Geoff Wolf, EVP Client Strategy
$#%^#@*%)!
I recently changed to a new phone service provider and within hours of my new phone number being connected, I started receiving sales calls for the “owner of the house.” Yes, within hours!!! This is direct marketing on a steroids with a healthy dose of rudeness. I was not offered any “opt-out” of marketing offers during my phone call to set up the new account.
To make things even more painful, I was asked if I wanted my number listed in the phone book. When I replied “no,” they wanted $2.50 a month to suppress my name from the phone book. So, my phone number is sold within hours of agreeing to a new phone service and I have to pay a monthly charge for a lifetime to keep my number from being published in a free phone book.
I felt personally violated by the immediate sales calls and ripped off for $2.50 a month, at the same time.
It is safe to assume that anyone reading the Pulse has some interest in marketing. In 2016, marketing has come to include two very significant elements of human behavior that need to be seriously considered: privacy and dignity. Respecting privacy is most often limited to suppress lists, policy statements on catalog and web pages, diligently watching opt out rates and being a responsible “direct marketing citizen.” What is missing from our privacy policies and well beyond the spreadsheets is consideration of how any violation of privacy affects customer behavior. That is where dignity comes in.
What feels so lousy when our privacy is violated, or when we perceive it is not being properly respected, is control over our self-worth. This is where the departure exists from all the marketing data – Big Data, Little Data, Boring Data, Bad Data, or any data whatsoever, and we arrive into Neuroscience reality. I do not need to take a science course to know that when someone or something makes me feel bad, my brain and body retains that feeling, stores it and sends it back to my consciousness whenever something reminds me of the experience that made me feel bad in the first place. When is the last time you put your finger into a burning flame?
We all have read the marketing reports over the years about how bad customer service lingers in the minds, hearts and conversations of consumers. A privacy violation is not any different than a bad customer service experience when it comes to lingering feelings. Here’s the point – as marketers, what are we going to do beyond stating policies and endless measurement of privacy behavior within our customer records?
I would posit that there are two things we can do better tomorrow than yesterday. One is revisit the policies and reporting we put into place years ago and probably long since forgotten about, until someone harasses a customer rep to tears or threatens a lawsuit. Make sure your policies are relevant and accessible as they need to be. The second thing is to take the time to see how respecting our customers dignity may be addressed inside our brand purpose and stories. To the degree is it relevant to those brand promises, an annual review of those feelings will be most worthwhile.
As far as the experience with my new telecommunications provider, there is little I can do about it because the entire communications world, by definition, lacks privacy and respect. I left my previous provider due to total incompetence, privacy and otherwise, only to change to another provider who doesn’t understand responsible direct marketing. The good news is that we marketers are able to choose the retail brands we work for and can choose those that do make good choices when it comes to privacy. It feels good to work for those that do.
Need some help crafting a direct marketing strategy that builds relationships while respecting customer privacy? Call me at 913-236-2402, or email GeoffW@jschmid.com.
Tags: customer privacy, marketing data, neuroscience