Be on the Right Side of the Trust Equation
Posted on 20/02/2019
Trust equals increased profits. The cold truth is that, if customers do not trust your company, you will have to work a lot harder to get them to part with their money. Data privacy can have a big impact on the trust equation. If your customers find out that you are using their data in ways for which they have not given their consent, you’re going to lose their trust pretty quickly. Happily, the converse is also true. When customers are aware that you are using their data responsibly, their trust for your brand will increase – and so will your profits.
Benefits of Respecting Data
Some consultants working in our field concentrate on the doom and gloom: the data breaches and the fines. By way of contrast, we always try and impress on our clients the positive benefits of treating their customers’ data with respect. Around a third of the data and compliance decision makers surveyed in a recent study by Forrester expected their compliance with GDPR legislation to increase loyalty, satisfaction and engagement from customers as well as improved brand perception.
Return on Privacy Investment
One concept that we are keen to enter the public lexicon is the idea of Return on Privacy Investment. This is a taxonomic sister of economic concepts such as Return on Security Investment and Return on Ad Spend that showcase how investments in the short term reap large rewards over a longer timeframe. Including data privacy safeguards may look like an additional expense on the balance sheet at the outset of a project, but the potential rewards of customer trust mean that these measures quickly pay for themselves.
Once a system with built-in data protection is up and running, the costs fall off significantly – but, crucially, due to the trust equation, return does not. Customers are already leaving data untrustworthy competitors and moving to companies where they know their data is safe. As people become more aware of the value of their data, this trend will only continue. Make sure that your organisation is on the right side of the trust equation.
For a calculation of your own organisation's likely Return on Privacy Investment, please call priviness on 0203 2878 243 or email us at info@priviness.eu.
