As data becomes more valuable, it often feels as if the customer experience is quickly becoming a casualty in the process. Customer service doesn’t have to be an afterthought when businesses prioritize their need for privacy and security. To have sustained success in today’s market, businesses must utilize effective strategies that create a double win for both the customer and the business.
Necessary Barriers Impact Customer Experiences
Recently, I was on a trip with my family. We ended up at a high end shopping area with many leading name brand designer shops- Like Louis Vitton, Coach, Gucci and Tiffany’s. As we went to check out “the purse they are going to buy one day” or a “pair of shoes that are incredible” (but very expensive and definitely out of a teenager’s budget), there was a long line outside. I was perplexed by this–as the area we were shopping in was not extremely busy. I looked in the window and only saw a few people inside. As we approached the store, sure enough, there was a line of people waiting to get in and a big, beefy security guard regulating the amount of people in the store at one time. Instead of getting in line to wait for a store my daughters could not really afford on student budgets, we passed the store right by.
This story illustrates what is happening on a daily basis with many businesses today: the balance between privacy/security and customer experience. What we experienced at the high-end fashion store is a micro-illustration of a much greater, global macro-problem that consumers and businesses face as we enter the digital world of the 21st Century: the need for both privacy and customer experience. Privacy seems to be the fulcrum that businesses are balancing as they seek to protect both their own privacy and the privacy of their customers. But like the big, beefy security guard it often feels intrusive, obtuse, and even at times, unnecessary to the customer.
The question for businesses today is what are strategies that help both the customer and the business win regarding privacy concerns?
Customer experience and data collection don’t have to merely coexist as if they are polar opposites. Rather, guest experience and data collection are current, necessary realities that must do more than coexist to ensure a strong and healthy business. Guest experience and data collection must not only coexist they must coalesce. Coalescence is the uniting of both elements into a harmonized whole that is mutually beneficial for all— in essence, a double win!
Three Strategies to Create the Double-Win of Coalescence: Transparency, Clarity & Accessibility
One perceived barrier to this coalescence is privacy concerns. Customers have the right to privacy, just as businesses have the right to costumer data when transactions happen. The magic of this coalescence between consumers and businesses is found in transparency. Too often security is not transparent enough for customers or is bulky and clunky hindering the customer experience. Customers do not want to feel trapped by the businesses need for security, thus privacy. One solution for businesses to offer to consumers is an opt-out option. This provides customers with the liberty to exit even if entrance was laborious or less than convenient.
Businesses that provide privacy as a brand commitment and part of their value proposition have the ability to increase trust with their customers. A data breach and exposure of customer data can cost the business millions of dollars in lost revenues, investigation, and cure. A strategy that businesses can employ is to be clear upfront to customers about high standards of privacy protection through security and other measures paint a clear and consistent picture to customers that solidify the bonds of trust. Up front clarity about a commitment to privacy is highly valuable in today’s marketplace.
One of the casualties of the digital age is human interaction. Businesses who want to succeed with guest experience, yet not relinquish the need for privacy, must be reachable and accessible to their customers or even their potential customers. Accessibility is a strategy that businesses can execute. Where privacy must be protected, accessibility allows the customer easy access with multiple options to contact the business when concerned. Businesses who are not accessible will have a hard time connecting to the needs of their guests. Real accessibility for customers must supersede perceived availability for guests to reach and provide feedback to businesses.
Transparency, commitment to privacy as part of value proposition, and accessibility are three strategies businesses can utilize to navigate customer experience while maintaining their own privacy concerns. These strategies create a double-win for both businesses and customers in today’s volatile, uncertain, and ever-changing world.