You’ve invested in tools to gather data on customers, including transaction data for purchase history, buying patterns that help generate highly targeted offers and personalized messages. The data you accumulate helps you discern what offers are effective, which marketing tactics generate the best results, and your customers’ preferred digital buying channels.
There’s no question that capturing and analyzing consumer purchase behavior is critical to growing your business, but are you getting the most value out of your investment? If you are not using it to build relationships with your customers or sharing it strategically with issuers who are an integral part of your payments ecosystem, the answer is a resounding no.
The Pros and Cons of Data Analytics
Transaction data and analytics can help to attract customers to your website, convert them, increase their average order, and help to make personalized communications to build future purchases.
What data can’t do is build a true personal relationship with your customers. One-click purchasing and frictionless payments, by their nature, make the transaction process impersonal, because there is no motivation for the customer to form a bond with the merchant.
This ultra-convenient business model doesn’t become a problem until a customer disputes a transaction, typically bypassing the merchant and contacting their issuing bank directly. With stiff merchant competition, a single bad experience can result in a lost customer since they don’t feel a connection to the merchant.
Merchants can reverse this trend by using their CRM systems to engage more effectively with customers and capture data they can use as compelling evidence for dispute responses. In addition, sharing transaction data with issuers will help resolve a dispute before it becomes a chargeback, because issuer customer service teams will have sufficient information to clarify customer confusion or discern friendly fraud from true fraud.
CRM Systems for Nurturing Customers and Responding to Chargebacks
Regular customer contact derived from data captured in your CRM can fill the relationship gap created by e-commerce. Consistent communication featuring special offers or compelling content builds brand loyalty and creates a lasting connection with your customers. A strong bond may help to reduce friendly fraud, as customers may be less likely to commit a version of cyber-shoplifting when they don’t perceive the merchant as a faceless company that doesn’t care.
Your CRM system also has the capability to capture information you can use as compelling evidence in chargeback representment with customer and transaction data such as:
- Customer identity (email address, physical address, name, etc.)
- Purchase history and usage information
- Shipping details (confirmations)
- Contact history (email/phone communication)
Optimizing your customer and transaction data to prevent disputes and chargebacks helps to ensure that you are protecting your business – but what about the security of your customers, the very future of your business? Many fraudsters pursue vulnerabilities in select accounts, which, unfortunately, are considered small-scale attacks by today’s standards. Large-scale attacks on entire databases are increasing in frequency on a world-wide basis.
Data Breach Protection Best Practices
The larger picture in data management must include a view to protecting against vulnerability to data breaches. By employing these best practices, you can protect your customers’ and your own company’s data.
- Identify phishing emails: The most common cause of cyber breaches are phishing emails, the majority of which originate from internal staff who open fraudulent emails.
- Emphasize password security: Ensure that your employees protect your most sensitive data by requiring them to create strong passwords when they activate or update their accounts.
- Make sure confidential information stays confidential: Train employees against accidentally leaking confidential information and put measures in place to prevent ex-employees from accessing and distributing that data.
- Stay current with software protection: Install the most current and comprehensive antivirus and anti-malware software throughout your network. Have firewalls in place to prevent unauthorized access to your network.
- Conduct scheduled tests and audits: Cybercriminals constantly seek new ways to force a data breach. Conduct regular tests and audits to identify potential vulnerabilities and confirm that your data is secure.
Using data to nurture customer relationships and build brand loyalty should be an integral part of your marketing program. Making customer and transaction data available to issuers can be your secret weapon to fight back against unnecessary disputes and chargebacks.
Contact us to learn how data-sharing solutions can help ensure you get the most value out of your customer and transaction data and transform it into a powerful asset in your fight against chargebacks.