The Privacy Paradigm - Why Ignored?

Imagine, you are a woman, traveling late at night, in a taxi, and share your phone number and address with the cab driver.  Once you reach home, you get bombarded by unsolicited texts from the cab driver, who now knows exactly how to reach you.  Creepy, right? 

This is exactly what happened recently with a woman who booked a cab through a ride-hailing app.  

The same could happen when a delivery person comes to your home and has all your details, including your phone number.  In my conversation with the business head of one of India's largest e-commerce firms, he mentioned that delivery personnel often use deceptive tactics to obtain customers' phone numbers under the guise of needing location data, and then resell it further. 

In today's digital age, the mobile number has become an identity in itself. It's linked to Aadhaar in India, financial transactions via OTPs, and more. It is how most of us are interacting with the world today. However, making this number public can result in unwanted pesky calls, harassment, fraudulent transactions, and even identity hacks.

While customers seek privacy and security of their mobile numbers and crucial data, for the selling Brand / Providers, there are significant implications, including:

• Damage to brand image (typically, in a company’s valuation, the brand image is about 30 % of the overall valuation) 
• Customer churn if this results in harassment
• Efforts in resolving customer queries and maintaining satisfactory results, and more. 

Importance of Privacy as a key priority for Consumers and Brand providers cannot be overstated. Over the years, the world’s largest premium smartphone maker has moved to position itself as “a beacon of privacy in a surveillance-rich world”, while a ubiquitous social media network is suffering as it fights against more stringent privacy settings. Entire industries are being upended and created on this pivot……so what can the Sellers do about this?   

The solution to ensure the privacy of mobile numbers of customers  is what service providers like Exotel offer through patented solutions. How does this work?

• The numbers of both the delivery person (food, products, cab drivers) and the end-user’s are masked
• Calls are then set up between the two entities, with none being able to see the other’s number
• By ensuring that chat or voice conversations between the provider and the recipient do not include sharing mobile phone numbers, end-users can feel more secure about their privacy.

At the end of the day, the customers will gravitate towards the brands they feel safe with, and that will build long-term Trust and Brand Loyalty. Brands are taking note and early adopters are already seeing the difference. The key to success now is to reimagine the customers’ entire lifecycle / journey with the Brand with these privacy safeguards in place, without compromising on their experience, and as always fast-movers will be rewarded.  Which is where Exotel, with its already available solutions, comes in to accelerate your move towards customer’s privacy.