February 23, 2026 Trust Is the Most Underrated KPI in Manufacturing

Why Ford’s EV pullback highlights the high stakes of communicating manufacturing pivots.

By Heather Ripley

Manufacturing leaders are disciplined about what they measure. Safety metrics, quality benchmarks, output and margins are reviewed constantly.

But one of the most powerful performance indicators rarely appears on a dashboard at all: trust.

Trust shapes how employees follow leadership, how customers choose suppliers and how partners respond during disruption. Yet many manufacturers assume trust exists simply because operations are strong. In reality, trust is not built behind plant doors. It is formed through what stakeholders see, hear and experience over time.

That is where public relations plays a critical role. PR gives manufacturing leaders a way to actively earn trust rather than passively hope for it.

Trust Matters More Than Leaders Realize

Manufacturing operates in demanding environments where confidence in leadership matters just as much as operational performance. When trust erodes, risk rises. Disputes escalate faster. Talent becomes harder to retain. Reputations weaken in ways that are difficult to repair.

When trust is established, the opposite happens. Decisions move faster because vendors believe in the company’s leadership and direction, and customers and partners extend credibility during periods of uncertainty. In competitive markets, trust often becomes the deciding factor when products and capabilities look similar.

Trust does not happen by accident. Without visible leadership, consistent communication and credible external validation, even strong manufacturers leave their reputation to chance. Silence or inconsistency creates gaps that others will fill with assumptions.

PR Actively Builds Manufacturing Trust

Public relations shapes how manufacturing organizations build trust and credibility, particularly through earned media.

While every company controls owned channels such as its website and social platforms and can invest in paid advertising, earned media cannot be purchased. It is third-party coverage secured through credibility and relevance, including trade features and executive interviews. Because it comes from independent sources, it delivers authority that owned and paid placements cannot match. When respected publications quote an executive or spotlight a facility investment, that recognition serves as objective validation.

Earned media’s impact shows up in three core ways:

• Positions executives as trusted voices: Through thought leadership and expert commentary, executives demonstrate insight beyond the factory floor, humanizing complex organizations and building familiarity over time.
• Clarifies complex operations: PR translates technical manufacturing capabilities into clear, credible narratives and aligns messaging across media, owned channels, and internal communications.
• Prepares leaders for scrutiny: When issues arise, organizations with established trust and trained spokespeople respond with greater clarity and confidence.

GEO and the New Rules

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is now central to how trust is formed and discovered. As AI-driven searches reshape how information is surfaced, manufacturers can no longer rely solely on word of mouth or traditional search engine optimization (SEO).

PR supports GEO by creating authoritative content that AI systems recognize as credible. Earned media placements, expert commentary and consistent executive visibility all feed the signals that generative engines use to determine who is trusted enough to cite, summarize or recommend.

If a manufacturer is not visible across respected third-party sources, it risks being invisible in AI-generated answers. GEO ensures that when potential clients ask questions through AI platforms, the organization appears as a credible authority rather than an unknown entity.

A strategic PR partner can also help manufacturers understand how they appear in AI-driven results through a GEO audit. This evaluates a company’s visibility in specific regions across both traditional and AI-powered search.

In this new environment, trust and discoverability are inseparable. PR aligns both by ensuring leadership voices, expertise and proof points are present where AI looks for them.

Trust as a Sustainable Leadership Advantage

Trusted leaders shorten sales cycles by reducing perceived risk. When technical capabilities are evenly matched, a company’s reputation becomes a true differentiator. Consistent PR investment builds confidence over time and not only during periods of growth or crisis.

Organizations that stay on message and remain visible build a reservoir of credibility that pays dividends when challenges arise.

The strongest manufacturing leaders do not assume trust. They build it deliberately. Public relations equips them to do so by creating visibility, third-party credibility and consistent narratives that stand up over time.

Trust is not a soft metric. It is a leadership advantage. And in manufacturing, it may be the most undervalued KPI of all.

Heather Ripley is the founder and CEO of Ripley PR, an elite, global public relations agency specializing in the skilled trades, franchising and B2B tech industries. Ripley PR has been listed by Entrepreneur Magazine as a Top Franchise PR Agency for eight consecutive years and was named as one of Newsweek’s America’s Best Public Relations Agencies for 2024. Heather Ripley was named as a 2024 PRNews Top Women honoree in the business entrepreneur category, and to ACHR NEWS’ Top Women in HVAC list in 2024. She is also the author of “NEXT LEVEL NOW: PR Secrets to Drive Explosive Growth for your Home Service Business,” which is available on Amazon. For additional information, visit www.ripleypr.com.

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