Jason Rose - Realizing the full potential of Consumer Identity

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Well, good evening. And thank you so much for attending the conference this year. I know for the past three years I've been in attendance and talking about customer identity, and I think the first year it was kind of like customer marketing. I'm not so sure about this. And then last year, I think GDPR really kind of broke on the scene this year.

Of course, we're here just ahead of the deadline. And I'm just curious by a quick show of hands, how many people in the audience are now working either with their digital team or their marketing team on identity related to customer? Just a quick show of hands. I see a number of people at the back. So this topic is growing in steam and potential to the point where as Martin mentioned, even SAP has stood up, noticed the trend and actually purchased giga in September last year.

So we're very happy to be a part of the SAP family, but really the potential of customer identity is really all about building these trusted consumer experiences online. I think you'll hear a lot about trust at the conference this week.

However, a lot of the times it's whether or not me as an organization can trust the person on the other end of the device. This is the exact opposite. This is how can the person on the other end of the device trust you as an organization to do the right things with their information while serving the need of that customer in terms of providing the overall omnichannel experience. And really this needs to be overlaid in what we call the customer journey, right?

That unknown state all the way through to a known loyal customer and at every touchpoint you're connecting the customer to your company or your brand you're hopefully collecting consent and other information about that customer to convert them into those loyal brand advocates, all built on a foundation that hopefully provides that customer experience in a data protection by design fashion, moving them from that unknown to known state. So let's talk about how we, how we get there.

And really a lot of the times, if you look at your company's website, mobile app, or other entry points for your customer, that relationship starts with an unknown user. Oftentimes clicking through that cookie ID token that comes up. You talk about an annoying piece of legislation that pop up box. I don't think it deters very much behavior companies aren't required to track it. They're simply required to put it up there. Terrible.

Now, GDPR, on the other hand is obviously a much more stringent set of rules and regulations that is gonna have a major impact on the trust balance between the consumer and the organizations for which they're doing work. But even at early stage in the process, enabling a consumer to self-identify themselves, provide a name, receive an offer, or a newsletter or some other piece of benefit for just simply starting the name.

And we believe in something called progressive identity, which is building that relationship based on information provided the CU by the customer at every stage of the customer journey. And this is a great example of art.com and really starting the process with just a name and an email address, no password required, no authentication required nothing simply name and email address, but even companies that can just do a minimal level of personalization provide hello, Jason, welcome back to the website, have a tremendous increase in their conversion rate.

And really, if we think about most businesses, we're really in the business of acquiring new customers, serving their needs and hopefully generating revenue at the end of the day. But of course, as that journey progresses, we want them to come in and create a full account and whatever we can do to reduce friction is really important in terms of increasing that conversion rate. I really like the presentation earlier. We talked about that convenience factor.

Again, a customer is not a partner. They're not an employee. If they don't like the registration experience, they abandon and go somewhere else, go somewhere else where it is more convenient and easy for them to sign up. So being able to do things like offering social providers, being able to use face ID on the iPhone or one of the biometric authentications on Android devices, being able to reduce the number of steps it takes for your customer to create that full account and access the services that your organization provides.

And then over time, hopefully being able to collect more information about the user. So interestingly, here's an example of a us retailer REI. You can imagine REI, most of you may not have heard of them because they are predominantly almost exclusively a us retailer.

However, as we got into the project, the GDPR requirements for this retailer really came to the forefront in terms of them being able to meet the needs of their international C client base. So this is something that's popping up on the global stage for even us domestic based retailers doing business online. So this is having a big impact, but in this case, you can see Reis actually collecting information about the types of sports I'm interested, I'm interested in climbing or skiing or cycling or some other experience.

And then they're able to customize their web experience based on this information, all tied back to that single account. So really delivering that cross channel omnichannel experience based on identity is crucial knowing who I am across devices, web entry points and brands.

Now, interestingly, all of this information name, email address photographs of course are all covered under GDPR. So we need to make sure that as we build these relationships based on customer identity, that we're taking into account the consent and preferences of those users. And I think the 60%, this is a, a study that was done by the Cy cybersecurity insiders group earlier this year of where and the readiness of people for GDPR.

And really, I think the headline here, and I think most of you would expect most companies are making progress towards GDPR, but there's still a large number of companies that aren't gonna be ready in the what is it? 10 days until GDPR comes into effect. So I think there's gonna be a few held breaths as it were, as companies work to close the gap between where they are on May 25th and GDPR coming into enforcement.

