Consumers to brands: we want personalisation, but we dont trust you

  • Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022
  • Author: Tim Green
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Wary consumers are presenting brands with a major dilemma – they are demanding personalised services, but will walk away if they feel their data has been breached.

So says Twilios State of Personalization Report 2022. The mobile voice and messaging specialist found that 62 percent of consumers say that a brand will lose their loyalty if their experience is not personalised. On the flip side, 49 percent will become repeat buyers if personalisation is offered.

Thats the good news. The bad news is that only 40 percent trust brands to use their data responsibly and keep it safe.

Overall, Twilio’s report reveals the primacy of trust in the relationship between customers and brands: 60 percent trustworthiness and transparency are the most important traits of a brand, up from 55 percent in 2021.

It concludes that first-party data, or data collected directly from customers with their consent, is optimal for privacy. 63 percent of respondents say they are fine with personalisation when the data is not purchased or rented from third parties.

New policies from Apple, Google and others have made this more difficult, of course. And the report says half of the companies surveyed confess that this has made personalisation more difficult.

It also reveals the majority of businesses are still struggling to achieve personalisation across different platforms (omnichannel) thanks to lack of technology, unclear ROI, lack of accurate data, and organisational impediments.

Samantha Richardson, Principal Visioneering Consultant, Twilio, said: “With the end of third-party cookies coming to fruition next year, brands need to put a strategy in place to rebuild trust with consumers and move away from legacy advertising approaches towards a more authentic kind of engagement.

“Customer data platforms can uncover meaningful insights that will help build genuine customer-first relationships – and moving in this direction now is about when, not if.”