Consent & Preference Collection Best Practices

Type: Whitepapers
Topic: Consent Mgmt

Topic: Preference Mgmt

Defining Consent and Preference Data and the Collection Process

Customer preference and consent data falls under the term “zero-party data,” which is defined as any personal insights, preferences, and profile data that a customer proactively and deliberately shares with a brand.

Zero-party data like consent and preference data enables customers to freely state what they want from a brand in exchange for their personal information. It gives companies greater insight into their needs, interests, behaviors, and intent – unlike first-party data which can only offer inferred insights generated from purchase history or basic facts like date of birth.

Zero-party data also opens doors for explicit consent, giving companies the confidence to process potentially sensitive data (such as certain demographic data). It gives brands the opportunity to promote a transparent and honest culture, as well as highlighting the value exchange of mutually beneficial information.

Zero-party data is highly valuable because:

• It is unique to your brand
• It is the ultimate source of truth because it comes directly from your consumer
• It is based on the level of trust between brand and consumer and
• It enables brands to provide value to the customer in return

Now, how to collect this valuable, customer-provided data?

To some, the phrase “customer data collection” refers to a passive or automated process of harvesting readily available customer information and leveraging it for sales and marketing purposes. In many cases, enterprises view web behavior tracking and prior sales data as a form of data collection. While these activities have value and appropriate application, they are “implied” and don’t represent the best or most effective form of zero-party data collection.

In order to discover and leverage truly powerful preference and consent data, enterprises must view collection as a dialogue and invite customers to actively share their needs, likes, dislikes and privacy parameters.

How Customers Reveal Insights and Preferences

By framing the collection process as a progressive conversation, enterprises are better able to understand and plan for the true nature of customer experience and engagement.

Research indicates that customers reveal more about themselves in iterative steps related to their evolving interest in what a business has to offer and their perception of what the business will do with the information that is disclosed. Research clearly shows that customers are much more willing to provide information when it is:

• Presented in context,
• Offers a clear benefit to them (i.e. saves time, saves money, rewards, etc.), and
• Is easy to understand and an easy task to complete.

In many ways, customer data collection lies at the intersection of a customer’s interests and the interests of the company hoping to serve them. Seen in that context, it is clear that the interaction can be compromised when one party’s interests outweigh the interests of the other party.

For example, a lengthy and complicated registration page can act as a barrier to a trial software download because the customer’s interest in the product is not significant enough to justify the time required to fill out the form. The company over-emphasized its own interests at the expense of the customer and as a result, lost a valuable prospect.

When trust is not established slowly between the customer and the company, the customer is more likely to question how the information being collected about them will be used. In fact, according to recent research from Oracle, mean conversion drops significantly when more than 6 fields are on a form.

Expanding to Multiple Touchpoints

The goal for managing consent and preference data is to allow collection to take place across the full spectrum of prospect and customer interactions. Enterprise-level businesses engage in complex interactions that feature an expanding set of personal and virtual interactions. It’s essential to collect and react to information from all touchpoints such as call centers, social media and mobile devices, not just the easy or inexpensive ones such as email or websites.

Here are the six most common customer interaction points where enterprises must offer options for customers to contribute consent and preference data:

Acquisition marketing.

Building awareness and earning a purchase is a purposeful and complicated process. Yet many companies fail to use these interactions as opportunities to learn about communication channel of choice, preferred product segment, quality, or other information that could make the difference between a window-shop and a sale.

Product and/or services support.

With the sale secured, customer interaction often passes to support — an entirely different team operating a different CRM, a different database, and with a different mindset. Customer data can be lost in the transition, slowing the support process, and presenting a fragmented and contradictory experience to the customer.

Website services and functions.

With very few exceptions, customers begin their journey to sales, support or social interaction with the brand online, to find the information they want in a convenient way. The website is not just a critical opportunity for collecting zero-party data like preferences and consent, it’s also one of the cheapest and most efficient methods.

Account services.

For most consumers, the can’t-miss brand interaction is the payment process. Learn how and when your customers want to be billed and find innovative ways to remind them. You’ll be rewarded with improved receivables collection and data applicable to new sales.

In-store and point-of-sale (POS).

Many enterprise businesses maintain physical locations where key tasks are handled through human interaction. While much attention has been paid to culture and customer experience in the store environment, too little has been directed at customer data collection and distribution. Arm your staff with timely data and give them the opportunity to add to the customer profile.

Social media.

As more and more customers utilize social media for interaction with each other and brands, enterprises must stay ahead of new technology adoption to continue to remain relevant and connected with their customer base. The addition of a communication channel becomes a value-add reason to reach out to a customer to further enhance the relationship and better understand the customer’s profile.

Where to Collect Customer Consent and Preferences

Customers view companies as one entity, not as individual business units or discrete functional groups (e.g. sales, customer support, and so forth). In order to support customers’ expectations, zero-party data collection should take place across the full spectrum of prospect and customer interactions.

Enterprise-level businesses engage in complex interactions that include an expanding combination of in-person and virtual. It’s essential to collect and react to information from all touchpoints such as call centers, social media and mobile devices, not just the easy or inexpensive ones (e.g. email or websites).

