Workforce Management Featured Article
The Fine Line between Personalizing the Customer Experience and Asking For Too Much Data
Companies employ data analytics today for many reasons: to find efficiencies in operations, to improve sales techniques, to test marketing strategies and to optimize customer interactions. The results of these analytics strategies are often a natural side-product of the fact that companies today have more data than ever about their business.
Using data analytics to improve the customer experience is a task that most companies can’t afford to skip. Customers today expect a personalized experience, and they want to be able to interact with a company with a minimum of effort. For this reason, it would seem that what companies ought to be doing is collecting a maximum of information from their prospects and customers…right?
Not so fast. While it’s critical to keep track of Web site analytics, when it comes to companies directly requesting data, many customers are actually put off by being asked for too much personal information, particularly if it’s not relevant to their task. (Really…why does a game app on the mobile phone really need access to the player’s location?) Behavioral studies of customers need to be examined carefully to ensure that companies aren’t overstepping the boundaries, according to a recent article by Josh Manion for London Media & Advertising Daily.
“A balance needs to be struck between using data to provide a more personalized shopping experience, and asking for too much information, which could eventually make the user distrustful of the whole experience,” wrote Manion. “Consumers today expect to be treated as individuals but marketers can’t simply ask for the data, nor can they rely on Web site analytics combined with third-party data alone to deliver that personalized experience for their customers across their omnichannel journey.”
Customers today are becoming naturally distrustful of companies they believe might be misusing their personal information, either by selling it or attempting to cross-market to them things they don’t want. Manion cites a recent behavioral study in the UK of 2000 online shoppers that found that 38 percent would abandon a purchase if they had to register for an account, and 32 percent of respondents said that if a Web site was asking for too much personal information they would abandon it.
It’s no wonder customers are wary. High-profile data thefts have left many customers with the need to engage in credit monitoring paid for by a company: a bank, an insurance company or a retailer. While customers like the convenience of personalized service and are no strangers to sharing personal details online in social media, many do draw the line if they’re being asked for information they deem unnecessary to the transaction. Manion writes that companies must be prepared to own their own data and quit relying on third parties for it.
“Successful marketers are instead focusing on owning first-party data across all of their customer channels including their on-site, off-site, mobile, social, cross-domain and even offline touchpoints,” he wrote. “This results in the ability to track the customer journey across all these omnichannel touch points from the moment they view an off-site ad, all the way until they arrive on the retailer’s Web site and make a purchase. However, marketers that do this must ensure they are in a position to own and activate this data in real-time as opposed to handing it to a third party, which is often the root of consumer suspicion.”
Essentially, when companies decide to collect data, they need to be mindful of customer’s very justified wariness about what information they’re willing to hand over. If it’s relevant to the customer experience, customers will usually hand it over. If it’s not, be prepared for some resistance.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi