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How to build trust in the digital era?

BLOG POST FEB 14, 2023 | 3 MIN

FEB 14, 2023 | 3 MIN

WRITTEN BY MetaMap

Trust has been the core of all relationships throughout history. How is modern trust generated in the digital era?

WRITTEN BY MetaMap

If we think about common activities such as buying food, choosing the right college or riding the bus, trust has always been one of the key elements to help decide what to buy, where to go and how to get there. Trust has been the core of all relationships throughout history.

Trust cannot be more important

If we translate this same idea into the modern world’s reality where digital services are booming and enabling consumers all over the world to meet their everyday needs, then we realize that building trust across all digital transactions is now a necessity.

Whether you are applying for a loan, renting an apartment for a vacation with your family or raising money for a startup, you might need to connect with strangers online and rely on them, somehow, to achieve your goal.

The problem is, how can we know who to trust in this ever growing online world where almost everyone has access to it? Moreover, in order to provide truly globalized services, it is necessary to access siloed data regarding consumers’ identity from anywhere in the globe.

Let us change the game

Here is where MetaMap comes in. We help build the bridge that connects you with another person, company, client, consumer, institution or anyone you might need to close that circle of trust with. As MetaMap’s founder Filip Victor once said:

“Strangers try to interact with other strangers, but can’t build trust without a trusted connector”.

In that sense, you can think of our workflows as the connective tissue between data points that allow you to ultimately trust your users.

So, instead of settling for empty and surface-level data to back up a person’s qualifications such as report cards, a zip code or gender (which don’t really tell us anything about an individual) why not search for their work milestones such as 5,000 trips performed by an Uber driver, the full payment of a mortgage loan, or if you have any criminal records?

Wouldn’t this information be more helpful in giving us a full picture of who we are online to third parties we are trying to build a relationship with? Wouldn’t knowing a person’s merits help better choose a seller, a financial service provider or a food delivery app? Or think of it the other way around, wouldn’t this be ideal to select a buyer or a financial service consumer?

In that sense, we conceive merits as pieces of information that go deeper and further into people’s achievements to tell us more about who they are in a more personal and practical way.

But how do merits help us build trust in everyday relationships? Talking about gig economy examples, being able to confirm that your Uber driver is the actual owner of the car they are driving or that they are legally allowed to drive in a certain region is more valuable information than knowing the driver´s country of origin or their taxpayer identity number, isn’t it?

For casino owners, trust is of utmost relevance. A particular selection of merits can help identify casino players, in order to assess if they are included in any blacklist that may compromise the establishment’s permissions to operate as well as reviewing if clients are introducing money from illicit activities.

Fully customizable

What is key to understand is that while some merits might be relevant for a specific use case, others might not, but that doesn’t mean they won’t perfectly apply to another customer. That is why tailor made solutions are so important in the industry.

Our compromise with customers is to identify which merit or group of merits are the best fit for their type of business and how they can help close this circle of trust, ensuring thus better, seamless and a more efficient customer experience.

Filip describes MetaMap‘s wildest ambition in a phrase:

“Map everyone’s merits to let people discover and navigate to each other. In the absence of this, providers and consumers of services will continue to not be matched, limiting how we can interact with each other online”.

The truth is, trust is the core component of the puzzle that defines how and if we want to interact as consumers or providers of all kinds of services. Because the way we used to engage in relationships through traditional channels has changed drastically due to technology, the mere act of getting to know someone online has to change too.

Want to give it a try? Sign up for a free trial to test the verification flow you want.