Consumer trust in digital communications: challenges and best practices

As a seasoned provider of a digital postbox solution, e-Boks has accumulated many years of insights about the trust-related challenges organizations and consumers face. Helena Cimber, Product Director at e-Boks, discusses these challenges and see what can be done to reestablish trust.

Phishing 101: broken trust and potential consequences

Phishing attempts have been causing damage that extends to more than a broken sense of trust, resulting in quantifiable consequences for organizations and consumers. 

"In a survey conducted in Denmark, they saw many real emails that were not clicked through due to the recipients mistaking them as phishing", Cimber notes.

This not only demonstrates how the growing awareness of phishing changes user behavior in practice, but also indicates email’s difficulty in catering to users’ current safety and security needs.

"If the survey participants received those emails through a secure digital postbox service like e-Boks, the question of their legitimacy would be a no-brainer", Cimber says.

Missing information due to mistaking a legitimate message for phishing is one thing, but what about the practical consequences? A message might contain a request for the user to act upon (like paying a bill or signing a form), and if they fail to do so, this can be costly for both the sender and the receiver.

"For consumers, this can result in fines or other unwanted consequences. For organizations, it often means sending the document by post instead, which is both more expensive and much slower", Cimber explains.

The four Pillars of consumers trust

That being said, it’s clear that ethics and compliance are the backbone of wat providers like e-Boks do in digital communications. But how exactly can they be followed to protect consumer trust? Here are four key elements to consider.

Transparency: According to Cimber, clear communication with customers is absolutely essential for preserving or restoring trust.

“We explain to our customers how we use their data, so that users know exactly what is happening with their personal information.”

Data Privacy: Strict compliance with data protection laws is another must-have for digital postbox solutions.

“At e-Boks, we comply with the relevant laws such as GDPR, designed to protect personal data,” Cimber notes. “This means we only collect what is needed and store it securely.”

Data Ownership: It’s essential to ensure the user is in control of their own inbox, which is an inseparable part of trust.

“This means the user is the owner of the documents – they decide who has access to it and for how long. They’re in full control of their own data,” she clarifies.

Security: Last but not least, security is key, going hand in hand with privacy.

“Our e-Boks platform uses the latest encryption techniques, helping to keep data safe and reduce the risk of breaches.”

Trustworthy digital post: the e-Boks way

e-Boks, bringing Digital Post solutions to organizations and consumers since 2001, offers a secure and compliant postbox that’s also customizable and easy to access. By adopting e-Boks as a safer alternative to traditional e-mail, organizations get to communicate with consumers seamlessly and efficiently while protecting their privacy and preserving trust.

This interview was originally published on CXToday by author Linoy Doron.