Aussie consumers willing to trade data for personalisation

Communications service providers’ (CSPs) consumers increasingly expect a highly personalised experience, like what they get from digital apps and services, with almost 60% of consumers stating that they would increase their spend to engage with such services, according to a study conducted by Coleman Parkes on behalf of Amdocs. The study found that 40% of consumers would likely switch CSPs for a customer experience that adapts to their changing needs. This translates into millions of dollars’ worth of upselling opportunities for CSPs, as well as opportunities to attract new consumers.

The survey found that almost half of Australian consumers would be happy to share more personal information for highly personalised experiences; however, they would be unforgiving about poorly designed personalised experiences. If the experiences do not match consumers’ expectations, they can lead to frustration negatively impacting the brand and possible attrition. The survey also revealed that despite the benefits of personalisation, when it comes to providing holistic personalised experiences, CMOs find internal silos within their companies the greatest challenge to overcome — rather than accessing technologies or money to invest in marketing activities.

According to the survey, 47% of CMOs believe a lack of senior stakeholder buy-in, resistance to change and a belief that there is no need to further invest in advanced personalisation are hindering personalisation efforts and impeding the delivery of compelling brand experiences across all touchpoints. Gil Rosen, Chief Marketing Officer at Amdocs, noted that consumers keep evolving their benchmark experiences against the best apps and service experiences; the best app used sets the expected benchmark for the next one. This means CSPs do not compete within their category, but against all apps and experiences provided by new and existing players.

“Even dating and gaming apps serve as a benchmark, as well as the obvious suspects from the online shopping, banks or any other incumbent service providers — it creates the need for service providers to constantly strive to match those experiences,” said Rosen.

For Amdocs, the solution is for CMOs to work towards the unified goal of leveraging data more effectively for better product and service design, collaborating with multiple stakeholders (CIOs, CTOs, customer service and operations), and creating a cross-functional team to deploy, test and run applications across all customer interfaces with the brand. The survey also found that Australian CMOs are being too cautious in leveraging consumer data to enhance their personalised products and service designs. Survey results indicate that 75% of CMOs assume that consumers feel digital interactions are just a way to get more data about them. However, only 51% of consumers are concerned about it. This impedes CMOs’ ability to leverage the right amount of consumer data to deliver an experience that a digital-age consumer wants.

The six-market survey included interviews with 3600 consumers in APAC (600 adults in Australia) and 550 CMOs (110 Australian CMOs and direct reports), along with some deep conversations with CMOs in Australia and other countries across APAC.

Stephen Saw, Director at Coleman Parkes, urged CSPs to take advantage of the fact that consumers are willing to share their data to get an advanced, personalised experience tailored to their expectations.

“However, before this happens, they must improve their quality of service and instil trust in their customers about how their data will be used, and break down internal silos between marketing, sales and customer care,” said Saw.

A highly personalised experience, leveraging consumer data, attracts consumers and will make them spend more; 50% of consumers want their CSPs to provide similar experiences like that of online shopping platforms. Meanwhile, 60% of consumers are also likely to spend more if they have a personalised experience that adapts to their changing preferences, and 40% might switch service providers for such experiences. Although consumers want data-driven personalised experiences, they will only share data with those they trust, with 66% of survey respondents stating that they want their CSPs to be clearer with the personal data they collect and how they use it.

For most CMOs, money is not an issue, with only 27% of Australian CMO respondents mentioning budget as the main barrier to offering highly personalised experiences. For 64% of respondents, technology is the main barrier. While a substantial amount of their marketing budget in 2021 will go into marketing technologies, less than 40% of marketers are using their advanced personalisation Martech stacks effectively.

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