Customer World

Empowering customers in India - Indian privacy law set to change landscape

India is gearing up for enhanced privacy laws that protects customers. This can be a landmark legislation that can have lasting impact on consumers, data protection, data sharing and use of personal data & information. 

India has a not been privacy friendly state. Data sharing and exchange is done freely and hence it is not suprising to find personal information being freely available for a few cents. The proposed act or legislation seems to be all encompassing and can have a lasting impact. Take a look at some of the recommendations:

1. Currently, in India there is no legislation for protecting the privacy of individuals for all information that may be available with private entities. The legislation proposes to bring this to force.
2. Choice and consent of the indvidual before his/her personal information is collected
3. Information should be used only for the purpose it was collected
4. The individual should have access to his/her information at any time. He/she must be enabled to update or correct the information
5. Data controller would be transparent in his working as regards to the collection of personal data
6. Data controller is primarily responsible for its safety and use

The framework proposes:

• All forms of identifiable data be protected against under the right to privacy.
• It goes on to define what is personal data -..."to be able to identify a person, information need not necessarily be objective identification such as a person's name, but can be subjective information such as the opinion that a person is a "reliable" borrower or that a person is "expected to die of a terminal disease". It is also important to bring all personal information within this definition regardless ofthe format in which the information is stored."
• It also extensively takes into consideration Indian context - Aadhar program that uses biometric information
• Explicit consent or even approval from a regulatory authority may be required to be obtained to collect sensitive personal data.
• Processing of data in an automated manner must be avoided when it affects the vital interests of the data subject.
• The data once collected must be deleted after achieving the purpose for which it was
  collected.
• Privacy impact assessments to be conducted by independent authorities in the form of
  transparent audits, for the protection of personal data.
• Appropriate measures to protect the data of Indian citizens that are processed outside the country.

I believe this is going to have far reaching implications on how private entities hold data and process data. Also, information available on the web and information shared in social media will have to undergo scrutiny, as this personal data today is being used for commercial interests by many of the entities like google, facebook etc.

I have attached the approach note paper Download Aproach_paper.

I would love to hear comments, feedback and implications on this proposed law. And how marketing in India needs to adapt to this new environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Data is mine but we as consumers undermined it first!

There is a great article in Time Magazine which talks about "How companies know everything about you?".

There are many relevant points that are being made there but I really don't concur with all the blame &  privacy issues that are being made in the article. I agree with the need for privacy of my data and of course, am against littering of my personal information. But, before we jump of the hook and start  blaming the internet, industry leaders like google, facebook, twitter &  other data marketing companies, we as consumers need to think about the following points:

1. Free email : There is nothing called a free lunch right? When you have a free email id which you have  opted to take and use extensively, the companies need to find a business model to make money. Hence, they decided to build a business model around targeted advertising using the content and information that you access. The money they earn is being used to store our email data, provide uninterrupted access to your email, maintain the infrastructure etc. So, are we as consumers ready to pay for such services and also therefore define or give information access, rights to these companies on our terms? 
2. Customer aggregation platforms have done it for decades, so what's the stress?:  Television, radio station, newspapers did it for decades. The content that consumers watched on TV was subsidized by advertisers, broadcasters & electronic appliance companies to name a few - They paid to reach consumers and group of consumers like you. Every interruption of ' your valuable time' when you watch your favourite movies and soap operas is 'invasion of our privacy'. We chose to live with it, till new digital media like internet, mobile came-in. There were no laws to stop this invasion of privacy. The new media companies have now found a new method to hawk this information. Are we as consumers ready to pay subscription charges for such content and define access rights for this information on our terms?
3. Intermediation leads to social litter, disintermediation protects it: Any intermediator, we know, controls the information, prices and margins. This has happened time and again to us as consumers. The farmer faced this many decades ago as he could not get the right prices for his produce as the intermediators held them to ransom till disintermediators intervened and build an efficient supply chain. The banks are the age-old intermediators who have made pots of profits( and they make it still) by making money on our money!  I see many social media platforms as intermediators - I never was able to connect with my friends who I had lost for ever till they came-in and made it easy. I see it as a huge a benefit. But, the information they hold is a goldmine and they have to find ways to monetize it to remain in business. Are we as consumers willing to pay for being members of these social platforms - even a couple of cents, if we really find them valuable and beneficial? Therefore, we can define access rights to these platforms on our information on our terms? 

