What do you know about your customers? How much of their information are you storing, especially in the online world?
These days many customers are concerned about their privacy and details that companies may be storing.
Information can be gathered when somebody visits a website, including the user's IP address, browser information and the pages they have clicked on – often including those not related to that particular site. Trackers also have the ability to use this information to determine browsing patterns.
You can see how all of this data would come in handy. It gives a company more insight into their consumer customer base, and helps them to see what their customers want and how they behave.
On July 14, Stephanie Clifford and Quentin Hardy wrote for the New York Times saying the company Nordstrom has even experimented with tracking customer movements by following the Wi-Fi signals from consumer smart phones. This is all part of a wider trend where companies are using the readily available, advanced technology to learn more about their customers.
But where is the line? The American organisation Consumer Action held a survey, in which most respondents indicated that they believe they have the right to control the collection of their personal information.
Yet confusion is abound on what customers know about online tracking. Half of the respondents thought that the law prohibited online tracking, while over a third did not know that detailed financial information can be gleaned just from their normal online habits such as shopping.
As well as that, just under a third of customers didn't realise that a mobile phone can be used to find your location. Overall sentiment was that online tracking of personal information is bad.
What can you do?
Ask your clientele what kind of information, if any, they are comfortable with you storing in a customer feedback survey.
Be transparent with what kind of information you do collect, what you use it for, and whether it is shared outside of your business. Display this information clearly on your website and you will appear more trustworthy and transparent.
Want to trial an Australian-built online survey tool?
Click here for a free custom-branded demonstration of PeoplePulse.
Exceptional Survey. Solutions