Intrusive or not, today’s consumers are more accepting of data-driven personalization. With Customer 360 based on data products, enterprises deliver a more personalized customer experience – with full respect for customer privacy. Read on.
Table of Contents
Personalization or Intrusion?
Why Enterprises Value Data-Driven Personalization
Are Today's Consumers Less Protective of their Personal Data?
Data-Driven Personalization with Customer 360
Data Products Deliver Customer Data While Protecting Privacy
Personalization or Intrusion?
How many of you out there sense that the devices and applications that you spend time with have begun to feel “creepy”? For example, your phone seems to be recording or listening to your conversations and comes up with advertising that reflects your thoughts. Then your Facebook feed suddenly pitches you with a promotion for a T-shirt based on your age and particular sports interest.
This has been going on for a few years now, so you probably realize that there is a correlation between what you say, or search for, one minute, and what you could potentially receive the next minute. The simple explanation has to do with the concept of data-driven personalization.
The fact is that every word we say, or type, generates personal data that gets recorded, analyzed, mapped, and integrated with many of our other activities, choices, and interactions. Companies have been using data-driven personalization, to differentiate and improve customer engagement, even if we know it’s “creepy”. Of course, we aren’t going to stop using our phones unless we decide to hide from “Big Brother” in Timbuktu. So, the natural question you might want to ask would be: “Is data-driven personalization working?” According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, the answer is a big YES.
Why Enterprises Value Data-Driven Personalization
An article published by McKinsey in November 2021 titled, “The Value of Getting Personalization Right – or Wrong – is Multiplying”, says that companies that use collected data to personalize their pitches to potential customers are succeeding. These companies have faster revenue growth than their competitors, and the ones that get closest to the customer through the use of personal data, have the most success. How does the population feel about it?
McKinsey polled more than 2,000 consumers, sampled, and weighted to reflect the US population, and found that over 70% expect businesses to provide:
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Recognition, as individuals, with an understanding of their interests.
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Personalization, with regard to interactions, and transactions.
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Satisfaction, in terms of the availability, and quality, of personalized service.
Are Today's Consumers Less Protective of their Personal Data?
It turns out that the average US consumer has accepted the fact that their data is being collected, sold, and utilized for marketing purposes. It almost seems un-American when you think about it. After all, weren’t they the people that came up with the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me” on the flag with the picture of the snake? Part of the reason for this acquiescence, according to McKinsey, could be the 2 years of COVID.
In their poll, “75% of consumers switched to a new store, product or buying method” during the pandemic. Not being able to go out to your local store, where they know you, apparently made the buying process less familiar and more impersonal for everybody. If a website that you are buying from remembers your name (because you signed in previously), recalls your previous purchases, and is willing to listen to your private conversations to suggest new items to buy, why is that so bad?
So many people missed human interaction for months on end while worrying about the fate of their families and friends, how can they fault their mobile phones for keeping an eye on them? Apparently, we don’t – and actually appreciate the attention.
Data-Driven Personalization with Customer 360
Customer 360 refers to a trusted, fresh, and integrated dataset, containing all the information important to a company about its customers – and is instantly accessible to authorized data consumers..
Enterprises use Customer 360 to deliver a unique, personalized experience to each customer. They collect, integrate, and manage a customer’s master, interactional, and transactional data to:
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Determine engagement strategies.
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Optimize online journeys.
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Customize communications.
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Promote relevant offers in real time.
Data Products Deliver Customer Data While Protecting Privacy
Today, enterprises can reap the benefits of data-driven personalization, and cope with privacy regulations, by taking a data product approach to Customer 360. They gain:
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Agility and speed, by delivering quick, incremental value to Customer 360 data consumers.
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Cost efficiency, by leveraging their existing investments in Customer 360.
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Data governance, by having data compliance and quality enforced in-flight.
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Self-service functionality, by giving authorized data consumers the ability to discover, collect, and share customer data products, without involving IT.
Personalization is a natural byproduct of Customer 360
Enterprise adoption of Customer 360 allows for more personalized campaigns, by presenting buyers with the products and services they seek, while enhancing the overall customer experience. A data product approach to Customer 360 enables different domains to define and execute data-driven personalization differently. The required datasets can be tokenized or masked, as necessary, and enriched to improve business outcomes. And with customer data currently spread over many different systems, formats, and technologies, a data product approach securely brings applicable data together in milliseconds.
Privacy compliance is quick, easy, and secure with the right technology
A Data Product Platform creates a separate Micro-Database™ for each customer, so data privacy is managed very effectively. For example, with all of a customer’s data residing in a single Micro-Database, buyers can be given access to their information, and deal with it directly. At the same time, sellers can respond to emerging legislation as it develops, and be secure in the knowledge that mass breaches are impossible, since each Micro-Database is individually encrypted.