To conclude, what I see around me emerging is businesses like information vaults, personal information utlities (PIUs) firms like allow, Personal which talk the right language of consumer control but as a consumer I would like to know what are their terms of agreement with my preferred platforms - social media, TV, email service provider, communities on the Net am a member of, financial services provider, govt.( they trade social security nos. for a price too!) etc.. There needs to be terms of transparency, terms of portability, terms of usage, terms of enagement   etc. before we as consumers jump-in and start embracing these platforms.

Else, this will be a case of one more of the many fads that  we will fall into and we will undermine our data once again!

 

Dear customer, you are downgraded!

I recently received a mail from my favourite airline Jet Airways, that I have been downgraded! I am a member of their loyalty program for years now! And this is not the first time this has happened to me. It also happened in 2001 and 2002 too.

The letter read - "...since you have not had enough flights with us, you will be downagraded. Our Dynamic Tier Review (DTR) formula, unique to Jet Airways - DTR is an award winning, multi-period and multi-criteria-based tier review. It has no precedent anywhere in the world. With DTR, upgrade to the higher tier is quicker and tier renewal is easier. The DTR evaluates a member's tier based on Tier Points and Tier JPMiles earned....."

I was disappointed. As a customer, it did not matter to me if the DTR was award winning for Jet Airways! It surely did not work for me ( the downgrade letter was templated too with such high sound words and sentences!). 

It made me think about the structure of current loyalty programs across the world and their relevance when loyal customers like me are click away from the next best offer!

Here are some questions that came to my mind:

1. In a year of recession and tough 2 years for business, I was suprised how the DTR did not take care of this business environment. I did'nt fly so much as Jet would have wanted. So, Jet's view of my loyalty is transcational - fly more( at full price or premium prices and get rewarded more!). I too will behave the same way in the future, I presume. Question #1: Can't loyalty programs be flexible, adapt to new environment, and why reward only transactional loyalty?
2. Given the unsettling business environment that it was over the last 2 years, why would me even as a "fiercely" loyal customer, travel in Jet if the fares were not competitive. Finally, if there is no value, loyalty cannot be bought with points. Question # 2: When there is a challenge of intrinsic value in the product,  will loyalty progams deliver - No. It is better to focus on the product rather than upset customers. Companies must know, customers will move on in such circumstances!
3. I have been surprised with their loyalty program  not paying attention to customer experience, in spite of being a Citibank-Jet Platinum card member. Every time redeeming their upgrade vouchers was a pain. The little travel that I did in these 2 years, whenever I presented the voucher, I was told it was applicable only on full price tickets! Funny, not sure what world they were living in. Question # 3: Do companies that run loyalty programs pay attention to  such little details that affect customer experience? They took trouble  a few years back to invite me to their co-branded card, but forgot to look at my spends and credits to give me waivers at such tough recessionary period.The bank has no clue, whatsover.
   

Loyalty programs are still in their 1.0 version.  Imagine a product that has not changed for 25 years! They still are in an old world order - "spend with us to earn rewards". Sometimes they have to recognize the value that customers get when they are out shopping for options, may not justfiy the reward they earn everytime if they have to stay within these products/brands. They need to transform given the new environment and options in front of customers.

Customer seek value and surely are willing to pay premium for loyalty but recognition, surprises and instant gratification will need to be weaved into these programs - on the assumption value needs to be earned in the customer's mind & wallet.

Rest assured, this is not a rant but earnestly these are thoughts that I had in my mind and coming out of experiences I have had with such programs over time.  

 

 

Does measurement kill creativity?

