For teams of front-line sales agents an AI technology innovation is paying dividends, especially within the insurance sector. The aim is to ensure that customers are feeling more understood and taken better care of. The aim is to enhance the outcome for both the receiver (customer) and sender (any organization hyper-focused on delighting their customers).
The term to describe this customer data type is ‘Zero Party Data’, Linh C. Ho, Chief Growth Officer, Zelros has explained to Digital Journal.
Forrester Research coined the term Zero Party Data in 2020. And in 2022, Forbes Magazine called Zero Party Data “the new oil.” Is it any wonder this data innovation is fast becoming an essential tool for any company on a mission to grow customer loyalty and goodwill?
What Is Zero Party Data?
In terms of defining Zero Party Data, this is built on the premise that it is the customer who drives the data share; they are the ones choosing to proactively and willingly share personal preferences with a motivated outcome: they want to be better taken care of.
According to Ho: “Think of how you might share with a real estate agent your top 10 “needs” in a new home. Or the way you list ingredients so your barista can consistently make your latte just the way you like it. Both are examples of how you help others–help you. You may be prompted with a question or two, but you gladly respond.”
Forrester defines Zero Party Data as: “Data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand, which can include preference center data, purchase intentions, personal context, and how the individual wants the brand to recognize them.”
As with all AI data innovations today, there is an appropriate spotlight on the ethical and responsible collection of any customer data.
Ho explains: “Protecting the data security of tech consumers is paramount. During the State of the Union address recently, legislators on both sides of the aisle showed enthusiastic agreement for creating what is likely to become federal privacy law protecting both children and adults. Everyone agrees: our data is worth safeguarding.”
He adds: “In the meantime, giving consumers control of the data share by asking consumers once, then protecting the data always–is critical. In fact, any company in the business of accessing prospect and customer data to create AI-driven recommendations, must be willing to put an ethics-guided stake in the ground around data collection. Then, back that commitment up by clearly stating how they enforce that data collection and protection.”
How Does Collecting Zero Party Data Work?
This responsibility for designing ‘what’ to collect typically falls on marketers and is often digitally driven. However, the ‘how’ the data is collected should be anyone who is customer-facing such as sales, customer service reps. The goal is to build out experiences that ask customers for information that they, as marketers, cannot infer, buy, or collect anywhere else.
This means, says Ho: “It could be created as an in-app preference center that requests specific, granular details about a product or service, or the creation of data micro experiences—mobile-friendly queries around pieces of personal information.”
What Are the Advantages for Marketing and Sales Teams?
These collected customer highlights then become the fuel that charges the data recommendation engine. When applied across all prospect and customer databases, this customer outreach refinement can lead to significantly improved lead generation, conversion, upselling, cross-selling, customer churn mitigation.
Says Ho, drawing on his own business experience: “In the case of the Zelros’ solution for insurance agents and customers—the ability to consistently make the right insurance risk selections for the best all-around outcomes.”
How Are Insurers Benefiting?
Even though the insurance industry was slower to having a strong customer focus than with other industries, it appears they are making up for lost time.
Ho notes: “More and more insurers are realizing the advantages of having a robust personalization and recommendation engine working for them 24/7. For example, our AI business platform solution creates actionable customer insights that leverage an insurers’ plus other third-party data. Because it is tailored for insurers in a highly regulated industry, the working AI recommendation engine follows strict Responsible AI standards that are validated by industry regulators.”
