“Today, businesses can acquire more data than ever before. This information can be a powerful tool, but it must be accurate and secure.”
The 24th November saw leading executives from around the world gather for this year’s Sales Conference. And as always, there was one big theme. And this year that theme was ‘trust’. But how do we build trust? In the ‘Future State of Trust’ report we identified 6 key dimensions critical to the process – and one of those was…’Security’
Why ‘Security’?
Today there is barely a single business that doesn’t describe some area of their operations as data-driven – so where this data is held and how it is handled are of increasing concern. This is what we refer to as data integrity. Data integrity relates to the overall accuracy, completeness, and consistency of data. It also refers to the safety of customer data regarding regulatory compliance — such as GDPR compliance — and security. In business-to-business, data integrity gains more and more attention as businesses can acquire more data than ever before.
An increasing digital presence also requires increased focus on associated security risks. Studies report a high level of distrust when individuals need to share personal data with other entities, such as companies or governments. Another study reports that 70 percent of organizations agree that by using data and analytics, they generate the possibility of reputation risk from events such as data breaches, or mis- selling goods and services.
“Many businesses make the mistake of focusing on having lots of data without having an adequate concern for its quality or making sure they keep the customer data safe.”
The Future State of Trust 2022 Report
So how do you build it?
Of major concern is the ‘trust gap’, with only 35% of respondents in a recent KPMG report stating that they had a high level of trust in the way that their organization uses data and analytics. But what practical steps can we take to bridge this gap? Our respondents prioritized as follows when it came to building trust:
- Ensuring data integrity and protection of customer data
- Providing secured documents that have not been altered, forged, or tampered with
- Offering secure authentication of a signatory’s identity
Of the 6 dimensions of trust, ‘security’ was regarded as the least important – but as our lives become increasingly digitized, we will most likely see it grow in significance. And the organizations that get ahead of the curve will see a noticeable competitive advantage in the future.
What next?
This year, Mercuri Research presented their annual report based on a global survey of over 1,000 business leaders. It dissected what we actually mean by trust, breaking it down into its component dimensions and pointing out the real world impact of building trust from a business perspective. It offers guidance and suggestions as to how business leaders can find new opportunities, create better, longer lasting client relationships and find new ways to establish long term growth. The report looks at the topic of ‘trust’ as a whole and also examines dimensions such as ‘security’ in granular detail.
“Increased regulatory compliance and GDPR…in business-to-business, data integrity gains more and more attention as companies acquire more data than ever before.”
Henrik Larsson Broman
And with 99% of business leaders surveyed saying that “trust is critical to building long term relationships with clients”, how we get to that point is more important than ever. So, if you’d like to learn how to let your customers trust you – and build meaningful relationships with you – why not download the report or get in touch today?