Now, interestingly, you know, GDPR was really enacted because consumers don't trust us companies with their data. You know, over 68% of consumers are concerned with how their personal data is being used. And I think interestingly, while GDPR is a European phenomena, you don't have to look very far in the United States. For example, the Facebook, Cambridge Analytica saga, that's been going on for the past several weeks to say that even consumers in the us care deeply about how their information is used.

So this myth in the us that privacy is dead and that we should put everything online is completely false, right? The consumers are very concerned about this. And how often does this happen to you? You sign up for a newsletter, you put in your information and then you receive emails on completely unrelated topics and information that you're not interested in.

And again, it's this type of behavior that gets propagated time and time again. And I know as the head of marketing for giga, it is always so tempting to say, well, that person's interested in consumer identity. Therefore they must also be interested and in consent or the latest software, the latest event, right?

So it's a, a continuous incentive for us to reach out to you because you know, on an email, 2% conversion rate is considered great. So the more people I can add to my list, the more people I can get to convert at 2%, the more success the organization is gonna have. And we need to flip that mentality to say, how do we find the 2% that have opted in and are truly interested in this information to maximize the impact that we're having? So we need to move the mentality from this collect data at any cost.

So I'm willing to bet many of your organizations are probably using something called data marketplaces or DPS data management platforms to get third party audience level data, marketing teams buy lists online all the time. But again, how often have you received an email from a company you didn't recognize and went, huh, that's interesting. I'm so glad they emailed me. It doesn't happen. It just does not happen. Right?

It's, it's kind of this crazy thing where if I could just put my message in front of you, it would resonate with you. So again, I think GDPR is a step in the massive right direction to say, you know what? I am in the market for an automobile. I do want the auto manufacturers to email me. I'm gonna go opt in.

And then, you know what, after I've bought my car, let me revoke my right. I revoked my privileges and be forgotten by those auto manufacturers, cuz I'm gonna be happy with my car for the next two or three years. Right. So putting the consumer back in control of that experience. So really how do we get from where we are today, where it's mercilessly spam the customer at any cost to putting the customer back in control. And I think like anything, a, a good, tough topic requires a maturity model, right?

So how do we move from where we are today, which increases in complexity from point single point interaction to multi-touch along the vertical access and along the horizontal access individual systems to full digital stack, right? All of the systems that interact with the customer and really this starts with preference and consent capture, right?

That, that ability now to gather consent, not just for the point solution that customer's on, but now being able to say, Hey, we're gonna not only use your information to personalize the website, but we're gonna send you a newsletter. Maybe we're going to share your information with a third party to do some segmentation on your information so we can better group you together and make you the best possible offer. Right? And the nice thing is, is guess what, hopefully now we can all opt out of all of that, right? Which I think is the reality of what's what we're gonna see happen.

But in order to do that, there's a big requirement here because if you think about many organizations and right now we work with one of the biggest consumer packaged goods organizations in the world, think about this for a minute. They have over 1,500 brands. Each brand operates in several different countries in each country. This company has an agency that's driving a marketing and promotion to the end customer. So 1500 brands, 200 companies, thousands of agencies, right?

So in order to meet the GDPR challenge, there's a real requirement to standardize how consent is captured and how profiles are presented. Right? And this needs to apply from a dog food brand to a water brand, to a coffee brand, right. And each one's different.

So, but at the end of the day, what's required to be collected is standardized. This information is then centralized because under GDPR, we need a way to look at that information and go, you know what Jason's information is stored in three different European union countries, across 10 different brands. And if he asks to be forgotten, we need to be able to do a quick assessment of where Jason's information is stored and be able to pull that information back and process the delete request and be able to do that across multiple geographies and multiple requirements.

Because again, if you think about that large CPG company, yes, it's GDPR in the United States, it's Cale and PIP, PETA and Canada. It's the, you know, the Australian data protection regulation, the Russian Federation has laws, the Chinese cybersecurity law. And I could go on and on and on. So this needs to be truly integrated across a global set of processes. And this information needs to be put into an audit ready environment. So finally, if a customer registers on one of your systems and you collect the data centrally, that's great.

But what if they've gone in through one of the other 100 systems that aren't on the central platform, we need to be able to pull all this information from across multiple systems. So there's a big pharmaceutical company here in Germany that we've been working with that while giga processes, a portion of the consent. They have another two to 300 systems where consent has been gathered in another fashion, but at the end of the day, they need to be able to report back to the authorities on what consent was received. What's the basis for processing and how they're complying with GDPR.

