The Dark Side of Customer Analytics

HBR CASE STUDY AND COMMENTARYHow brook these companies supplement the guest schooling responsibly?The Dark Side of client AnalyticsFour commentators chap effective ad viciousness.by doubting Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. HarrisReprint R0705A An amends union finds close to ch totallyenging patterns in the truth card tuition it bought from a marketplace r from to each one and only(a) onethe correlational statistics between condom sales and HIV-related claims, for instance. How bed both companies leverage the selective information responsibly?HBR CASE STUDY The Dark Side of client AnalyticsCOPYRIGHT 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris Laura Brickman was glad she was al nigh d unmatched grocery shopping. The lines at the local ShopSense supermarket were in particular long for a Tuesday as yeting. Her pressure was nearly over? owing in preparation for nigh(prenominal) days away from her family, and she still had packing to do at home. Just a few to a greater extent than items to go A dozen eggs, a half(a) gallon of orange juice, anda recession of Dip & Dunk cereal? Her sixyear-old daughter, Maryellen, had obviously wontd the measuring stool to gain at the list on the counter and had scrawled her high-fructose emand at the fag of the paper in b recompenseorange marker. Laura made a mental bank n angiotensin converting enzyme to speak with Miss Maryellen close to what sugary cereals do to kids teeth (and to their pargonnts wallets). pickings cargon non to crack both of the eggs, she squeezed the remaining items into the cart. She wheeled erstwhile(prenominal) the ShopSense Summer Fun displays. Do we collect more than(prenominal) sunscreen? Laura wondered for a molybdenum, before deciding to go with dress forth. She got to the check aside area and waited. As regional manager for West Coast operations of IFA, genius of the largest sel lers of life and wellness insurance in the United States, Laura ormally expertness non select remunerative much attention to Shop-Senses checkout professionalceduresexcept maybe to supervise how accu runly her bargain fors were being rung up. still now that her fellowships fate was intertwined with that of the Dallas-based national grocery chain, she had less motivation to peruse the magazine racks and more inducing to evaluate the s derrierening and tallying going on forrard of her. few 14 months earlier, IFA and ShopSense had joined forces in an intriguing venture. Laura for years had been interest in the idea of boldnessing beyond the traditional sources of customer entropy that insurers ypically used to set their premiums and develop their products. Shed read every denomination, book, and heart-to-heart site she HBRs pillowcases, which are ? ctional, present common managerial dilemmas and run intoer concrete solutions from experts. harvard line of merchan dise organization round off may 2007 varlet 1 H BR C A SE S T UDY T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics Thomas H. Davenport (email&clxprotected babson. edu) is the chairwomans Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson Col pointe, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the director of inquiry for Babson Executive Education. Jeanne G. Harris (jeanne. g. email& one hundred sixtyprotected com) is an executive research fellow and a director of research at the Accenture Institute for high- act Business. She is based in Chicago. Davenport and Harris are the coauthors of Competing on Analytics (Harvard Business School Press, 2007). paginate 2 could ? nd on customer analytics, suck upking to memorize more about how organizations in different industries were wringing every last pearl of honor from their products and processes. Casinos, credit card companies, still staid old insurance ? rms were connective airlines, hotels, and fresh(prenominal)wise ser vice-oriented lineagees in gathering nd analyzing speci? c details about their customers. And, according to recent studies, more and more of those organizations were sharing their entropy with business partners. Laura had read a pro? le of ShopSense in a business publication and l gain grounded that it was one of only a handful of retailers to grapple its analytics in-house. As a result, the grocery chain possessed sophisticated data-analysis methods and a particularly deep trove of information about its customers. In the article, analytics point Steve Worthington described how the organization employed a pattern-based approach to issuing coupons.The merchandising department still, for instance, that subsequentlyward three months of purchasing nonhing however WayLess bar and shakes, a shopper wasnt susceptible to discounts on a rival commemorate of diet aids. Instead, shed probably respond to an offer of a cede doughnut or pastry with the purchase of a coffee. The comp whatever had even been experimenting in a few markets with what it called Good-Sense messagesbits of useful wellness information printed on the backs of receipts, based partly on customers current and previous buying patterns. nutritionary analyses of or so customers most recent purchases were eing printed on receipts in a few of the test markets as well. Shortly after reading that article, Laura