I was reading an interesting article in a blog that has been in my mind and  have been discussing this for sometime - does measurement kill creativity? The article has some interesting points:

Many times I have been in a meeting with angry marketers, designers, or agency account managers because I was demonstrating that their ideas didn’t work. Didn’t work for the business that is. Meeting quantitative goals online, when you take the pain to define them, is something very hard to do; amazingly, people tend not to behave the way we would like them to!

To me, people who think measurement kills creativity simply have problems handling accountability. Businesses constantly face problems, and finding solutions to those problems is when creativity is at its most useful. Creativity performs best under pressure, and it’s measurement’s role to apply it.

I could not agree more with some of the points made here not just for online marketing but for any multi-channel marketing program. I think there needs to be a right balance between measurement and creativity across all media vehicles - TV, internet, direct mail, email, mobile, social media etc. Just blind measurement focus, tends to reduce the "need to experiment mindset" as everybody who is involved with the marketing programs then is worried about results and never try to innovate due to fear of failure. While on the other hand just being creative tends to be a silo and self-fulfilling proposition where there is very little 'acceptance of accountability'. Hence, there is a defensive approach to results and there always tends to be a blame game on how results were not truly measured, the metrics used was wrong etc. 

I used to, in my earlier job, talk of concept of the need for "IMAGINACTION" in marketing programs - where imagination without action and action without imagination, has no place in marketing programs. The account managers and marketers need to do both if customers need to be involved and engaged with their programs.

Customers know when to open their wallet - when you service them like nobody else!

We  have always known the importance of customer service and how it can boost customer retention and better word-of-mouth. But, the fact that it can help increase spend is an interesting statistic.

In a recent study, it is interesting to see that Indians value customer service the most!

Excellent customer service can push customer spend - Indians will spend 11% more vs Americans at  9%!

According to the same report, a majority of Americans report that quality customer service is more important to them in today’s economic environment (61%) and will spend an average of 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service. This average spending boost ties US consumers in third place with Italian consumers, only consumers in Japan (10%) and India (11%) have a higher average spending increase resulting from excellent service.

Here are some interesting additional highlights:

• Customers themselves spread the good news. Positive Service experience generates great conversations amongst customers and their friends.
•  48% felt companies are helpful but don’t do anything extra to keep their business!
•  21% believe that companies take their business for granted!
• When deciding which companies they do business with, it includes personal experience (98%), a company’s reputation or brand (92%), and recommendations from friends and family (88%).

It's time to put the customer at the center of customer service and do what it takes to keep  them surprised, engaged and involved. Not just satisfied. 

Banking - Savings is the new normal!

NY Times carried an article last week about the new kinds of banking services that are emerging in the post recession era! Some of the new names that they mention are SmartyPig, Kasasa, PerkStreet etc.

The concept is pretty simple these are simple online checking or savings accounts with an objective to save you from the grips of mega banks. They give you higher interest rates, help you achieve your goals with some smart savings plans, no surchage fee ATMs access etc.

I am not really sure how these new concepts work as we have seen online only banks, peer-to-peer banking come and go. But, surely what I seem to take out is that :

1. Customer are increasingly thinking more about savings today than spending
2. They don't want to pay for services that are hidden or having surprises. The need for transparency is becoming more and more important.
3. There is a need for these banking institutions to align their products to a customer's investment goals. Save-to-spend later is an interesting twist am seeing in these services or products.
4. There is a need to simplify banking and some of the services to make it more accessible to many.
5. It is also interesting to see community banks coming together to offer these services. The smaller banks looks like were far more closer to their customers than the bigger ones. But, clearly just transactional relationships will not be order of the day for the banking instituions.

