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ldquoTrying to lead in this areardquo Frye says
<p><strong>&ldquo;Trying to lead in this area,&rdquo; Frye says.</strong></p>

Personalization Requires Some Poking Around

Some consumers are OK with auto dealers and others collecting data about them. Some aren&rsquo;t. Some aren&rsquo;t sure.

LOS ANGELES – The rub of offering personalized customer information is it requires poking into people’s privacy to some extent.

Some consumers are OK with that. Some aren’t. Some aren’t sure.

“I think we’d all like to be dialed in a bit, but sometimes we don’t know where the line is,” says Charlie Vogelheim, host of an annual Automotive Customer Centricity Summit here.

Many Internet users take measures to protect their privacy. But complete computer confidentiality is an illusion, says Jeff Tognetti, president of DealerX, a digital marketing firm.

“There is no such thing as privacy” despite what some people may think, he says of today’s Internet shopping that systems can track. “People who once were anonymous can be identified. The minute you touch a website, they got your IP, device ID and browsing history.”

He’s referring to information-collecting marketers using data tracking systems and analytics. They may overdo it at times, but digital marketers hardly are on the same nefarious level as identity thieves or hackers.

The marketers just want to use cookies and such to cull what Internet shoppers are interested in, then provide them with relevant information. That way, a shopper showing an online interest in compact cars, gets a pop-up ad or email about, say, a Ford Focus rather than an F-150 pickup.

A conference attendee tells Tognetti: “Maybe it’s me, but I like being targeted,” if the information is relevant and valuable.

“We’re all immune to privacy,” Tognetti replies, adding, “everyone eventually will be targeted to more efficiently.”

Some dealerships take care not to offend customers with ads or emails that look like the dealer has pulled an investigation file on them.

“I don’t want people thinking I’m stalking them,” Andrew DeFio, dealer principal of Hyundai of St. Augustine (FL) says of his subtle customer personalization efforts. “It’s subtle; sometimes the consumer doesn’t know it’s actually personalized.”

In other words, it’s inadvisable for a store to send a customer an email like this: “Hi. We’ve been tracking your computer use and noticed your interest in Hyundai. You really seemed to spend a lot of time checking out the Sonata Sport 2.0L model on our website's inventory...”   

“Balancing Personalization with Privacy,” is the title of a conference presentation by Kevin Frye, e-commerce director for the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, a 15-store Milford, OH-based operation. It ranks No.15 on the WardsAuto Megadealer 100.  

“From the dealer side, we’re concerned with customer privacy and what may be considered creepy,” he says. “We see a big collision between big data and privacy.”

The Wyler group wants to avoid a crash at its place. Still, referring to targeted marketing, Frye says, “Today’s modern shopper customer wants a personalized experience, and big data and modern technology allow you to provide that.”

But he adds: “Personalization equals less privacy which can equal lawsuits” from some touchy consumers. “We’re in a gray area here.”

It doesn’t take a squad of private eyes nor the most sophisticated tracking technology to garner customer information. Frye gives an example.

A man sent the Wyler operation an Internet lead expressing an interest in a new Cadillac Escalade. A Wyler staffer subsequently went on the man’s Facebook page and learned from viewing posted photos that an Escalade the man owns was damaged in a traffic accident. (And his girlfriend was driving it at the time.)

A visit to LinkedIn provided more background information about the prospect. The Wyler Internet department also learned what inventory the man checked out on the Wyler website. Gathering such information helps the dealership understand customer wants and needs, and communicate with them accordingly.

“We train our people to put it all together, and also to be discreet,” Frye says. “Some consumers worry about overreaching privacy violations, but we can educate them on why we’re personalizing information.”

Wyler makes it a point to tell people what it is doing and why. “We disclose,” Frye says. People are told how to opt out. They’re informed of their privacy rights. They are directed to Wyler.com/privacy that spells it all out.

“We’re trying to lead in this area,” Frye says. “We tell people, ‘If you share your data with us, we can provide the better targeted, relevant information you want.’

“We tell them what great things we can do for them if they share their information. We want to get to know customers. Typically, the younger generation is fine with it.”

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