Friday’s Food for Thought: Being Dropped During The “Trust Fall”

Welcome once again to the Friday’s Food for Thought post on the ITAC blog. Have you ever been to a corporate team building retreat and had to do the “trust fall? It’s when one person stands on an elevated plank and falls backwards, putting all their trust in the group to catch them. It can be a mentally challenging exercise because it requires the ultimate trust in the group. And, when it works, it creates a stronger bond and a deep level of trust.

So, what would happen if the group did not catch you during the “trust fall”? It would be a rather traumatizing experience and it would be difficult to trust again. So, how does this tie into identity theft and cyber security? Well, bank customers are in a perpetual trust fall with their banks and financial institutions. And, more often than not banks have done a great job of “catching” their customers. Think about it – most people trust that their money is safe with the the bank. But it only takes one missed catch to destroy that level of trust.

This concept can extent to any major organization that has personal customer data. Consumers put their trust in these institutions, and when there is a a major data breach (and data has been compromised), the consequences can be dire. When trust is broken, it can be very difficult to get it back.

So, what is your organization doing to make sure that every customer will be “caught”? Think about it…they have put the ultimate trust in you and one dropped customer can lead to a brand/reputation problem that won’t immediately go away. The worst part is that you have destroyed your customer’s trust in you.