intent for customers that select Brand Values & Trust as a positive is 18% higher than those who do not select it at all, and it is 49% higher than those who select it as a negative factor.

When providing feedback to HundredX, customers share all the reasons they believe Brand Values & Trust for their chosen brand are either positive or negative. The chart below shows 'Treatment of Customers' as the most selected reason.

The data suggests that brands should reconsider their approach on how to get the 78% of customers who currently do not consider Brand Values & Trust a distinguishing factor,  to view it as one. This would lead to a significant opportunity for businesses to capture a larger market share.



Upon analyzing customer comments on Brand Values & Trust, it becomes evident that achieving this shift it is by integrating positive social impact strategies into a brand's business — starting with the way customers are treated on a daily basis.

The Power of the Crowd

At HundredX, we believe that listening to real customers — or "The Crowd" as we like to say — is essential to achieving both performance and purpose. Our data-powered solutions help business leaders make smarter, real-time decisions and navigate the rapidly evolving consumer landscape with confidence. We accomplish this by providing answers to critical questions, such as: 

• Where are fundamental market share movements going to happen?
• How are customers making future purchase decisions and why?
• What actions should I prioritize to increase market share growth?
• How do our values connect with our customer base?

Ready to see how your company can improve its performance and purpose? Discover how HundredX can help you with both. Book a 30-minute session with our team to review how your business compares with peers on the factors used by Forbes in the Best Brands for Social Impact list (as well as Customer Experience All-Stars list). 

Here's to continuing to make a difference together!