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earning customer trust

Earn customer trust with ‘inside out’ business values

  • min read
    • I've particularly noticed two business trends since the pandemic. First, people aren't rushing back to work – whether it's called the Great Resignation or Great Reshuffle, we're thinking hard about where and why we work. Second, we've become more dependent on, and aware of, technology and how it's shaping narratives in society. Tech can earn business gains in efficiency and productivity, but there's no shortcut to earning trust. Fuelled by mistrust in media and government, public trust is declining. There's an opportunity for businesses to lead in regaining public trust, and I believe they should start with their employees. Distrust has become the default The pandemic sparked fears about personal and societal issues. There are existential concerns like climate change and growing worries about personal freedoms and economic security. This anxiety and insecurity make it hard to trust. The Edelman Trust Barometer surveys 36,000 respondents in 28 countries on their relationship with business, government and the media. The 2022 Barometer shows distrust has become the default, especially distrust of government and media. Who people trust has become more local, like co-workers and neighbors, and distrust of outsiders has risen. The business of raising trust Trust has long been weak in media, but the Edelman Trust Barometer showed trust in government has fallen around 25 percent between 2020 and 2022. Trust in business meanwhile stayed at about the same level. People are looking to business to tackle big issues rather than their governments. It's an opportunity for business leaders, but not those who picture nothing more than trust-promoting marketing operations and communications ploys. Cutting through the fake The public sees CEOs and business leaders with a wary eye. Between 2021 and 22, those who said they worry business leaders are intentionally misleading people went up to 63 percent. Similar concerns about journalists (67 percent) and government leaders (66 percent) have risen too. Build trust from the inside out The Edelman Trust Barometer found employees tend to give credence to their CEO. But what about your employees? It's worth doing an anonymous internal survey to find out how much they trust your company. Internally, transparency is an excellent way to earn confidence. Show faith in your employees and give them accurate information about your strategy and intentions. There are, of course, limits to how transparent businesses can be. You can't divulge intellectual property secrets or make big announcements before an earnings report as a publicly-traded company. But the way you operate and communicate internally must be consistent with how you want customers and stakeholders to see you. I call this the 'inside-out' model: What goes on at the core radiates out through the value chain. The core is your executive and employees. Moving out from the core are your ambassadors, distributors and suppliers. The next level is customers. Demonstrating consistency over time – from the inside out – will mean greater trust. Gain trust the old fashioned way: Earning it I have seen these three leadership attitudes matter when it comes to instilling trust throughout your organization and value chain. First, when possible, under-promise and over-deliver – for example, in marketing promises, delivery dates and product performance. Second, have a karmic attitude – giving without expecting anything in return. A transactional approach, based on equal exchange, means no margin for 'extras,' and can rapidly decline into an adversarial relationship. A karmic attitude builds up credit. Marcus Sheridan built a successful swimming pool business by giving away relevant and honest content. Credit is important over the long haul if you need forgiveness for an error. Unexpected things happen, and there are unavoidable, big-picture issues like global supply chains breaking down and wholesale price rises. Third, bring your company's purpose to life and ensure it impacts your behavior, language and decision-making. The most important audience is your employees: Ensure they clearly understand and experience the company purpose and vision – many employees say they don't fully understand theirs. However, avoid overselling your purpose – it's better to understand your limits than to promise something you can't deliver. Strive to live up to what you say. Admit mistakes and be honest about your failings. This will help build trust and engender loyalty. Overcoming the challenges of tech and trust As businesses grow, they need more tech to help manage many customers and workflows. Many organizations are starting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to support customer relationship management (CRM,) customer service and eCommerce. While there are great uses for AI, issues around data privacy, invasive personalization and bias are legion. You need a solid ethical framework to manage these. Using empathy to understand the employee and customer journey better is vital. And to be trusted, especially with AI, you must have a firm grasp on the outcomes you want. For example, when using chatbots to augment customer service, tell your customers what kind of agent they're dealing with (bot or not) and be alert to when a human agent must step in to ensure the best customer experience. There's no shortcut to building trust. It takes a concerted effort across the organization. If you've built a loyal and trusting partnership with your employees and stakeholders, they'll be your best ambassadors and be more forgiving of your mistakes. Be vigilant when trust starts to erode: Trust is hard-earned and quickly lost.
security bytes privacy reputation

