With data security and consumer privacy seemingly always in the news, we recently brought industry leaders from TD Bank, Uber and Wealthsimple together for a deep-dive discussion on Data and the Era of Ultra Personalization.

Held at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, the hour-long panel covered everything from how data can be used as an asset to improve customer experience, to how businesses can quickly lose trust with their customers, to how brands can protect their reputation in case of a data breach.

If you missed the event, here’s a collection of the day’s best sound bytes: 

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On the difference between personalization and targeted marketing:
“We want to collect customer data and drive insights from it, but there is a huge difference in terms of intent. I think personalization is really about helping the customer with what’s important to them, while better targeted marketing is about what’s important to the business or trying to sell a product.” - Christian Nelissen, SVP Enterprise Data and Analytics, TD Bank

On consumers’ willingness to share their data: 
“Consumers are generally okay with an organization using their personal data as long as there’s a clear benefit to them. But what consumers aren’t willing to let go of is the trust they have with brands. They will quickly move to another organization if that trust is broken.” - Jennifer Atkinson, Partner, FleishmanHillard Highroad.

On using personalization to build customer trust:
“As a company that’s only three-and-a-half years old, we’re asking people to trust their life savings with a fairly new business. Because of that, every decision we make is to deepen the trust our clients have in us, and personalization is a big part of that. The more we can offer products and services to clients at the right time, that fit into their financial plan and help them achieve their financial goals, all of that is going to deepen trust.” - Rachel Factor, Communications Director, Wealthsimple

On Uber’s 2016 data breach…
“Like any company that goes through data breach, we didn’t intend for it to happen. But we also know that’s not good enough. As a business, you have to be upfront. You have to take action, you have to communicate with stakeholders, and ultimately, you have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” - Rob Khazzam, General Manager, Uber Canada

On taking responsibility for customer data:
“First, we always want to do the right thing for customers. We want to make sure we’re upfront about what we’re collecting and why, and ultimately, ensure our customers understand what they’re giving up. I’m a firm believer that if we’re collecting data there has to be a business purpose for it, and if we can’t articulate that in four or five seconds and make our customers comfortable with it, then we ought not to be collecting it.” - Rob, Uber

“Ultimately, as a company, if we’re asking for people’s data, we’re the custodian of that data and are responsible for it.” - Rachel, Wealthsimple

On using data to drive ultra-personalized experiences:
“It has to be an online experience that feels natural and comfortable to people. If you bank online, you want the products and services to be relevant to you. You want to feel like someone has put some thought into the experience, that “this reflects me, they’re talking to me.”” - Christian, TD Bank

On the limits to using customer data:
“We’re lucky to sit on as rich a data set imaginable in terms of the info we have on our customers. So, the limits we’re approaching is the trust issue, not the technology. Our organizational values drive a set of conversations around how we use data. The number one consideration is, what do we feel good about doing with our customer’s data?” - Christian, TD Bank

On the inevitability of suffering a data breach, and how brands can recover:
“For most organizations, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when a data breach is going to happen...After a breach, we recommend communicating with customers early and often, and updating them every step of the way. In the case of the recent Saks 5th Avenue data breach, their customers learned about it online. They received no notification, and then the company’s messaging was a little reluctant in terms of taking responsibility… In these situations, it’s important to remember that while you may have broken their trust, your customers can still be retained. Rebuilding that trust all comes down to how you communicate with customers.” - Jennifer, FHR

On the need for government legislation:
“Most companies look at government regulations and say, “this is going to be a challenge.”  But one of the benefits of regulations are they provide clarity -- it allows companies like Uber to build architecture that can keep up with the regulatory environment in the long run. Having that clarity will allow all industry participants to align on data privacy standards, the technology that is required to get us there, common ways of communicating privacy policies to consumers, etc. This would benefit all businesses.” – Rob, Uber“Whether or not we get legislation in Canada that’s equivalent to the GDPR in Europe, the landscape is evolving to a point where we should operate as if we need our customers’ consent for everything we do. If we don’t operate that way, we will soon need to.”  - Christian, TD Bank 

“With new data regulations coming into force this November, it would be wise for Canadian businesses to get ahead of the requirements and be transparent with consumers about how they’re using their data. Because consumers will opt in - it’s the surprise element that consumers don’t like and that’s where the trust breaks down.” - Jennifer, FHR

On what brands can do to protect their reputation:
“You don’t want to be on your heels. You want to be at the table with the leadership team and have this conversation as part of your proactive issues planning and crisis management. Run through the scenarios, have privacy and data audits completed, get internal buy-in on how you will respond to a data breach, and make sure everything connects back to your values as an organization. Having those conversations and making sure everyone aligned is really important because often we get into rooms with lawyers who don’t want to communicate with consumers immediately. They want to figure things out first. But that’s often too late.” - Jennifer, FHR