Customer loyalty is often a major objective within Customer Experience. You can analyze loyal behaviour, for example from your sales figures or your CRM system. How do you find out about the customer’s experience with your organisation and how does this experience influence the intrinsic conviction (from the heart) and the loyal behaviour of the customer?
The topic of the moment; the new privacy legislation that will be enforced from May 25, 2018. Are we expecting a big bang or will everything work out? In any case, from the end of May the reinforced GDPR rules for the collection and processing of personal data will apply. CYS sees the new legislation as a positive step. Because transparency and trust; that’s what it’s all about, also within customer feedback!
AVG or GDPR; what does it mean?
The meaning of GDPR is General Data Protection Regulation. The British version is AVG and stands for General Data Protection Regulation. The AVG replaces the Personal Data Protection Act. This law dates from 2001 and you can imagine that it is no longer relevant on many fronts in today’s society. After all, the online landscape has changed enormously! That is why there are strengthened rules and obligations in the field of accountability and information provision for organisations.
Personal data includes not only name and address data, but also email addresses, locations, ages, IP addresses, customer numbers. All data that can be traced back to a natural person are personal data. It is important to consider this for customer feedback, as questionnaires are set at the location of a store or a service technician in the region, for example, and can therefore almost always be traced back to individuals.
The impact on customer feedback
Due to the research that CYS offers to organisations in the field of customer feedback, customer satisfaction and customer journey, responsible handling of the data we process is one of our priorities. With this as a starting point, we take both technical and organisational measures for the security of personal data.
What steps does CYS take to comply with the legislation?
The new GDPR legislation will have consequences for everyone. CYS handles customer and respondent data confidentially and is transparent in its communications. We have the resources to handle customer feedback and personal data in a responsible manner.
We briefly explain the 6 basic principles or processing principles and the steps we take to comply with the stricter legislation regarding personal processing below:
- Lawful, fair and transparent processing of personal data
Respondents must be clearly informed by both CYS and our clients what kind of research they are participating in. The investigation must be clear and appropriate and the conduct must be in accordance with the applicable rules and laws. CYS believes that a confidential and transparent environment is important. - Purpose limitation
CYS (as data processor) and our clients (as data controllers) may only request, store, use and share information for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes. We make it clear to everyone beforehand what the purpose of the research is (also for the respondents). - Data minimization
Only data is used that is necessary for the purpose and must be relevant. Not all data is necessary for a specific issue and we therefore do not lose sight of the purpose of the research. This is not just about literally minimising data. If too little data is used, an incorrectly incomplete picture of those involved may be created. We have the resources to tailor this to each project and are proactive and flexible in this regard. All data that is part of the research and the processing that is done is recorded in a written processing agreement. - The personal data must be correct
Controllers must ensure that data is correct and up to date. Respondents have the right to access, rectify, supplement and forget. This information can be changed at the CYS support department. If a respondent would like the above things and we as a processor have access to the relevant data, respondents can contact us by email or telephone. We will then ensure that this is addressed timely and correctly in consultation with the client (the controller). - Storage limitation
CYS can technically arrange with its own systems that the data is automatically archived or deleted after a certain period. This is flexible and dynamic, so the storage limitation can be set differently for each project. In addition, we can also indicate at a specific level which data should be overwritten. We have taken all measures to protect the rights and freedoms of the persons concerned and their data. Our customer feedback systems make it possible to manage this at every level. - Integrity and confidential
We attach great importance to a confidential environment. That is why we use an automatic encryption storage with logical access restrictions. Our customer feedback systems are therefore well secured. The exchange of data only takes place via secure connections where our network security is equipped with a firewall, antivirus, authentication and encryption. To guarantee the trust of respondents, customers and website visitors, we have recorded everything in a Privacy Policy. In addition, we work according to ISO-27001 guidelines and this certification will soon be official. CYS has a clear management system in which we know well how to deal with information security and in which the customer is central. And that coincides perfectly with the arrival of the new legislation!
New privacy legislation is positive for all of us!
Don’t see the new legislation as a block in your leg! The stricter rules are precisely there to minimise risks and prevent abuse. So it not only has advantages for personal purposes, but certainly also for organisations as we protect ourselves and our customers.
If you as an organisation can demonstrate that you handle your customers’ data in a transparent manner in accordance with the rules, you strengthen the relationship with the customer and customers see your organisation as a confidential body! This has positive consequences for your bond with the customer and they are more likely to provide feedback, remain a customer and ultimately even generate higher sales.
The result
The result is displayed as an absolute score, not as a percentage, and this score is between -100 and +100. In short, the higher the CES, the less effort customers had to make to be helped. The CES has a strong predictive value aimed at the future (repeat) purchasing behaviour of the customer. A three-year study by Harvard* among more than 75,000 B2C and B2B customers about their recent experiences with service requests via non-face-to-face channels such as telephone, chat, online and email shows that:
- 94% of respondents who indicated that they experienced little difficulty intend to remain a customer and make a repeat purchase
- 88% of this group indicates that they will also spend more
- Only 1% of this group indicated that they spoke negatively about the organisation in question
By comparison: of the customers who experienced more difficulty answering a CES question, 81% indicated that they expressed negative views about the organisation in question.
Measuring CES with CYS
With our software, you can measure and improve CES. Setting up your own research is very easy with the intuitive questionnaire tool.
*Harvard Business Review, 2010, Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman