Since its beginning, the Internet has been the fundamental pillar of the present world— medium for increased innovations and connectivity which continue to grow and drive the growth of the economy.

Today, however, the Internet is facing various challenges. Cybercriminals threaten the security of the once-reliable digital economy— becoming more fragile with every attack. What was once an instrument for communication and sharing has change into something complicated, with recent digital innovations are overtaking the ability to keep the Internet secure.

Thus, trust in our digital economy becomes a consequence, putting the significant value at risk. And for organizations, building and nurturing digital trust with their consumers has become more important than ever.

So, how do you build digital trust for tomorrow’s ever-changing digital economy?

1. Take The Lead

Leaders need to take the lead on the issues of internet stewardship and governance. When leaders realize that taking a trustworthy digital economy is a priority, consumers, businesses and governments all benefit. CEOs and chief executives need to work and band together in order to create a code of ethical conduct for every industry and standards that are principle-based for Internet security.

2. Digital Trust as a Feature of Services and Products

In this world of AI, automation, complex algorithms, technology has been always working beside us, on our behalf, most of the time without input. And knowing this can trigger deep biases and stimulating fear and distrust.

Thus, understanding the human psyche and designing a product or service for it helps introduce trust and encourages adoption. You can make digital trust by developing a guiding principle that is fixed throughout the cycle of theorizing, building, developing, and testing of products and services before it is released.

At every milestone you reach, ask yourself this:

“How can my product or service generate or develop customers’ trusts?”

3. Integrating Security To Your Business Architecture

When digital security is a foundational requirement in your organization’svalue chain— from customers to suppliers— your business partner will not become your greatest vulnerability.

In this approach, digital security is not just and “add-on” features for your services and products. This is why you need to develop a vision of “security by design” even from the development’s earliest stage.

4. End On Traceability

The mishandling or misuse of information and some cases of product failures can result in a deep, irreparable mistrust.

But, with end-to-end traceability with, for instance blockchain or distributed ledger technology, can impart confidence by offering consumers an insight into the lifecycle of your products or services.

5. Transparency

By clearly expressing the value proposition of a product or service through B2B marketing and delivering it as planned, you can build trust.

With transparency, companies can show the real benefits to their consumers and alert them on any potential threats and risks. Being open to both pros and cons can allow a customer to make a choice whether they should participate or not.

6. Assurance

Trust is not given, it is earned.

And it still stands true.

Using metrics such as the net trust score proposed from this report can help in providing a way to measure trust, conveying the assurance of trustworthiness and integrity. In addition, it helps offer a way for you to track progress and ensure that your business is maintaining a healthy amount of digital trust.

Conclusion

Digital trust should become a part of every organization; strategy, purpose, vision, and values. To create a lifelong legacy of trust in this digital era, companies will require strong empathy, leadership, and culture supported by a set of solid building blocks in order to allow the organization to deliver trust, no matter what.