GDPR’s not just there for the bad things in life, like a data breach or a corporate fine. It presents a great opportunity for improved customer experience, deeper customer engagement, and increased sales.

Risk management?

Many businesses are using GDPR as a time to rethink how they engage customers. One notable high-profile example was the brewer and pub chain Weatherspoon which recently deleted its entire email database to widespread shock and surprise among marketing observers.

The Weatherspoon example is a tricky one but serves as a good discussion piece. In December 2015 Weatherspoon had their email database of over half a million records breached. This breach and its ramifications have explicitly influenced their thinking moving forward. A recent Wired article quotes a Weatherspoon spokesperson:

“Following the data breach in December 2015 Wetherspoon has been reviewing all the data it holds and looking to minimise. We felt, on balance, that we would rather not hold even email addresses for customers. The less customer information we have, which now is almost none, then the less risk associated with data.”

While I can understand the thinking behind this, it’s difficult not to see it as the “nuclear option”. Rather than engage with the issue (of data protection) they’ve gone around it altogether. Of course it’s possible to look at this in a positive light – with social media, apps and other forms of digital engagement, do I still have a commitment to email? But it’s not a realistic option for the majority of companies. They don’t need to fear – they just need to get organised.

The UK's Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, says she is frustrated by the amount of "scaremongering" around the potential impact of GDPR for businesses.

“The GDPR is a step change for data protection. It's still an evolution, not a revolution.”

I note with amusement that three big names in global IT and management consultancy all feature a ‘countdown clock’ on their GDPR web pages, mini-sites or apps, giving you the exact number of days, hours, minutes and yes seconds until GDPR becomes law. The message from them is clearly one of instilling rising panic: time is running out, second by second, and you’re running out of time too.

This has in fact become the privileged discourse around GDPR, and as a result it’s difficult not to get swept up in it – as, some argue, Weatherspoon ultimately did. But businesses shouldn’t look at GDPR as solely a compliance or security problem, they can reject the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt fallacy and take a more customer-centric, business positive approach.

The good news

There are many positive benefits that can accompany organising data for GDPR. These include but are by no means limited to the following:

• Improved systems and processes, efficiency gains. Companies offering data and analytics services have for a long time been extolling the virtues of having “one view of the customer” and breaking down silos of information and process. GDPR is the perfect opportunity to get on top of this – to get efficient, then stay efficient.

• Reducing the ‘Data Lake’ and making information easier to find. The data challenge of becoming compliant is actually an opportunity to review and clean data that has been neglected, mis-managed or disorganised. A task that has to be undertaken (i.e. deleting old data, consolidating data into a single database) may well be optimised to maximise the operational efficiency and quality of service of the business.

• Cost-savings. the number of applications in operation inevitably lowers costs and the need for resources.

• Brand benefits. As awareness of GDPR grows amongst the general population (which it is doing – it is increasingly covered by mainstream news, particularly following the Weatherspoon breach and its aftermath) brands can play the security, privacy and compliance message to increase customer trust.

As a recent Information Age article attests, GDPR should be viewed through the lens of opportunity rather than challenge.

It’s a ‘virtuous circle’: Properly managed, organised data means a better understanding of your customer. That means more opportunity to sell. It means businesses can deliver a better experience.

Better data means more meaningful insights. And more meaningful insights means better action. 
Win-win.