Recently there was an outbreak of e coli in lettuce across North America. Usually, you hear about things like this on the news, a friend or family member. This time was different for me.
My grocery store, Loblaws sent me an email about it. Specifically, they called out the fact that according to their records I had recently purchased “affected product”.
For me, this was an incredible example of using customer data to better serve the customer. At Loblaws, I have a points, or loyalty card that I use every time I shop. They typically use this data to better understand who I am as a customer, what promotions I would like and ultimately how they can increase my lifetime value to them.
People are often skeptical of loyalty programs like this because of the data you give up in exchange for a few perks. For me, and I think the majority of people, we are happy to give up a little bit of privacy and personal data when companies use it to provide powerful benefits like this.