The three main reasons to distrust an online experience are inaccurate content (91 percent), website downtime (88 percent), and overly simple identity and authentication procedures (75 percent), according to a new report by Neustar in collaboration with the Ponemon Institute. The report affirms a truth long predating the Internet: trust is earned as a direct result of experience.
Overwhelmingly, respondents were dissatisfied with digital storefronts they found to be flawed in their marketing content, overly simple in authentication, or altogether unavailable. These all reflect the converging role that a brand’s Marketing, IT and Security groups play in delivering a seamless customer experience.
Additional report highlights by group include:
Marketing
■ More than 90 percent of consumers distrust brands with inaccurate online content
■ 55 percent find ads that interfere with the page’s content unacceptable
■ 52 percent find ads that redirect them to other sites unacceptable
Information Technology
■ 78 percent worry about a company’s security when website performance is sluggish
■ 69 percent of respondents have left a website due to security concerns
■ 67 percent of consumers lose trust in a brand when the website takes too long to load
Security
■ 63 percent distrust brands whose data has been breached
■ 50 percent continue to have a negative view of a brand even one year after its breach
■ 55 percent distrust websites that do not have security safeguards such as two-factor authentication
“In our always-on, always-connected world, a brand’s digital storefront may be the first and only touchpoint a customer has with a company,” said Lisa Joy Rosner, CMO at Neustar. “Discerning customers expect a brand’s website to offer them accurate, real-time information, whenever and wherever they want it. On top of that, customers demand that all of the information they share with a brand is retained in a safe and secure manner.”
As consumers spend vastly more time and money online, a trusted digital brand becomes indispensible. As Neustar’s report confirms, brands that do not integrate their Marketing, IT, and Security programs will face an uphill battle as they devote countless resources to building seamless customer experiences without a meaningful result. In the words of Mark Tonnesen, Chief Information and Security Officer at Neustar, “delivering an exceptional brand experience not only depends on a company’s marketing plans; every employee who touches the digital property becomes a steward of the brand.”
