People had been confused for years by the various ways Ramsey had done endorsements and recommendations. I was part of a small team asked to create a new, unifying brand to transfer trust from Ramsey Solutions to the people and companies they trust.
Customers were confused by multiple ways Ramsey indicates a company or professional is trusted: Endorsed Local Providers, national advertisers, Ramsey recommended brands, Ramsey Preferred Coaches, etc. Our hypothesis was a single, unifying brand and product experience would enhance and transfer trust from Ramsey to vetted companies and professionals.
Ramsey had multiple ways to designate a company or professional as trusted, leading to slightly inconsistent vetting. Endorsed Local Providers were all vetted in similar ways, but specifics of the evaluation could vary from one salesperson to another.
At some point in the future, Dave Ramsey will retire, eliminating the primary endorser of Endorsed Local Providers. Ramsey needed a way to transfer trust from the company as a whole, rather than just Dave.
Through repeated customer validation, we were able to find a brand (RamseyTrusted) that was easily understood by both existing and new customers. We also discovered how to communicate that a specific person or company was trusted by Ramsey (RamseyTrusted shield designation) and what their standing was within RamseyTrusted (customer 5-star review system).
We discovered how to begin implementing RamseyTrusted into existing product experiences. We also discovered several product features that would be valuable and usable by customers, but unfortunately I left before we could begin determining build viability and business feasibility.
