It’s a fine line between creepy and valued experiences
As brands continue to become more data savvy, consumers are inherently becoming more conscious of how their data is being used. Gartner recently found 38 per cent will stop doing business with a company if they find personalisation efforts to be creepy. We know with more capabilities marketers and their brands can be tempted to do more, rather than what's right. So, in this world with seemingly endless data at our fingertips, how do brands continue to provide value without creeping their customers out?
Key points
- Personalisation can be creepy and we know consumers are wary of experiences where brands show they know them but don’t deliver value
- Marketers can and should break down company silos to deliver a considered and coherent customer journey and reduce interaction fatigue
- Transparency and control give consumers clarity on how their data is used and can help avoid the creep factor
The relationship between marketers and consumers has never been more complex. There's more ways to reach people, more effective ways to make it personalised, and easier to do so at scale. While tempted to deliver volume and a broad range of experiences, leading marketers are highly discerning about the type and number of touch points they have with a consumer.
Our State of the Connected Customer report found 67 per cent of customers say their standard for good experiences are higher than ever. In the rush to meet consumer demand for new and better experiences, many marketers have dialled up the personalisation and frequency.
However, greater personalisation and frequency of experiences has left many consumers wondering if their favourite hotel, activewear or juice brand is doing creepy things with the information they provide. Emails which pester, ads which are weirdly specific and not of interest and offers at the wrong time to the wrong person.
Delivering value has several important elements:
- Aligning sales, service, marketing and commerce to one common customer journey can ensure teams aren’t going rogue and delivering experiences which don’t feel right or are poorly timed
- Focus groups and customer research are crucial to uncovering whether what you’re doing is hitting the mark while uncovering red flags
- Be transparent with customers on how their data is used, the relationships you have with third parties and the value exchange your brand is providing
- Empower customers to choose their own data sharing settings in an easy to access and update process. Our research has found that for 92% of customers, the ability to control what personal information is collected makes them more likely to trust a company with that information
Remember, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. With an aligned team, delivering experiences in a transparent way based on customer needs and wants you can truly delight your customers, have them convert into advocates for your brand and become the benchmark for truly outstanding customer experiences.
