n rolls on, the trust gap is widening with businesses posting healthy profits while shoppers are being gouged at the checkout. It’s quite a quandary for brands. To make the most of the upcoming peak trading period, a customer service reboot may be in order. If the thought of that is daunting, you’re not alone. We can all be paralysed by big ideas. Even the process of getting to big ideas can be somewhat overwhelming. Instead, think about harnessing the intent of big ideas into bitesize experiments that feel distinctive to our brand. After all, with 74 per cent of consumers saying that consistent and reliable customer experience is one of their top trust measures, designing for trust creates a distinctive opportunity. Therefore, the next eight weeks are prime for thought experiments and test-and-learn initiatives that could deliver a blueprint for improved products or services. It could be a set of key messages or prompts within your existing user experience that addresses a critical information gap between customers and your brand. There’s also no reason why you can’t make incremental changes that provide small wins and set your business up for greater success in the future. M&S in the UK is continually thinking about small changes that can be made to add value for customers and win their trust in relation to the brand’s impact on the environment. For example, the brand has implemented packaging that tells customers how best to dispose of it.  The retailer is also replacing plastic tags with recycled paper alternatives. The latter may take longer to implement but the next eight weeks could be spent creating an execution plan. Or you could take a leaf out of online retailer Etsy’s book and explore easy-to-implement functionality, such as helping them optimise their digital shop window –  which in turn can win the trust of sellers on the platform. There’s something to be said for the power of momentum, keeping things moving, iterating, testing, and learning. This is the quarter for tiny transformation projects that sustains momentum, and transforms customer satisfaction into trust, without creating a thing for the sake of a thing, because no customer or employee needs more “stuff”. Aimee Coleman is the director of AlphaLab at strategic design and brand consultancy Principals.