TrustMark, the only government-endorsed ‘find a tradesperson’ scheme in the UK, has been working with the National Consumer Federation (NCF) over the past few months to develop their name branding, website and taking a part in the organisation of congress in April. I’ve been involved in the new ‘look and feel’, and will be implementing a marketing campaign to give the NCF a fresh approach with what we hope to be far-reaching outcomes for consumers.
Working with the NCF to date has been a pleasure for us. The organisation has up until now developed some fantastic initiatives for consumers, but it’s been a struggle to build the brand identity and grow it. With our two organisations now working together, there are now greater industry expertise behind the NCF and we can use new ways of promoting them to the public.
In our industry, the drive to strengthen consumer protection and empowerment is never over. TrustMark get complaints day in day out from consumers who have been ripped off by firms pretending to be TrustMark Registered, displaying our logo when they aren’t a member of our organisation. As much as we try to safeguard against this and warn consumers to check the firm is registered with us before hiring them, we know that it can never be completely eradicated.
But what we can do is promote greater awareness of what goes on and protect reputable trades who are given a bad name by rogues. Partnering with the NCF gives us another channel to educate consumers, and allows us to promote our joint aims of protecting them against unfair practices in society.
We are really excited to continue our work with the NCF in future, and expand on it to tackle our joint aims and drive better consumer protection.
Follow the NCF on twitter: @NCFvoice
If you are interested in finding out more about the work that TrustMark do or hiring a TrustMark registered tradesperson, please visit www.trustmark.org.uk