So they need a central repository to do that. And that gives them a system of record to look at in terms of the consent, but also allows them to build that self-service preference center that allows the consumer to actually see and view all the information that they've consented to across the multiple systems in compliance with, with GDPR, so that self-service preference center.

And here's an example on a mobile device of, of, of a user across their information, the terms of service they've agreed to the communication preferences that they've opt into so that they can see a consistent view of their profile and understand the data in a self-service fashion, opt in, opt out, download the information, delete the information as required. And this of course is customizable across any device across any website. So really this ability to have that self for service is obviously crucial to meeting those user rights under the general data protection regulation.

So again, building that transparency and control in for the customer and ultimately as you go through the layers of the maturity model, starting with capturing consent, bringing all the consent factors together into that audit, ready environment, putting the consumer in control of their profile, then you can achieve the trusted relationships. Now, interestingly, a lot of this is very visible to the, the end consumer and therefore very observable to the European commission as well.

So I think what we'll see is interestingly, the fines get a lot of media, attention and hype and everything else, but European citizens can actually group together and also bring class action lawsuits against players that they feel are in violation of GDPR. So watch out, I think it's gonna be very interesting to see what happens post May 25th and which companies are singled out because interestingly, I think a large majority of companies will still be on the wrong side of this issue. So we'll see how that all plays out.

Of course, once you have all of these piece parts together, being able to provide that omnichannel experience, bringing the information together into that self-service preference center, being able to manage your terms of service and preferences across the entire enterprise. You now have the ability to bring all of that data together, to use it across your digital journey, right? To create that total customer experience from very initial introduction through to being a known and loyal customer across all the systems.

If you look at the systems surrounding that valued customer, obviously, you know, the, the website is, is crucial. The mobile app is crucial, but also taking that into the physical world, the in-store experience, the call center, and also all those automated artificial intelligence bots, which are now gonna begin calling you mercilessly because now they don't even need the operator on the other end of the line. They can get the AI to do it for you.

So with that, you know, really it's all about being able to run continuous assessments to move up the maturity model, to drive that trusted relationship. And really, you know, if I think about leaving you with three things, one is using customer information to deliver that amazing customer experience, right? The last thing you want is to have a repeat customer coming back and not getting that personalized touch, but you need to do it in a trans transparent fashion that allows them to be in control of their preferences and in control of their consent.

Again, a mandate for GDPR, and then being able to unify that information across the entire digital journey. So it's consistent across all touchpoint. So with that, thank you very much. And I'll turn it back over to Martin. So thank you. Great.

Thank you, Jason. And so I think we do a little Q and a, and I'd also like to come Geor from our team to say, George Beza, who is amongst our, the organized, the blockchain ID innovation. Maybe we display our questions.

Oh yeah, there are some, and aside of that, he's for instance, also the organizer of our upcoming cyber security leadership summit in Berlin in November this year. And so, so when looking at the, the questions, so maybe one to the both few is so a lot of the stuff seems to be driven by a negative inhibitor, so compliance, but can you win customers by working with them instead of app using the data, maybe you start and you Answer. Yeah.

As always In addition to compliance, reducing company's potential financial and legal risks, it can also be, it can also play exceptional positive role with its interaction with customers. I think it's crucial for businesses to realize that being compliant can show their customers that they care about their data, data, privacy, and security, which can result in the brand loyalty. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. One of the examples that I had up on the slides is a company called AAU. Some of you may be familiar with the brand. They're one of the largest online retailers in Europe.

They actually target millennials. So if you want a group of digitally savvy individuals that will abandon a brand that they feel are not, is not respecting their privacy, it's the millennial generation, right? And as OS is taking a very proactive approach to GDPR and looking at it in a way that says every interaction with one of those customers is precious. And this is an ability for as O to get in front of the privacy wave and actually be more transparent, have additional touchpoint with those customers and provide even better experiences.

So I think companies that don't heed the warning and have their name drag through the mud on GDPR are on one end of the spectrum companies that respect the privacy of their consumers. And you can use it as a competitive weapon, I think is gonna become the new frontier. Yeah.

And I, I think, you know, I received masses of mail days saying, oh, we need your consent to spam. You continue spamming you. I delete all of these mails. Yeah. Yeah. Because you know, there, what is the benefit for me, you know, honestly, and I think it's trust GDPR understood wrong and done wrong. It's about what is the benefit for me sync what's the value to the customer from the customer sync outside in so chasing and Georgi, thank you very much chasing for your keynote and pleasure, Georgi to be quickly on the stage and great then let's oh, I need this one.

Not me, but checks might Need it. All right. Thank You. So thank you again, Tracy.