First Party Data Drives Trust in Customer Engagement

By Ved Antani, Vice President, Engineering and Managing Director, Twilio India

In today’s digital landscape, data has emerged as one of the most critical assets for a business to deliver a competitive brand experience. Currently, most companies are increasingly focusing on collecting, storing, and using third-party customer data from various sources to gain insights and build a strong connection with their customers. According to the 2022  State of Customer Engagement Report , 78% of Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) companies rely on third-party cookies to deliver personalised experiences to attract customers. However, businesses are losing customer trust in the process of trying to build a connection. The report shows that while 90% of B2C companies in APJ believe consumers trust their ability to protect data, only 71% of consumers actually trust these companies.

Losing trust can severely affect the bottom line since customer trust is the primary currency for businesses functioning in today’s competitive market landscape. In an age where customers have unprecedented options to choose from, how do businesses develop a solid foundation of customer trust?

Engaging frequently with a personal touch:  The level of interactions with customers has a significant impact on building their confidence and top of the mind brand recall. Cultivating a positive customer experience with a personalised approach has emerged critical to every business’ engagement strategy. In fact, 83% of APJ consumers say that to increase customer loyalty, brands should personalise their interactions.

Dependability:  It is crucial for businesses to ensure they are easily accessible on any channel of the customers’ choice. Being approachable increases the sense of safety which in turn enables them to trust the brand and adds to continued business growth. Today, customers want to shift conversations seamlessly in real-time between different channels. To deliver the desired level of service, choosing an omnichannel route enables the business to be where the customer is, and quickly respond to customer pain points across different channels.

Since digital is the foundation on which all customer relationships are built, engaging with customers across multiple touchpoints throughout the customer journey results in large amount of data.

This brings us to our next point of inflection…
Security:  Customers today fear the potential threats of their data being violated. 69% of APJ consumers want greater data privacy from brands to have a clear understanding of how their data is being safeguarded. Along with engagement, businesses must lead with security and transparency to establish and deepen customer relationships. To address these security concerns, new regulations and stricter privacy policies are being formulated. Additionally, browsers are banning third-party cookies in under 18 months, putting businesses in a hot seat to prepare for a privacy-first world in such a short time span.

When surveyed, more than half (55%) of APJ companies say that they are not fully prepared for this impending cookieless world. So how can businesses establish a trusted ecosystem and use customer data more consensually?

Addressing the digital trust gap with first-party data
There is an opportunity for businesses to build trust by improving data privacy and governance. Uncovering customer insights from first-party data has emerged as a significant aspect of winning customer trust. 83% of APJ consumers want companies to use only first-party data for personalisation. Hence, first-party data has become table stakes for survival. It enables businesses to deliver secure engagement by putting the customer’s priorities first. 96% of APJ companies agree that fully owning and utilising customer data will be their biggest growth lever over the next three years.

Modernising data collection methods to deliver trusted digital experiences
A robust customer data platform ethically collects customers’ data round the clock and offers improved data protection and privacy along with fully compliant security features which prepare businesses for current and future data privacy regulations. Such tools consolidate the first-party data collected and provide a unified and accurate 360-degree view of each customer’s profile based on their behaviour and activities across touchpoints and channels. This level of organised management of data throughout the customer journey can be segmented to analyse and target customers strategically, resulting in the complete value of the data collected. With the help of a customer data platform, businesses can exceed customer demands and provide privacy, personalisation, and exceptional customer experience, which significantly improves customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.

Delivering seamless customer experiences has become every business’ new battleground. While some leading companies are known for being customer engagement trailblazers, companies of different shapes & sizes can easily create personalised experiences with a robust customer engagement platform. With the combination of tools, data integrations, analytics and messaging required to deliver true one-to-one personalisation, businesses can provide unique customer experiences.

Building long-term relationships with customers begins with great data. With a first-party data approach, businesses can build direct relationships with their customers to drive authentic advocacy by resurrecting trust in every customer interaction. The cookieless world is fast approaching and only the brands that democratise this trusted ecosystem can empower their customers to be open to engaging and investing in their business, resulting in a competitive advantage, accelerated revenue growth, and strengthened brand mindshare.