How brands are gaining an edge by prioritizing trust and consent in their UX

As privacy and trust have continued to be the focus for many, 65% of people have reported they’d stop using a brand that gave their data away and would never purchase from that company again. And according to the World Economic Forum, 25% of a company’s market valuation is directly attributable to its reputation. Establishing trust is now a must for all organizations.  

As a result, organizations worldwide are pivoting their business strategies to align with this shift, moving from a model that prioritizes streamlined and customized user experiences to one that values privacy and transparency as the most critical aspect of the user experience. The essential step for those who’ve been successful has been to identify a way to deliver the one without compromising the other. 

Making consent and trust an organizational asset

Trust and consent can be competitive advantages if brands take proper control of their relationship with their customers and the data they gather from their customers. 

The average return on investment for consent and preference management has resulted in a 40x increase in ROI. Taking control of relationship and data management allows brands to enhance customer trust, enabling organizations to establish a trust-based consent and preference management model. 

One effective way to do this is by building a solid consent management platform that scales across websites, mobile apps and CTV. Additional benefits include automated compliance and governance and optimized personalization and data activation. This allows brands to provide a seamless, trust-centered experience both internally and externally.

Providing an optimal user experience with transparent consent options

There are different approaches companies can take to consent management that follow regulatory requirements and encourage the growth of customer relationships and trust. The most popular consent models are notice only, opt-out consent, implied consent and opt-in consent.

Notice-only cookie consent is the most relaxed and risk-tolerant model, where a banner is displayed on the landing page that informs visitors the website uses cookies. Meanwhile, implied consent assumes the user has consented based on their actions rather than verbal or written consent, and it can be riskier than other available options. 

An example of opt-in consent is prompting a website visitor to take clear, affirmative action, such as checking a tick-box or another similar action. In contrast, opt-out consent — used by CCPA — doesn’t require users to consent actively before setting cookies.

Providing an engaging user experience can help increase opt-in rates and enhance transparency around processing activities. When implementing a balanced, user-friendly cookie banner, there are some approaches successful brands tend to centralize.

For example, transparency is a critical factor in the user experience, and a straightforward user interface can be a deciding factor for opt-ins and help make a website compliant. To add to this, cookie policies must be accessible, especially for people using screen readers or other tools, ensuring compliance with accessibility laws and privacy legislation. 

The design and user interface are also essential and should contain compliance requirements while balancing the brand’s chosen approach, whether a minimalist method or something more assertive and bold. Users are more connected than ever and expect their preferences to be synchronized across their mobile devices, personal computers and streaming applications. With all those factors in play, brands must keep up with the full range of expectations. 

Ensuring valid proof of consent

In addition to gathering consent, companies must be able to prove the end-user gave that consent. 

Organizations must have proof of who consented, when, what they were told to do and how they consented. They must have an explicit identifier and a dated document that proves they consented, a master copy of the document or data capture form and a copy of the privacy notice that the consenter was given. They also must identify if the customer consented offline or online. If the customer consented offline, a copy of the signed document is needed, and if they did so online, a link to the relevant data capture form is required. 

Ultimately, brands that put trust and consent at the core of their business’s competitive advantage will help enhance brand trust, automate compliance and governance, optimize personalization, activate data and identify unified goals across the company. In turn, brand reputation and valuation in the marketplace will increase in addition to customer trust in their business practices.  

Sponsored By: One Trust