Once a month I join a group of international
expats, people from all over the world that have relocated to Atlanta. It is a
really great event; I meet folks that usually have some kind of interesting
life story to share. I make new friends every time I go. People help one
another out with all kinds of tips, especially if someone has just arrived in
town.
At the last gathering I made some interesting
observations while explaining to a fellow German what I do for a living. Since
Preference Management is a relatively new concept, I usually take every chance
I get to find out what people understand about it. Usually they have never
heard the term so I have to give some examples.
I usually start with a relatable scenario
about how banks communicate with consumers. Many people are surprised how it
all works together, from the call center down to setting personal preferences
at an ATM. But, people immediately get the idea. As a next step I give an
example of a consumer company. With my German friend, I could literally see how
her thoughts immediately shifted as she imagined getting piles and piles of
unwanted advertising in her mailbox.
Now, in Germany the shopping culture is a
little different. As you might have heard, Germans like quality. That’s why you
still find a lot of specialty shops that offer expertise that cannot be found
in discount stores. If something is offered for free or cheap, a German brain
usually connects that with poor quality. Or, they think there is some trick
involved – i.e. in exchange for the free item you will get huge amounts of
advertising because your information has been sold.
Overall, Germans are not into online deals
and coupons and don’t like to give their personal data to consumer companies. I
can personally relate to that, especially coming from the former East Germany,
where brands and advertising were non-existent. I remember how shocked I was
when the flood of advertising rolled over East Germany. It felt like I was being
thought of as naive; someone who would
buy anything that was put in front of me. People that could not resist were
seen as poor or not smart enough to look beyond the colorful ads.
With customer service, the focus usually
changes. I changed my friend’s thinking when I asked her whether she ever had a
problem with a product and tried to resolve it with a company. Of course she
had and she knew how painful it could be. I asked her if she would give her
information if it would result in a better experience when solving an issue
with a company. She agreed she would likely provide her
information. She could see the difference between the need for the company to
contact her regarding a service issue, vs. the company using her contact
information to try to sell to her.
By talking to my German friend, I can see how
my own attitude toward privacy has been changing over the years. I have lived
in the U.S. for 15 years, and am used to the American way of shopping. I am probably guilty of
giving away my information too many times in exchange for convenience. But
thinking about the conversation that evening, I made three key observations:
- People of different cultural backgrounds have very different understandings of privacy. There is a fine line between being comfortable with giving personal information or finding it creepy.
- As soon as companies can show a tangible benefit; for example, a customer service situation, people seem much more at ease with providing their information.
- Not
every benefit is valued the same by each individual. For some, convenience is
the most important. For others, convenience can be sacrificed to maintain
privacy.
Sylvia Kay is a Project Manager of the Preference Management Consulting division of PossibleNOW.
Hi Sylvia,
ReplyDeleteGood Morning.
It is a very interesting post. I am more curious about you saying "I usually start with a relatable scenario about how banks communicate with consumers. Many people are surprised how it all works together, from the call center down to setting personal preferences at an ATM."
I will very soon be dealing with PossibleNOW, it would be very helpful for me to understand if you can elaborate more about the above mentioned banks communication scenario. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Karthik