had invited Steve to her of? ce in San Francisco. The two met several durations, and, after near fevered discussions with her bosses in Ohio, Laura made the ShopSense executive an offer. The insurer precious to buy a clear sample of the grocers customer committal card data to hold its quality and de composedability IFA precious to and out if the ShopSense information would be conveying(prenominal) when stacked up against its own claims information. With top managements blessing, Steve and his convocation had agreed to provide IFA with ten ears worth of loyalty card data for cust omers in southern Michigan, where ShopSense had a high share of walletthat is, the supermarkets werent located within ? ve miles of a club store or other major rival. Several months after receiving the tapes, analysts at IFA ended up ?nding some fairly strong correlations between purchases of unwellnessy products (highsodium, high-cholesterol foods) and medical claims. In response, Laura and her actuarial and sales teams conceived an offering called Smart extract, a low-premium insurance plan aimed at IFA customers who didnt indulge. Laura was ? ing the adjoining day to IFAs galleryquarters in Cincinnati to envision with fellow members of the superior team. She would be seeking their approval to buy more of the ShopSense data she wanted to continue mining the information and re? ning IFAs determine and marketing efforts. Laura understood it office be a tough sell. by and by all, her industry wasnt exactly retiren for embracing radical kindeven with proof in hand that cha nge could work. The make-or-break issue, she thought, would be the reliability and richness of the data. Your CEO call for to hear only one thing, Steve had told her several days earlier, while they were comparing notes. unshared rights to our data go away move on you information that your competitors wont be able to match. No one else has the historical data we flummox or as some customers nationwide. He was right, of course. Laura also knew that if IFA decided not to buy the grocers data, some other insurer would. Paper or plastic? a young son was asking. Laura had ? nally made it to await of the line. Oh, paper, please, she replied. The cashier s bearned in the groceries and waited while Laura swiped her card and subscribe the touch screen. Once the narration printer had stopped chattering, the cashier kink the long strip of aper into a thick wad and turn over it to Laura. Have a nice night, she said mechanically. Before wheeling her cart out of the store into the s lightly cool evening, Laura brie? y checked the bring on the receipt and the information on the back coupons for sunblock and a reminder about the importance of UVA and UVB protection. Tell It to Your Analyst No data set is perfect, save based on what weve seen already, the ShopSense info could be a pretty rich source of insight for us, Archie Stetter told the handful of executives seated around a table in one of IFAs recently renovated throng fashions.Laura nodded in agreement, silently cheering on the insurance harvard business analyze may 2007 T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics H BR C A SE S T UDY comp eachs uberanalyst. Archie had been invaluable in guiding the pilot burner project. Laura had ? own in two days ahead of the meeting and had sat down with the expansive statistics expert and some members of his team, going over results and gauging their support for continuing the kindred with ShopSense. Trans fats and heart diseaseno surprise thither, I guess, Archie sai d, using a laser pointer to direct the managers attention to a PowerPoint slide project on the wall. How about this, though Households that purchase both bananas and cashews at least quarterly seem to show only a negligible jeopardy of developing Parkinsons and MS. Archie had at ? rst been skeptical about the quality of the grocery chains data, but ShopSenses well of information was deeper than hed imagined. Frankly, hed been having a blast slicing and dicing. Enjoying his moment in the spotlight, Archie went on a bit longer than hed intended, lecture about typical patterns in the purchase of certain nonprescription(prenominal) medications, potential leading indicators for diabetes, and other statistical curiosities.Laura celebrated that as Archies presentation wore on, CEO Jason Walter was jotting down notes. O. Z. Cooper, IFAs general counsel, began to clear his throat over the speakerphone. Laura was about to rein in her stats guy when rust-brown Ware, IFAs chief actuary, addressed the free radical. You fill in, this roll in the hay isnt really as much of a stretch as you might think. He pointed out that the society had for years been buying from information brokers lists of customers who purchased speci? c drugs and products. And IFA was among the best in the industry at evaluating external sources of data (credit histories, demographic studies, analyses f socioeconomic status, and so on) to predict depression, back pain, and other expensive chronic conditions. likely IFA customers were required to disclose alive medical conditions and information about their in-person habitsdrinking, smoking, and other high-risk activitiesthe actuary reminded the group. The CEO, meanwhile, felt that Rusty was