How to build customer trust when a data breach happens

  • min read
    • Although common in all kinds of organizations and businesses, data breaches still make striking headlines. We all work hard to prevent them, but how should you communicate about data breaches when they happen? I asked several cybersecurity experts with incident response experience: Some chose to speak under a pseudonym, but all share sound advice that could help save your company's reputation when, despite your robust work to protect it, a cybercriminal succeeds in accessing your information. Hire the best PR firm Principal Security Consultant L0ra thinks a well-coordinated, experienced PR firm can best handle your company's reputation. She also believes the public responds well when companies admit their mistakes. "The biggest mistake companies make is glossing over their failures, but breaches happen every day. It isn't the first time. It won't be the last. "If the breach is large and public, immediately hire the best PR firm you can afford. "Sometimes, in response to a data breach, you get a raid. That's when a group of people comes at you on the internet. The number one rule for dealing with a raid is, log off and keep quiet. So you need a good PR firm to speak on your behalf." Communicate through the right people, and learn from mistakes Ray Hayes is Senior Software Engineer, Enterprise and Security at Microsoft. He highlights the importance of knowing who you're speaking with and learning from mistakes. "I don't speak about any incident off-the-cuff. I refer all inquiries to my leadership team. "If I'm asked informally about a major data breach or any other incident at my company, I make conversation, but keep it general, and make sure I know who I'm talking to. "Breach response is critical, but prevention is key. "Anyone starting a new job should think, "What could happen if the information I'm working on now was released?'" Involve everyone in planning – before it happens Security engineer Daniel says responding to data breaches must involve more than just the technical people. You need legal experts and business communicators too. "All companies should prepare for data breaches, especially those with data worth stealing. Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) more often don't recognize the threat. "Before it happens, get everyone involved in making a crisis plan, not just IT. It's not only a technical problem. Involve legal, finance, safety and everyone else. They have valuable insight tech people often don't, and will have their own tasks to do when it happens." Tell customers affected, quickly and honestly James O, Director of Information Security, says informing your customers truthfully is a must. "Our insurance company gives us a Breach Coach to help our PR firm get the messages right. We also coordinate with internal communications to inform the families we serve, and start telling affected people as quickly as possible. We also report under our state data breach laws. "Companies could improve their data breach PR. When my data was accessed in a financial company's breach, I just got a form letter saying, here's your year of identity protection. "At least they included the root cause – leaving generic credentials on a public box – but that doesn't give me confidence that it won't happen again." Avoid the 'sophisticated attack' cliché Security Analyst http_error_418 says PR is vital, but companies must stop exaggerating cyberattackers' skills. "Companies often handle breaches with platitudes. They'll say the attacker was 'advanced' and 'sophisticated.' That's because, when it's later shown their app wasn't patched for eight years, investors are over the initial fright. "We also need to consider when transparency helps, and when it's overkill. "The public often don't fully understand what transparency reveals." Update regularly and learn from the best Cyber Threat Intel Analyst HackerPom points to an example of good practice. "When they know the facts, executives, PR and legal should give the media and customers regular updates. For a good example, look at Norsk Hydro's response to a bad data breach. Their communications were clear and straightforward." Better to overstate than understate the impact Joonatan Kauppi, Founder and CEO of Leijona Security, has several pieces of good advice. "If you're unsure of the impact, it's better to overstate than understate. If you downplay it, then word breaks that it's much more serious, you'll get worse press. "Bring the regulatory authorities into the loop straight away. "Inside the organization, start damage control, and don't skimp on costs. Gather the facts and inform your communicators. "Answer questions from security researchers and other InfoSec people. They ask the right stuff and are a good platform to communicate what happened. "Prepare for the flurry of questions you'll get from people or parties affected. Don't blame. Concentrate on reducing the impact of the breach." Make sure your plan fits all scenarios David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky, says to make sure you're planning for the full range of data that might be breached. "Balance technical and PR in responding to a breach. You can only do this well if you have a process for managing security incidents. Involve the right people across the organization – including IT, HR, legal and PR – and work out a plan before anything happens. The light of experience There are strong themes from these experts when it comes to how to communicate around data breaches. I'm hearing almost everyone say, plan for how you'll respond before it happens, involving people across the organization. Several say, to use the best PR available, and communicate with speed, honesty and regularity. By sharing the right information at the right time, in the right way, you'll get the right outcome: customers understanding how they're affected, and appreciating what you've learned. Article reflects the opinions of the author and speakers quoted. Published in 2019.

