With more alternatives than ever, trust is paramount for business today. Consumers on all sides of the transaction prioritize organizations that are transparent, honest, and reliable. Across every transaction multiple layers of trust coincide.
As a consumer, you trust that a product or service is accurately described and of the quality you expect. If you’re making an online purchase, you trust that the business will, in fact, ship the product after receiving your payment. And your trust also extends to how the organization protects the information you share with it during the transaction.
In a business-to-business environment, you trust that the vendor will meet your needs and provide adequate service levels throughout the relationship. You also trust that your partner will adhere to the terms of your contract regarding proprietary information and company data. Similarly, you must trust that they hire trustworthy people and select other trustworthy vendors for their business.
Every employee in every business has a role to play in building trust inside and outside the organization. Especially the privacy, security, legal, compliance, marketing, and communications teams. These functions are responsible for having accurate information, such as privacy notices and customer-facing policies, available on the organization’s website.
The current state of trust management
Think about how things are run in your company. There’s the Privacy team, the Legal folks, Information Security pros, Compliance officers, the Marketing crew, and the Web Development team. Each group holds a crucial piece of what makes customers trust a company. But they’re often doing their own thing, making it tough to create a united front for earning customer trust.
When efforts and content is scattered, building trust with external stakeholders like customers and partners can fall short. Things like updating privacy policies are important, but if they’re just one-off tasks, they don’t add up to a big picture of trust.
A PWC report found that 24% of bosses say that not having a clear “trust boss” is a big roadblock.
That means there’s a huge opportunity being missed to work better and see real benefits from building trust.
What’s needed is a big shake-up in how companies approach trust. It’s about bringing all external-facing trust and safety information (e.g. legal terms, policies, security disclosures, compliance overviews, subprocessor disclosures, and more) together under one roof. Companies can make a real shift by aligning every action and decision with a clear plan and common goal.
The future of trust involves everyone moving together towards making customers feel secure and valued. That’s how you turn the act of building trust into something that not only feels good but also pays off.
The demand for a unified online hub
The amount of data created online daily is exploding. At the same time, privacy laws are getting stricter, and compliance is becoming more time-consuming. And have you seen the new AI regulations on the way?
On top of regulations are consumer demands.
A staggering 72% of people emphasize the importance of knowing a company’s AI policy before purchasing.
Legal, privacy, compliance, security, and marketing teams are burdened with keeping customer-facing policies, privacy notices, legal terms, compliance updates, overviews, and disclosures current. Likewise, expecting consumers to navigate too many “legal” links can be problematic for a good user experience.
This situation calls for something super handy: a one-stop online hub. You might have heard them called Trust Pages, Privacy Pages, Security Trust Centers, or Trust Portals. Despite the different names, their purpose is unified—to build trust by showcasing your organization’s commitment to all things trust and safety in a clear and easily available manner.
Think of it as a central station where customers can find everything they need to feel safe and informed. Policies? Check. Security details? Got it. Want to know about data handling or give your consent? It’s all there. Even system updates and legal stuff are included.
Plus, this hub makes it easy for everyone to use their privacy rights without a hassle. It’s about keeping things clear, secure, and user-friendly.
This hub is a unified, no-code Trust Center. It’s designed to consolidate fragmented data privacy, security, availability, and legal elements and operations into a unified platform, simplifying how organizations communicate and manage all trust and safety information . So you can easily demonstrate your commitment to data protection.
The storefront of your organization’s data governance practices
A Trust Center is a window into how you manage and protect customer data. It allows users to exercise individual rights, see your privacy certifications and policies, and access any compliance information like regulatory attestations and subprocessor lists.
It’s an interactive section of your website that’s constantly updated. One of the key features of Trust Centers is their user-friendliness. They should be easy to navigate, ensuring users can find needed information easily.
The Trust Center spectrum – Security, privacy, legal, and homegrown solutions
As the digital landscape evolves, Trust Centers have also advanced. Our latest count identifies over 15 different types of platforms; each offering varied capabilities, from standalone automated solutions to integrated systems within broader compliance frameworks.
This diversity means you have options. And you should carefully consider the tools to select the right one for your organization’s unique needs.