It’s also imperative that once customer data is collected at a given touchpoint, it’s passed seamlessly across the organization. A customer dialing-in to a call center expects the ability to change or update their personal profile information for all communication channels as part of that transaction. Enterprises should take advantage of every interaction to build trust and establish deeper relationships, understanding and ultimately better servicing their customers’ needs from start to finish

Collection Interfaces

The conversational model of customer data collection demands convenient, timely, branded experiences
that seamlessly align with the customer’s priorities in a given interaction.

For example, a customer completing an online product warranty is unlikely to be willing or interested to spend additional time predicting future purchases or stating marketing preferences related to new products. Their priority during the warranty process relates to the product already purchased and the sellers’ ability to support that product through its lifecycle. Leveraging that opportunity to secure product support preferences is a natural extension of the interaction initiated by the customer and valuable in its own right.

With this principle in mind, the design and functionality of collection interfaces require customer-centric
decision-making.

1. Define the value. What’s in it for me? Unless a customer is convinced that you can deliver relevant, timely information that’s important to them, they are unlikely to stay in the conversation. Reciprocity of value begins with the company — make a clear statement of value and customers will respond positively.
2. Provide communication options that suit customers’ needs and wants. Using a “one-size-fitsall” marketing approach weakens the value proposition and suggests the entire relationship will be inflexible and on the company’s terms. Make it easy for customers to select channels, topics of interest, and frequency of communication that works for them.
3. Invite customers to join a conversation, not a monologue. Establish feedback patterns that make it clear the company wants to listen and will tailor the experience around a customer’s evolving needs. Understanding how to respond is just as critical as the decision to engage at all.
4. Clearly state how the company will use a customer’s information. Explain why the customer data is being collected and how it will be used. This initiates a cycle of reinforced trust and transparency, and customers reward companies that make and keep promises about value, privacy and relevance.
5. Establish a clear path to opting out. Customers are far more likely to start a relationship if they own the ability to end it someday. The ability to modify or revoke consent is a key component to building trust and companies must be clear that they provide it.
6. Offer the ability to “opt-in” through a thoughtful, branded experience. Reward interested customers with an opt-in experience that is clearly branded from start to finish. All too often, opt-in screens and messages represent un-branded interruptions that feel cheap, careless and disconnected.
7. Don’t bombard customers with communication requests. Ask early but not over and over. Respect a customer’s awareness of the initial offer and make it good enough to earn their careful consideration. Nagging and prompting for communication through various channels suggests the relationship you’re asking for will be equally annoying.
8. Keep it simple. Ask only for key data points that will clearly aid in delivering a better experience for the customer. Lengthy forms and fields that don’t relate to the task at hand are aggravating and create suspicion about how the company plans to use the information.
9. Ask at the right time. In other words, position opt-in requests to coincide with positive brand interactions. If the customer is engaging with a brand to resolve a complaint, make sure it’s addressed to their satisfaction before asking to elevate the relationship.
10. Listen and learn. Companies with active social media listening tools can spot organic opportunities for an opt-in and react quickly to capture them. A compliment on Twitter or engagement on LinkedIn represents a wonderful starting point for a more engaged relationship — be prepared to act on it!

Conclusion:

Course-Correcting from Early Implementation

Customer data collection is an evolving process and is never really considered “complete.” To use a corollary to the personalized marketing mantra, the key is to elicit the right data, from the right customers, at the right time.

The underlying framework and functionality for collecting customers’ permissions and consents and responding to their preferences and insights, should be relatively stable. However, the content and context of data collection mechanisms must be agile and adaptable.

Sustaining agility to meet rapidly changing business and customer needs requires that solutions be constructed with “dynamic content” and the content owners (typically the business) in mind. When the content (in this case, customers’ data) is used to drive changes to other processes, the challenge of keeping both systems and processes in sync is compounded.

Critical junctures following customer data management implementation include:

Analysis and reporting:

With a useful data set in hand, companies can review customer behavior and responses and measure them against pre-determined goals. Are opt-outs being converted to targeted opt-ins? Is the business unit in question experiencing a reduction in prospect churn? Are customers selecting paperless communication in meaningful numbers?

Creative review:

Based on the findings described above, it may be advisable to review screen and interaction layouts to improve customer comprehension and speed the conversion process. An example of this would be persistent bounces (site departures) from a given screen – a classic symptom of unmet expectations. Review the screen to ensure that fields and interaction points are clear and
unmistakable.

Content review:

Much like the design review, the customer data management content must also be assessed in light of early data. The relative length and complexity of information a company solicits from a customer at a given interaction point is a typical target for adjustment. If the ask is too short, a valuable opportunity is missed and favorable results are slowed. If the ask is too complicated or too long, customers will exit the interaction altogether.

About PossibleNOW

PossibleNOW is the pioneer and leader in customer consent, preference, and regulatory compliance solutions. We leverage our MyPreferences technology, processes, and services to enable relevant, trusted, and compliant customer interactions. Our platform empowers the collection, centralization, and distribution of customer communication consent and preferences across the
enterprise. DNCSolution addresses Do Not Contact regulations such as TCPA, CAN-SPAM and CASL, allowing companies to adhere to DNC requirements, backed by our 100% compliance guarantee.

PossibleNOW’s strategic consultants take a holistic approach, leveraging years of experience when creating strategic roadmaps, planning technology deployments, and designing customer interfaces. PossibleNOW is purpose-built to help large, complex organizations improve customer experiences and loyalty while mitigating compliance risk.