A New Trust Model for the Post GDPR World

A New Trust Model for the Post GDPR World

Putting trust at the centre of your brand is bit more complicated than putting up a few internal ‘New Direction’ post-its, but once you’ve got your brand, product, service and team aligned, how can you make sure your customers see and value the shift?

The answer: Open up to your customers.

A shift to this culture of trust-centricity matches the longer term consumer trend, and provides you with a foundation for truly earning customer trust. Taking full advantage of this requires taking a step back, and empowering your customers by giving them the information and the space they need to make their own decisions.

“Distributed trust needs to allow for a trust space, an interval in which to stop and think before we automatically click, swipe, share and accept. To ask the right questions, and to seek the right information that helps us to decide: is this person, information or thing worthy of my trust? What is it that I am trusting them to do or deliver?”
(Rachel Botsman: Who Can You Trust?)

How can you create trust spaces?

The pillars for communication in this space are transparency, inclusion and dialogue.

Transparency
Customers can access information on any contract aspect, including data processing mechanisms, profiling tools etc.

Inclusion
The information is made available in such a way that individuals are easily able to understand the terms and conditions, and are supported in making informed decisions regarding their trust priorities.

Dialogue
Customers can query and feedback anything at any point in their journey, and receive timely, accurate and comprehensible responses.

These three concepts form a layered structure. Transparency is a foundational necessity, and often a legal requirement under legislation. Brands have the opportunity to go beyond the legalities [insert link to beyond compliant blog], and view the shift in consumer perception as an opportunity to build better relationships with individuals.

A chance for real change.

Allowing users to view contracts, supporting them in understanding the processes, creating dialogue with them and involving them in co-creation, makes trust earning a continual part of the relationship.

Your brand may have lost 75% of it’s subscribed market base to the GDPR, but these are the customers who would previously have given up somewhere about page 2 of the legalese, and ticked the permissions box. Losing them isn’t a threat, it’s an incredible opportunity. Those who remain, and those who are acquired from now on, should constitute an informed and engaged consumer base, who will be evangelists for your brand if you treat them well.

Want to know more? Download our full report on the changing nature of trust.

If you’d like to know more, come speak to us at Adeptiv UK. We are a data-driven dialogue agency in London which specialises in helping clients get, keep and grow customer relationships at scale.