TY - CHAP
T1 - The Customer Fishbowl
T2 - Strategic Approaches to Customer Privacy
AU - Thompson, Frauke Mattison
AU - Plangger, Kirk
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Academy of Marketing Science.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Customers are living in a fish bowl, where they are open to regular personal information surveillance by firms that threatens their privacy. This customer surveillance includes the collection, usage, and storage of customers’ personal information, such as for example personal identification details, consumption habits, and financial data. Due to advances in digital technology (e.g., optical scanners, location-tracking devices, computerized databases, web crawlers), one or more firms are often tracking the consumption decisions and behaviour of customers. Firms face a struggle to maintain the delicate balance between customer personal information surveillance and protecting the customer-firm relationship. In the short term, a firm is compelled to seek personal information from its customers in order to construct more attractive market offerings that enable a competitive edge against competitors. However in the long-term the implications of a surveillance activity by a firm may bring a negative reputation among customers and thus may decrease the attractiveness of that firm’s goods. Therefore firms need to manage their customer surveillance activity in a way that protects customer privacy. This article seeks understanding of how firms view customer privacy and how it is currently managed using in-depth interviews with 25 key managers in a large financial services firm. In doing so, it proposes a typology of customer privacy strategies and offers implications for practice and further academic study.
AB - Customers are living in a fish bowl, where they are open to regular personal information surveillance by firms that threatens their privacy. This customer surveillance includes the collection, usage, and storage of customers’ personal information, such as for example personal identification details, consumption habits, and financial data. Due to advances in digital technology (e.g., optical scanners, location-tracking devices, computerized databases, web crawlers), one or more firms are often tracking the consumption decisions and behaviour of customers. Firms face a struggle to maintain the delicate balance between customer personal information surveillance and protecting the customer-firm relationship. In the short term, a firm is compelled to seek personal information from its customers in order to construct more attractive market offerings that enable a competitive edge against competitors. However in the long-term the implications of a surveillance activity by a firm may bring a negative reputation among customers and thus may decrease the attractiveness of that firm’s goods. Therefore firms need to manage their customer surveillance activity in a way that protects customer privacy. This article seeks understanding of how firms view customer privacy and how it is currently managed using in-depth interviews with 25 key managers in a large financial services firm. In doing so, it proposes a typology of customer privacy strategies and offers implications for practice and further academic study.
KW - Customer Privacy
KW - Customer-firm Relationship
KW - Strategy
KW - Technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125275116&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4_235
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4_235
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85125275116
T3 - Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
SP - 807
EP - 808
BT - Developments in Marketing Science
PB - Springer Nature
ER -