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The importance of building digital trust and digital risk management

As companies with large customer bases move towards digitization of personal information, record keeping, and customer journey analytics, the need for a highly developed digital risk management program becomes imperative. Data breaches have become more and more common in recent years, which means consumer protection needs to be extremely high on the priority list for digital risk management.

Data breaches are directly related to a loss of revenue, so they should be avoided at all costs. A good risk management program should be able to quickly foresee any potential threats that could disturb the customer experience from bugs in the website or app to potential data leaks. The main goal being to maintain company efficiency and revenue or increase them. So, how is digital trust tied in with risk management?

Maintaining digital trust

Digital trust is essentially the idea that a consumer’s personal information which has been input onto a website or application will remain secure. Customers will not want to input all of their personal information such as home address, phone number, and credit card if a company has been known for big data leaks which could compromise them. Having to change all of your credit cards because of a company error is both a hassle and a source of worry, as identity theft becomes more and more prevalent. Therefore, it is extremely important that companies have protected cloud technologies if they are using them and secure servers to protect their consumers. However, that being said, some companies have yet to understand the importance that customers put on trust and think that some are more concerned with convenience, which should simply not be the case.

Trust versus convenience

As a consumer what would you be more concerned about – ease of access or being able to trust that your personal information is safe? Convenience is important, no customer likes to be redirected endlessly, or click on pages that do not link correctly, but if their personal information is at risk that will always take precedent. Companies need to work on first establishing trust with their customer base, and then maintaining it through best digital practices. One of the key ways companies can ensure trust is maintained is through transparency. If a company lets its consumers know what it is actively doing to protect them by explaining what digital risk management processes are in place, then consumers can have a clear understanding of both the process and the company they are working with. Consumers who have been subject to data breaches have a tendency to move towards a rival company if they are seen to provide a comparable product/service and better protection. A lack of trust leads to a loss of revenue. Using tools to study consumer behaviour can help in assessing both convenience and trust. The future of risk management in the digital era will have to put a focus on protecting consumers’ personal information while providing a reliable and convenient online platform. If companies are willing to invest the time and money in the process, then they should have no problem competing within their markets.

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