Written by Jez Groom, founder of behavioural economics consultancy, Cowry Consulting
At this moment in time, customers of banks, retailers, utilities and many more companies are being bombarded with GDPR communications.
Emails that take customers through to preference centres.
Letters with all manner of legalese and terms and conditions.
Forms that need filling in before a certain deadline.
No doubt, it's all been checked and doubled checked by the legal department to ensure every letter, word and sentence is compliant to rightly protect the company.
But who in the business is thinking 'Customer First?'
Who's thinking 'How do I make these communications compelling to my customers as well as being compliant?'
Who's thinking 'How do I have a meaningful interaction with the customer that is as valuable to them - as it is to ourselves ?'
These questions of give and take, and others can be answered using the simple and easy to use toolkit that lies within behavioural economics.
Take the simple principle of Reciprocity for example.
We know that customers will be more willing to do something for us if we first do something for them.
Are your customers downloading free material from you already?
Well, firstly take some time to thank them for that.
It doesn't cost much if anything at all but what it does do is create a social and subconscious contract between you and them.
By simply saying 'Thank you', you've switched a potential transactional contact point into a meaningful and relational one.
One that allows you to ask for some form of reciprocation.
In this case, it may just be a few moments of their time to update their marketing preferences related to this material.
It's that simple. It's that easy.
And it's a series of these simple low cost - no cost nudges that can help you get customers to opt-in, rather than ignoring them and passively defaulting out.
Cowry Consulting has identified the top 10 nudges to help your customers to opt-in and developed a GDPR - Nudging Customers to Opt-In workshop and guide.
To find out more get in contact with erskinestewart@cowryconsulting.com
References : The Science of Persuasion : Robert Cialdini, 1984
Image: Communication by it's me neosiam via Pexel is licensed under CC0