Join us for a three-part series that explores the notion of trust in today’s digital economy, and how organisations practically can build trust. We also focus on the role of regulatory compliance and reputation management in building trust, and outline best practice approaches.
Be-it users stepping away from the world’s biggest social media platform after repeated privacy scandals, a major airline’s share price plummeting after a large data breach, or Australia’s largest bank issuing a stronger commitment to a stronger focus on privacy and security in rebuilding its image – events in recent weeks provide a strong reminder of the fragility and critical importance of trust to businesses seeking success in the digital economy.
Bodies as illustrious as the World Economic Forum and OECD have written at length about the pivotal role of trust as a driving factor for success today.
But what does trust actually mean in the context of your organisation? And how do you practically go about building it?
At elevenM, we spend considerable time discussing and researching these questions from the perspectives of our skills and experiences across privacy, cyber security, risk, strategy and communications.
A good starting point for any organisation wanting to make trust a competitive differentiator is to gain a deeper understanding of what trust actually means, and specifically, what it means for it.
Trust is a layered concept, and different things are required in different contexts to build trust.
Some basic tenets of trust become obvious when we look to popular dictionaries. Ideas like safety, reliability, truth, competence and consistency stand out as fundamental principles.
Another way to learn what trust means in a practical sense is to look at why brands are trusted. For instance, the most recent Roy Morgan survey listed supermarket ALDI as the most trusted brand in Australia. Roy Morgan explains this is built on ALDI’s reputation for reliability and meeting customer needs.
Importantly, the dictionary definitions also emphasise an ethical aspect – trust is built by doing good and protecting customers from harm.
Digging a little deeper, we look to the work of trust expert and business lecturer Rachel Botsman, who describes trust as “a confident relationship with the unknown”. This moves us into the digital space in which organisations operate today, and towards a more nuanced understanding.
We can infer that consumers want new digital experiences, and an important part of building trust is for organisations to innovate and help customers step into the novel and unknown, but with safety and confidence.
So, how do we implement these ideas about trust in a practical sense?
With these definitions in mind, organisations should ask themselves some practical and instructive questions that illuminate whether they are building trust.
- Do customers feel their data is safe with you?
- Can customers see that you seek to protect them from harm?
- Are you accurate and transparent in your representations?
- Do your behaviours, statements, products and services convey a sense of competence and consistency?
- Do you meet expectations of your customers (and not just clear the bar set by regulators)?
- Are you innovative and helping customers towards new experiences?
In part two of this series, we will explore how regulatory compliance can be used to build trust.
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