Reaching your customers with optimal customer communication is easier said than done. Which channels should you use, and which software and systems do you need to invest in to be ready for the developments of the next ten years? And what happens if you do not? The answers to these and other questions can be found in the trend report The four key trends in customer communication. A report created by and for customer communication experts.
Over the coming months, we will share the key insights from this report in a series of blog articles. The third trend in this series: privacy becomes the most important condition for collecting customer data.
“Between dream and action stand laws and practical obstacles,” wrote Willem Elschot back in 1910 in his poem The Marriage. Even today, laws and regulations define the space in which organisations and customers can operate. In that sense, nothing has really changed. Ever since we can remember, people have made agreements about how to work together.
Dutch, European and other international governments continue to set rules, on the one hand to encourage certain interests and on the other to protect people in more vulnerable positions. Still, customer communication experts are increasingly concerned about mega-organisations such as Facebook and Google, whose scale allows them to operate beyond the reach of existing laws and regulations.
For organisations, customers and society as a whole, privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue. Customer communication experts clearly see this as well. Customers will increasingly decide which provider gets access to which part of their data. After all, how far should organisations go in collecting customer data?
In countries such as China and Russia, big data combined with other technologies already leads to the extensive collection and control of personal data, reaching deep into people’s private lives. In China, for example, the government can identify individuals and track behaviour through facial recognition using street cameras. Customer communication experts currently consider this a step too far. People in the Netherlands value their freedom and, partly because they see these kinds of applications elsewhere, want to have greater control over who can use and access their data. Customer communication experts closely follow these developments to ensure they continue to engage their customers.
Customer communication experts fully understand that the GDPR is useful and necessary to protect personal data. They increasingly see people sharing large parts of their lives on social media without considering the consequences of their online behaviour. From that perspective, managers welcome the fact that governments try to protect people from themselves.
At the same time, experts are concerned about the growing appetite for data among certain organisations. One example is the cameras in Mercedes vehicles in the Netherlands, which are now used anonymously to monitor traffic safety for Rijkswaterstaat. Based on this data, Rijkswaterstaat improves road surface quality. It is the lack of control over mega-organisations that worries customer communication experts. The key question is whether this hunger for data is ethically desirable and whether it remains proportionate to the interests of customers.
For precisely these reasons, experts believe the GDPR is a good thing. However, they are critical of how it is implemented in practice. In their view, it mainly imposes limitations. Because of the GDPR, organisations often struggle to carry out their work properly for customers. Restrictions on sharing information in particular lead to frustration.
Customer communication experts would like to see clear policies on which government data is accessible and which is not. For example, it would be valuable to be informed about key life events such as birth, relocation, marriage, divorce and death. These life events are stored in different systems across municipalities, implementing agencies and central government.
However, the availability of this data to third parties varies. Marriage data may be accessible, while birth data is not. Some organisations, such as the Cadastre, make data available for purchase. Looking ahead to an ideal scenario in 2035, organisations would have access to all data that individuals choose to make available.
Today’s customers want to be at the centre, but making that happen requires data. Data about customer behaviour, which in many cases is protected by the GDPR. Various parties need to engage in dialogue to find a balanced approach together. It would seem logical for government to take the lead, but that is easier said than done.
Government organisations are traditionally conservative by nature. Experts in the public sector in particular note that alignment between multiple government bodies is complex. Government is not exactly leading the way when it comes to putting citizens at the centre. Still, debt collection agencies are attempting to develop shared solutions for debt-related challenges together with all relevant parties. However, two key players, the Dutch Tax Authority and UWV, are not participating. This stance makes it difficult to develop new solutions.
What challenges does your organisation face when it comes to customer communication? We are happy to think along with you.