Customer 360

CHAPTER 15Privacy, Compliance, and Consent

Tension between privacy and personalization is apparent. It’s not logically possible to provide a personalized experience to customers—no matter how talented your Customer 360 team and how sophisticated its technology—if you don’t know anything about them. If you know a little, you can personalize a little, and so on. The end state is an experience like being a long-time customer of Amazon or Netflix, where every recommendation is almost uncanny. Why? It’s built on more data.

But are customers aware of this tension? Not exactly. As we’ve seen a number of times already, customers tend to want or expect relevance (which implies some level of knowledge) but are often reluctant to share data. As an example, a recent BCG survey showed that 62% of consumers say they want marketing that’s personalized to their interests; meanwhile, fully 45% say they are “uncomfortable” sharing personal data to receive personalized experiences.¹

A trusted relationship with customers is a company’s gateway to securing critical first-party data. The importance of this relationship is only increasing; consumers are more cautious and even skeptical when asked to share information or opt in to data collection. Increased respect for consumer privacy is forcing companies to adapt and innovate. Today, Customer 360 practitioners know they must earn the right to their customers’ data.

In this chapter, we’ll browse the state of consumer privacy and the regulatory environment. ...