How driving customer relationships will change over the next few years

At the Gartner CRM 2010 Summit, there were some interesting trends that were discussed. Here is what I thought were some pretty compelling points for marketers and companies to take note of :

• Relationships will no longer be company-controlled, but more company-guided – "Customers tell us which direction to take, we’re just going to guide it... more and more you’re going to give the customer the impression that they’re on their own, doing it themselves..."
• Rather than focusing entirely on employee empowerment we’ll be empowering the customer – "They’re going to write their reviews they may even select the price that they are willing to pay – Procter and Gamble is a great example. You don’t like the toothpaste at this price point, what price point would you like it at? Perhaps you don’t like the size..."
• Metrics are changing – Rather than how many times you answered the phone, how many orders you took, what were your gross margins, it will move to what was the experience.
• Corporate data and information will be more accessible - "We’re going to have to give customers more and more access to what used to be the ‘private’ information. No you’re not going to give out price sheets or privacy information, but more and more of your corporate data is going to be transparent to the customer. They are going to know why you ran a test or waited six months to tell the general public."
• The mode of ‘we tell you’ communications is changing to participation – "If you find your firm does not foster, encourage and manage participation with customers you’ll probably be out of business."
• Customer insight is going to drive a lot of what we do.

Here's a lovely company-customer pact

I have never seen this before - an agreement between the customer and the company.

It just outlines beautifully the organization-wide mission that employees have to adopt and the interesting twist is how customers agree to behave with  or treat the company!  I believe this makes imminent sense as relationships are a two way street anyway!

 

Crowdsourcing - When customers get together on unfair credit card interchange fees!

There has been a lot of talk and buzz around crowdsourcing. Social media too is shifting the control from marketers to a "network of customers" who influence product/brand preferences and purchase decisions. Many marketers have been using this power effectively. Here's an example of how customers have got together against what they believe is an unfair practice. The interesting point to note here is that 7-Eleven stores have provided the platform for consumers to get together and voice their concern. It's an example of a great platform owned by a marketer to get together with their customers'  for a cause. It drives authencity and trust between the marketer and their customers. Take a look:

" 7-Eleven has announced that its franchisees and store operators have collected more than 1.6 million signatures in the “Stop Unfair Credit Card Fees” petition drive. 7-Eleven says it believes this marks the largest number of signatures collected for a public policy issue on record.

The signature drive ran from June 22 through Aug. 10 at store counters coast to coast.

“Consumer response to this grassroots petition drive exceeded expectations,” said Joe DePinto, 7-Eleven president and CEO. “Customers share our frustration over the hidden fees that American retailers and, ultimately, consumers are forced to pay. They, too, want Congress to take action to regulate these unfair fees, which are the highest in the industrialized world.”

Interchange fees aren’t transparent to the consumer and assessed to store owners every time a consumer uses a credit card. These charges result in higher prices which are borne by all consumers, whether or not they use a card or cash. In 2008 alone, these fees cost American businesses and their customers $48 billion. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) 2008 State of the Industry data, on average, an American convenience store owner paid 63 percent more in transaction fees than they earned in profits."

If you as a marketer genuinely believe there is a cause you can take-up for your customers, do that with conviction. Get them together, become a platform for their conversations and they will surprise you with their response overwhelmingly.

Learning when not use mobile for marketing!

According 1-to-1 media, the mobile industry has a lot of learning to do from email marketing industry - esp. how not use it! Take a look:

Taking into account email's bad customer experiences with spam and email address sales, the mobile marketing industry developed its channel strategy around the concept that consumers control the relationship.

"When we hear that beep, everybody looks right away," says Steve Leonard, general manager at mobile firm Motricity, speaking about responsiveness to text messages.Consumers are now more willing to respond to offers via SMS because they know that no one will sell their mobile number and they can easily get out if the relationship doesn't meet their expectations.....consumer-controlled relationship will only increase as technology advances to allow mobile banking, purchases, and other applications. And while high-tech devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry are important to drive mobile's evolution....

The key to mobile marketing's future success lies in its metrics capabilities.... Calls-to-action like mobile coupon redemption or in-venue sweepstakes allow companies to track consumer actions to specific marketing initiatives.....

My View:  In India especially, this medium already has the effect of email marketeers' misuse. The amount of junk SMSs we receive is quite high. Also, many companies have started using it for mobile alerts, mobile marketing initiatives etc. Sometimes, it is quite a pain or does not get the attention of customers as it would earlier. It needs to be used judiciously and it must move away from regular transactional messages to relationship messages too.

Ideas are welcome. Any ideas to kick-start this thinking?