There is an erosion of trust in all areas of society and business. How to build trust, how to maintain it, how to increase it? and, even more difficult, how to recover it if we have lost it?

Trust is at the base of all relationships, whether we are talking about people or if we are referring to institutional or business relationships. On the Internet, we interact with friends, with other professionals, with public entities and with companies. And trust (or its absence) is just as decisive as in the “real” world.

Depending on what area we are moving in – and beyond the medium in which we do it – Deloitte distinguishes four dimensions of trust:
• Physical: referring to our physical integrity and that of our relatives.
• Emotional: What surrounds us—people and institutions—allows us to be ourselves.
• Financial: on the continuity of our sources of income and the security of the banks that manage our savings.
• Digital: the transactions we carry out online – purchases, communications, etc. – are secure and private.

There are three major factors that directly affect the foundations of trust:

– Disinformation: decision-making becomes much more complex if we cannot trust the veracity of the information we have for that process.

– Public Administrations: if we trust our institutions, this will have a positive impact on our future confidence in the economic and social field, being able to make decisions according to that trust.

– New technologies: trusting them facilitates online transactions, communications, and, in general, their ability to make us grow professionally and personally.

Trust is the fundamental pillar to build positive relationships for all, in all areas of society.  Trust must be generated bidirectionally: from sender to receiver and vice versa.

Trust needs recovery and the active involvement of all the actors involved in it. If we want there to be optimal levels of trust for the proper functioning of society, it is necessary to systematically address the greatest concerns of citizens. If organizations do not take steps to resolve these concerns, trust can hardly be regained.