Some things happen for a reason – right! This is certainly our perspective on the phasing out of 3^rd party cookies. Yes, they have been extremely helpful, essential some would say, to programmatically deliver online adverts to potential customers with automation at scale. They have driven new genres of Martech and Adtech which have all risen to the challenge successfully.

That said, the importance of respecting a customer’s privacy has been somewhat lost along the way and we cannot ignore that. Rather than seeing the passing of cookies as a negative, organisations should take the opportunity of viewing the company / customer relationship in a new light where there is trust and real value exchange. Creating an environment where customers want to share data because of the real and perceived value they will gain.

We have seen similar patterns in the past. In the early 2000’s direct mail was seen as a blunderbuss approach where customers were sick of poorly targeted communications and there was a huge amount of negativity from consumer groups. Now in 2021, we would say direct mail has largely cleaned up its act and with clever and precise targeting is a far more trusted channel.

Customer preferences and understanding them is key to creating a new approach. Having a preference centre (not a set of email opt out lists) where customers can self-serve and tell you about themselves, their interests (zero and first party data), their communications preferences and communication cadence requirements is a vital component of your Martech stack. It is also critical that all your systems are synchronised with your preference centre so that all channels are in step (omni-channel) with what your customer wants. Failure to do so will be seen as a broken promise and will impact the company / customer relationship negatively.

The passing of cookies does not mean the end of understanding your customers intimately. Your local baker, butcher or barber maintains a personal relationship with their customers, but this is not seen as intrusive. The barber may ask how your family are doing, or what your plans are for the summer holidays. Guess what, you tell him because you don’t see it as intrusive, you see it in the context of a trusted personal relationship. He is not ‘spying on you’ or watching your every move without your knowledge.

The bottom line is customers are happy to share information and give you their data and permission provided they (i) trust you, (ii) it is in context and relevant to the transaction / process (iii) there is some real or perceived value exchange.

So don’t wait until cookies are phased out to start thinking about your strategy moving forward. Make your customer’s preferences, interests and mutual value exchanges a priority. Innovate, experiment, and learn now – your company and customers will thank you.

Transcend360’s Preference Centre is designed to enable organisations to provide customers with a self-service Preference Centre. It comprises several components including a no-code preference widget builder, preference back-office application to manage customer requests (SAR and RTBF) as well as comprehensive preference analytical dashboards. For more information click here.