PIMP My Customer Experience - Daryn Mason

I think everyone needs this............... Thanks Daryn

Q: How many times have you entered your personal details online?

Think carefully. Include e-commerce, price comparison sites, social networking, product/service/travel reviews, white paper downloads, the lot. Now, if you could have one Dollar / Pound / Euro / Ruble / Yuan / Rupee / Yen [delete as applicable] for each time, how much richer would you be? [Author = £1,273 at least!]

With all our digital wizardry, we still haven’t cracked this inconvenient time-waster. And with the prolific growth of mobile – where nobodywants data entry – the clock is ticking. It’s not the “elephant in the room”, it’s the elephant sitting on your iPhone (or Android).

Where is my PIMP? I’m talking about myPersonal Information Management Platform!

CX = Low Effort

We all know that providing low effort, frictionless interactions is a critical success factor for customer experience (CX). Yet time and again as online consumers we’re faced with those two fateful words: “Please Register.”

Sometimes our web browser has auto-complete functionality to speed up this tedious process, but it never quite does the whole job.

Data Management Platforms

I read a lot of marketing articles about 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-party data platforms to hone our customer targetting effectiveness for the benefit of brand owners, but what about a data platform to truly help consumers?

The concept of a PIMP (Personal Information Management Platform) is simple: a trusted, cloud-based intermediary, or broker who looks after ALL your personal data and selectively releases it to organizations with your explicit permission. No more redundant entry of personal data. A PIMP is fast, protects your security and gets you the best deals! Of course, it doesn't exist yet, but surely it’s just a matter of time.

Last year, I wrote a blog – CXM RIP – plotting the inevitable evolution of Customer Experience so eventually thecustomer takes control. The evolution from Customer Experience Management (CEM) to a Customer Managed Experience (CME). To enable this, we need an effective PIMP.

How Would It Work?

The concept is simple. On any e-commerce website you may register and purchase in the usual, long-form fashion, or alternatively click on an icon for your PIMP instead. After logging into your PIMP it may report, “Brand X is asking for your name, address, primary phone number and credit card details. Do you want me to release these?” There might be one or two more yes/no questions (e.g. “Always trust Brand X?”), and you’re done. No more redundant input of your personal details.  All just single clicks.

Of course, your PIMP logo needs to be as ubiquitous and recognisable as the Facebook or Twitter icons, but it has massive benefits for the customer.

• Mobile-Friendly – Smart brands are adopting a ‘mobile first’ policy. E-commerce transactions via mobile and tablet have just overtaken desktop purchases. No customer wants to enter long-form data into a small mobile device. A PIMP can safely broker online purchases with the minimum number of clicks. (Think Amazon One-Click purchasing, but for everything.)
• Speed & Convenience – By eradicating the need to enter a lot of structured data you dramatically reduce customer effort, enhancing the user experience and ultimately the overall customer experience.
• Error Reduction – Self-evident really. By having a single, validated version of your personal data, you will remove data input errors completely.
• Security – For a PIMP to succeed it would need to be unbreakable and unhackable; just as trusted as your bank.

 

What’s In It For The PIMP?

There’s massive benefit for the PIMP provider too. Think of Facebook on steroids. All of that personal information allows for true permission-based targeting and segmentation that brands would pay a premium to access.  There are many more benefits for any potential provider. [And worthy of a separate blog].

Why Are We Still Waiting?

The critical question is … Who can provide this platform? It can’t be an organisation with an ulterior agenda (i.e. selling you music, expensive gadgets, etc.) Do we trust social networking platforms to provide this?

Could it be a financial services company? (I'm thinking VISA, Mastercard, or even PayPal?) After all they must be trusted by most of us, we all have credit or charge cards? But have any of them shown a vision of the future that includes this level of innovation?

Nobody has seriously stepped forward to boldly take this on. It needs trust, vision and perfect execution. But we need it fast … please!

Is this just a pipe dream?  Do you think an existing platform will evolve into this?  Are you aware of anything in the planning process? I'm very interested in your comments?