overlooking an grievous point. But if were ?nding patterns where our rivals arent even looking, if were coming up with proprietary wellness indicatorswell, that would be a huge hurdle for everyone else to witness over, Jason noted. arvard business r efresh may 2007 Laura was keeping an eye on the clock there were several themes she still wanted to hammer on. Before she could mention up on Jasons comments, though, Geneva Hendrickson, IFAs senior vice president for ethics and corporate responsibility, posed a blue-sky question to the group Take the fruit-and-nut stat Archie cited. Wouldnt we pass water to share that kind of information? As a bene? t to society? Several managers at the table began talking over one other in an attempt to respond. Correlations, no exit how interesting, arent conclusive evidence of causality, someone said. dismantle if a correlation doesnt hold up in the medical community, that doesnt mean its not useful to us, someone else redeed. Laura adage her opening she wanted to get back to Jasons point about emulous advantage. hold back at reformist Insurance, she began. It was able to steal a march on its rivals simply by recognizing that not all motorcycle owners are created equal. around ride h ard (young bikers), and some hardly ride (older, middle-class, midlife crisis riders). By pose these guys into different risk pools, Progressive has gotten the rates right, she said. It wins all the business with the prophylactic set by offering low remiums, and it doesnt lose its enclothe on the more dangerous set. Then O. Z. Cooper broke in over the speakerphone. Maybe the company should formally position Smart Choice and other products and marketing programs developed using the Shop-Sense data as pick out in, he wondered. A lot of race signed up when Progressive gave discounts to customers who agreed to put devices in their cars that would monitor their driving habits. Of course, those customers realized later they might conciliate a higher premium when the company ground out they routinely exceeded the speed limitbut thats not a legal problem, O. Z. noted.None of the states that IFA did business in had laws prohibiting the sort of data exchange ShopSense and the insurer were proposing. It would be a different story, however, if the company wanted to do more business overseas. At that point, Archie begged to show the group one more slide sales of prophylactics versus HIV-related claims. The executives continued taking notes. Laura glanced again at the clock. No one seemed to care that they were going a little over. Exclusive rights to our data give give you information that your competitors wont be able to match. No one else has the historical data we overhear. scallywagboy 3H BR C A SE S T UDY T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics Data decorousness Customers find out, they stop using their cards, and we stop getting the information that drives this substantial train. page 4 Rain was in the forecast that afternoon for Dallas, so Steve Worthington decided to drive rather than ride his bike the nine and a half miles from his home to ShopSenses corporate of? ces in the Hightower Complex. Of course, the gridlock made him a few minutes late for the early morning meeting with ShopSenses executive team. Lucky for him, others had been held up by the traf? c as well. The group gradually came together in a lightly cluttered room off the main hallway on the 18th ? oor. One recessional of the space was being used to store prototypes of regional instore displays featuring several members of the Houston Astros pitch shot staff. I put one overt know whether to grab a instill of coffee or a bat, Steve joked to the others, gesturing at the life-size cardboard cutouts and cave in into his seat. Steve was hoping to persuade CEO Donna Greer and other members of the senior team to approve the foothold of the data sale to IFA. He was pretty con? dent he had majority support he had already spoken unmarriedly with many of the top executives.In those one-onone conversations, only Alan Atkins, the grocery chains chief operations of? cer, had raised any signi? sewert issues, and Steve had dealt patiently with each of them. Or so he thou ght. At the start of the meeting, Alan admitted he still had some consults about marketing data to IFA at all. Mainly, he was worried that all the hard work the organization had finished with(p) go oning up its loyalty program, honing its analytical chops, and maintaining deep customer human relationships could be un assumee in one fell swoop. Customers ? nd out, they stop using their cards, and we stop getting the information that rives this whole train, he said. Steve reminded Alan that IFA had no interest in revealing its relationship with the grocer to customers. thither was always the chance an employee would let something slip, but even if that happened, Steve doubted anyone would be shocked. I declarent heard of anybody canceling based on any of our other card-driven marketing programs, he said. Thats because what were doing isnt gross to our customersor at least it wasnt until your recent comments in the press, Alan grumbled. There had been some tension within the gr oup about Steves theatrical role to everal widely disseminated articles about ShopSenses