How can we solve the crisis in trust in business?

  • min read
    • "There is a crisis of trust in American democracy." So begins a 2019 report from the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy organized by the Aspen Institute. It lays blame on the nation's political discourse, racial tensions, and the technology that gives people greater access to commentary and news. The report concludes that since 2018, "unwelcome facts are labeled as fake." Rising cybercrime reduces trust Part of the problem with trust in the technology industry has to do with the ease cybercriminals now have to ply their trade. Once relegated to a dark corner of the internet, now many criminals operate in the public view. On the dark web, you can buy various pieces of technology such as ready-made phishing kits to seed infections, carders to collect credit card numbers, botnets and web stressors to deliver DDoS attacks, and other malware construction kits that require little to no technical expertise beyond clicking a few buttons on a web form. A 2019 report from CheckPoint shows that anyone who's willing to pay can easily obtain these tools. Forget 'software-as-a-service': we're witnessing the growth of the 'malware-as-a-service' industry. At a recent RSA forum in London, UK, I interviewed numerous experts who've spent their careers examining cybercrime and understanding how to combat fraud. It was a somewhat sobering picture, to be sure. RSA's president, Rohit Ghai, spoke about how the largest facet of risk today is digital risk, and how businesses need to better integrate risk management and cybersecurity methods. "This is a team sport: security, IT, operations and risk groups all need to work together," he said. "Our goal is not just about protecting apps or data, but about protecting our trust assets. We trust strangers to share our homes and cars because tech brings us together and drives the sharing economy." Ghai believes we need to replicate this trust system in the B2B world, just as Airbnb and Uber have done for consumer-based businesses. Trust at an all-time low? Ghai agrees with the conclusions of the Knight Commission report: trust is at an all-time low. Some have become so distrustful of our digital lives that we now have a new acronym, LDL ('let's discuss live'). But we can't, and shouldn't, turn back the clock to the analog era: we need to be able to trust each other again to fuel our growth. He mentioned that to be trustful, "an ethical company should do the right thing, even if no one is observing them." I liked that idea: too often, we hear about corporations that are causing damage, like polluting our environment, before denying any responsibility, or worse, covering up the details when they get caught. Part of the challenge for IT professionals is that cybersecurity is really a business problem, not a failure of technology. "Breaches and intrusions will occur," says Ghai. "We have to move beyond the shame of admitting a data intrusion and understanding its business impact. Our goal should be maintaining 'cyber-wellness', not trying to totally eradicate threats." Taking better care of customers' privacy is also good for business, as numerous reports have concluded recently. Almost half of the consumers surveyed believe there are ethical ways companies can use their data. How much do you value your data? Another issue is that what we say and what we actually do about maintaining our digital privacy is often at odds with each other. In a 2017 MIT privacy experiment, they found that student participants would quite readily give up personal data for very small incentives, such as a free pizza. And the same casual value exchange played out when Kaspersky offered up freebies in exchange for personal data in this storefront stunt. This dichotomy is seen even with IT security pros. Another survey by Yubico found that more than half of IT managers who have been phished have still not changed their password behavior. If they don't change to improve their own personal security, who will? The same dichotomy can be said about transparency: sadly, there are few companies who are actually as transparent as they claim, either by wilfully misleading the public (Facebook is top in this regard) or by just doing a poor job of keeping their IT assets under appropriate controls (British Airways is a prime case study here). Trust is fragile Where do we go from here? Security expert Bruce Schneier says that trust is fragile, and transparency is essential to trust. The Knight Commission report carries a series of recommendations for journalists, technology vendor managers and ordinary citizens. Recommendations include being better at practicing radical transparency, for journalists to disclose information sources as a rule, and making social networks step up and take responsibility for protecting their users. I hope we can implement many or all of them to make for a better, mutual and trusted future. All of us need to work together if we want to turn this around and improve customers' trust in business. This article represents the personal opinion of the author.
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