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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Face the crisis of trust by finding a balance

between personalization and privacy

It is a predicament: consumers' expectations towards you think. Accenture’s report Exceed Expectations with
businesses are higher than ever, as they demand an Extraordinary Experience points out that it all comes
experience when buying a product, not just the feeling down to providing outstanding customer experience
of a mere necessity. Hence, personalization is the (CX) and that speed and convenience are the most
keyword here, so that offers, product recommendations important criteria here. Besides that, “purpose-led
and discounts are available on the right channel at the brands have the potential to create stronger and more
right time and in line with the customer's current resilient customer relationships and translates into
expectations and needs. All this is possible and only more sales and greater customer lifetime value”,
needs as prerequisites data-based 360-degree Accenture reveals. Purpose also bolsters confidence in
customer views, but that's exactly where the problems a brand and provides an extra layer of protection from
start. For fear of abuse, consumers are more reluctant the almost inevitable “trust incident”—and ultimately
in giving their data to businesses. protects the bottom line.

Bringing personalization and privacy in sync is According to Accenture Strategy’s findings, a breach in
unfortunately a challenging balancing act that (often) trust adversely affects a company’s competitiveness:
fails because companies can only offer a high degree of the direct impact on future revenue losses due to trust
personalization if enough data is available. Anyway, events conservatively totaled US$180 billion for the
the Apteco Trend Report 2019 shows that there is still 7,000+ companies analyzed, which comes to
room for improvement in personalization, stating that approximately US$4 billion for a US$30 billion
three out of ten marketers still use a minimal form of company. Defining and activating a meaningful purpose
personalization, e.g. limited to the use of salutation and can potentially mitigate the damage a trust event might
names only. have on a customer relationship (and sales) by giving
consumers another reason to believe in the companies
One of Accenture Strategy’s research, for instance, got with which they do business.
granular on the question what today’s consumers really
want and that often it is completely different from what Further results of the study illustrate the "data paradox"

4 April 2019 - Personalized & Customer-Centric Content Marketing