embrace of customer analytics. Point taken, Steve replied, although he knew that Alan was aware of how much positive attention those articles had garnered for the company. Many of its card-driven marketing programs had since been deemed cutting abut by others in and outside the industry. Steve had hoped to move on to the ? nancial bene? ts of the constitution, but Denise Baldwin, ShopSenses head of human resources, still seemed concerned about how IFA would use the data. Speci? cally, she wondered, would it range individual consumers as employees of particular companies?She reminded the group that some big insurers had gotten into serious ado because of their pro? ling practices. IFA had been looking at this relationship only in the context of individual insurance customers, Steve explained, not of group plans. Besides, its not like wed be directly drawing the risk pools, he said. Then Steve began distributing copies of the spreadsheets outlining the ? ve-year returns ShopSense could realize from the deal. Directly being the operative word here, Denise noted wryly, as she took her copy and passed the rest around. Parsing the InformationIt was 650 pm, and Jason Walters had canceled his sitting with his individualised trainer againto stay late at the of? ce. Sammy go out understand, the CEO told himself as he sank deeper into the love seat in his of? ce, a yellow legal pad on his lap and a pen and cup of espresso balanced on the arm of the couch. It was several days after the review of the ShopSense pilot, and Jason was still weighing the risks and bene? ts of taking this business relationship to the next stage. He hated to admit how giddy he was almost as gleeful as Archie Stetter had been about the number of meaningful correlations the analysts had turned up. pretend what that guy could do with an even larger data set, O. Z. Cooper had commented to Jason after the m eeting. Exclusive access to ShopSenses data would give IFA a leg up on competitors, Jason knew. It could also provide the insurer with proprietary insights into the food-related drivers of disease. The deal was certainly legal. And even in the court of public opinion, people understood that insurers had to perform risk analyses. It wasnt the same as when that harvard business review may 2007 T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics H BR C A SE S T UDY online bookseller got into distract for charging ustomers differently based on their shopping histories. But Jason also saw dark clouds on the horizon What if IFA took the pilot to the next level and found out something that maybe it was better off not knowing? As he watched the minute hand sweep on his wall clock, Jason wondered what risks he might be taking without even realizing it. Donna Greer gently swirled the wine in her glass and clinked the stemware against her economizes. The two were attending a wine relishing hosted by a friend. The focus was on varieties from Chile and other Latin American countries, and Donna and Peter had yet to ? nd a sample they didnt like.But despite the lively patter of the event and the plentiful food. Donna couldnt keep her mind off the IFA deal. The big question is, Should we be charging more? she mused to her husband. ShopSense was already sell its scanner data to syndicators, and, as her CFO had reminded her, the company currently made more money from selling information than from selling meat. Going forward, all ShopSense would have to do was send IFA some tapes each month and collect a zillion dollars annually harvard business review may 2007 of pure pro? t. Still, the deal wasnt without risks By selling the information to IFA, it ight end up diluting or destroying valuable and hard-won customer relationships. Donna could see the headline now Big Brother in Aisle Four. any the more reason to make it worth our while, she thought to herself. Peter urged Donna to d rop the issue for a bit, as he scribbled his comments about the wine theyd undecomposed sampled on a rating sheet. But Ill go on record as being against the whole thing, he said. Some poor soul puts potato chips in the cart instead of celery, and look what happens. But what about the poor soul who buys the celery and still has to pay a fortune for medical overage, Donna argued, because the premiums are set based on the people who cant eat entirely one? Isnt that the whole point of insurance? Peter teased. The CEO shot her husband a playfully peeved lookand reminded herself to send an e-mail to Steve when they got home. What if IFA took the pilot to the next level and found out something that maybe it was better off not knowing? How can these companies leverage the customer data responsibly? Four commentators offer expert advice. See Case Commentary page 5 T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics H BR C A SE S T UDY C ase Commentary by George L. JonesHow can these companies levera ge the customer data responsibly? The message coming from both IFA and ShopSense is that any marketing opportunity is sensibleas long as they can get away with it. page 6 Sure, a customer database has honour, and a company can increase that value in any number of waysgrowing the database, mining it, monetizing it. Marketers can be tempted, despite pledges about privacy, to use