We know that trust between consumer and business, and buyer and supplier, is a key factor in customer loyalty, but the impact of digital trust is unprecedented. Digitalisation introduces issues of trust that have a far greater impact on commercial relationships.

What makes digital trust so important

In the past, trust issues extended as far as the product or service that was being purchased: will a product last, or will the service deliver on expectations? However, with the digital economy in full swing, customers are concerned about a growing range of topics, including the safety of private data and the risk of loss due to digital fraud.

Salesforce survey found that 60% of those surveyed are concerned that the increasing use of AI will compromise their personal information. IDC argues that trust has become so important that it affects economic growth, with some economies benefiting from established trust and others suffering from the lack of it.

Digital trust is about delivering on the promise to keep personal and company data safe, and to be effective in preventing malicious actors from getting unauthorised access to applications and customer’s and client’s assets.

The broad effects of growing trust in your business

With even the biggest, most powerful companies suffering from disruptive cybercrimes, the overall business environment is arguably low on trust. Therefore, those businesses that can establish a reputation for trustworthiness in the digital business environment stand to gain competitive advantage.

Customers will invest more. Grow a reputation of trust as a differentiator and customers will buy more frequently, rely more on your services and be willing to tie their fortunes more closely to your business.

Your company will be more resilient. Even in the face of the inevitable reputation and security challenges produced by a breach, your customers will stick around if your company has a long-standing reputation for trust.

You'l gain a competitive advantage. A trusted company with a market-leading service offering will be difficult to unseat as clients are hesitant to risk confidential data and operational continuity in a shift to a different vendor.

Of course, companies large and small who focus on establishing digital trust will also reap the associated cost benefits as trust can only be attained by reducing the risk of costly data breaches.