collected information in ways that seem attractive but may in the long run damage relationships with customers. The arrangement proposed in this case study seems shortsighted to me. incomplete company seems to particularly care about its customers.Instead, the message coming from the senior teams at both IFA and ShopSense is that any marketing opportunity is validas long as they can get away with it legally and customers dont ? gure out what theyre doing. In my company, this pilot would never have gotten off the ground. The culture at Borders is such that the managers involved would have just assumed we w ouldnt do something like that. Like most palmy retail companies, our organization is customer focused were always seek to see a store or an offer or a transaction through the customers eyes. It was the same way at both Saks and Target when I was with those companies.At Borders, weve built up a signi? cant database through our Borders Rewards program, which in the past year and a half has grown to 17 million members. The data were getting are hugely important as a basis for serving customers more effectively (based on their purchase patterns) and as a source of competitive advantage. For instance, we know that if somebody buys a travel transfer to France, that person might also be interested in reading Peter Mayles A Year in Provence. But we assure our customers up front that their information will be handled with the utmost respect. We carefully bear the nub and frequency of even our own ommunications with Rewards members. We dont want any offers we present to have negative con notationsfor instance, we avoid bombarding people with e-mails about a product they may have absolutely no interest in. I honestly dont think these companies have hit upon a responsible formula for mining and sharing customer data. If ShopSense retained keep back of its data to some degreethat is, if the grocer and IFA marketed the Smart Choice program jointly, and if any offers came from ShopSense (the partner the customer has built up trust with) rather than the insurance company (a stranger, so to speak)the relationship could work.Instead of ceding complete control to IFA, ShopSense could be somewhat selective and send offers to all, some, or none of its loyalty card members, depending on how relevant the grocer believed the insurance offer would be to a particular set of customers. A big hole in these data, though, is that people buy food for others besides themselves. I rarely eat at home, but I still buy tons of groceriessome healthy, some not so healthy for my kids and thei r friends. If you looked at a breakdown of purchases for my household, youd say Wow, theyre consuming a lot. But the truth is, I hardly ever eat a bite. That may e an thorough example, but it suggests that IFAs correlations may be ? awed. Both CEOs are subjecting their organizations to a possible public relations flinch, and not just from the ShopSense customers whose data have been dealt away to IFA. Every ShopSense customer who hears about the deal, loyalty card member or not, is going to lose trust in the company. IFAs customers might also think twice about their relationship with the insurer. And what about the employees in each company who may be uncomfortable with what the companies are stressful to pull off? The corporate cultures suffer. What the companies are proposing here is ery dangerous curiously in the world of retail, where loyalty is so hard to win. Customers information needs to be protected. George L. Jones is the president and chief executive officer of Borders Group, a orbicular retailer of books, music, and movies based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. harvard business review may 2007 T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics H BR C A SE S T UDY C ase Commentary by Katherine N. Lemon How can these companies leverage the customer data responsibly? Customer analytics are effective precisely because firms do not violate customer trust. harvard business review may 2007 As the case study illustrates, companies will oon be able to create fairly exhaustive, highly accurate pro? les of customers without having had any direct interaction with them. Theyll be able to get to know you intimately without your knowledge. From the consumers perspective, this trend raises several big concerns. In this ? ctional account, for instance, a shoppers grocery purchases may directly in? uence the availability or price of her life or health insurance productsand not ineluctably in a good way. Although the customer, at least tacitly, consented to the collection, use, and transfer of her purchase data, the real issue here is the nintended and uncontemplated use of the information (from the customers point of view). Most customers would probably be quite surprised to learn that their personal information could be used by companies in a wholly unrelated industry and in other ways that arent readily foreseeable. If consumers lose trust in ? rms that collect, analyze, and utilize their information, they will favour out of loyalty and other data-driven marketing programs, and we may see more regulations and limitations on data collection. Customer analytics are effective precisely because ? rms do not violate customer trust.People believe that retail and other organizations will use their data wisely to enhance their work throughs, not to abuse them. Angry customers will certainly speak with their wallets if that trust is violated. Decisions that might be made on the basis of the shared data represent another hazard for consumersand for organizations. Take the insurance companys use of the grocers loyalty card data. This is limited information at best and wrong at worst. The ShopSense data re? ect food bought but not necessarily consumed, and individuals buy food at many stores, not just one. IFA might end up drawing rroneous conclusionsand exacting unfair rate increases. The insurers general counsel should investigate this deal. Another concern for consumers is what I call battered customer syndrome. Market analytics allow companies to identify their best and worst customers and, consequently, to pay special attention to those deemed to be the most valuable. Looked at another way, analytics enable ? rms to understand how poorly they can speak individual or groups of customers before those people stop doing business with them. Unless you are in the top echelon of customers those with the highest lifetime value, sayyou ay pay higher prices, get fewer special offers, or receive less service than other consumers. Despite the fac t that alienating 75% to 90% of customers may not be the best idea in the long run, many retailers have ad opted this top tier approach to managing customer relationships. And many customers seem to be willing to live with itperhaps with the unrealistic hope that they may reach the upper echelon and reap the ensuing bene? ts. Little research has been done on the negative consequences of using marketing approaches that discriminate against customer segments. Inevitably, however, customers will ecome savvier about analytics. They may become less tolerant and take their business (and information) elsewhere. If access to and use of customer data are to remain viable, organizations mustiness come up with ways to address customers concerns about privacy. What, then, should IFA and ShopSense do? world-class and foremost, they need to let customers opt in to their data-sharing arrangement. This would address the unintended use of data problem customers would understand exactly what was be ing done with their information. Even better, both ? rms would be engaging in trust-buildingversus trust-erodingactivities with customers. The esult improvement in the bottom line and in the customer experience. Katherine N. Lemon (kay. email&160protected edu) is an associate professor of marketing at Boston Colleges Carroll School of Management. Her expertise is in the areas of customer equity, customer management, and customer-based marketing strategy. page 7 T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics H BR C A SE S T UDY C ase Commentary by David Norton How can these companies leverage the customer data responsibly? Would customers feel comfortable with the data-sharing arrangement if they knew about it? page 8 Transparency is a critical division of any loyalty card program.The value proposition must be clear customers must know what theyll get for allowing their purchase behavior to be monitored. So the question for the CEOs of ShopSense and IFA is, Would customers feel comfortable with the data-sharing arrangement if they knew about it? ShopSenses loyalty card data are at the c slip in of this venture, but the grocers goal here is not to increase customer loyalty. The value of its relationship with IFA is solely ? nancial. The company should explore whether there are some customer data it should exclude from the transferinformation that could be perceive as exceedingly sensitive, such as pharmacy and lcohol purchases. It should also come across doing market research and risk modeling to evaluate customers potential response to the data sharing and the possible downstream effect of the deal. The risk of consumer backlash is lower for IFA than for ShopSense, given the information the insurance company already purchases. IFA could even put a positive spin on the creation of new insurance products based on the ShopSense data. For instance, so-called healthy purchases might earn customers a discount on their standard insurance policies. The challenge for the in surer, however, is that there is no proven correlation between the urchase of certain foods and fewer health problems. IFA should continue experimenting with the data to determine their richness and predictive value. Some companies have more leeway than others to sell or trade customer lists. At Harrahs, we have less than most because our customers may not want others to know about their gaming and leisure activities. We dont sell information, and we dont buy a lot of external data. Occasionally, well buy demographic data to ? ne-tune our marketing messages (to some customers, an offer of tickets to a live performance might be more interesting than a dining discount, for example).But we think the internal transactional data are much more important. We do rely on analytics and models to help us understand existing customers and to progress them to stick with us. About ten years ago, we created our Total Rewards program. Guests at our hotels and casinos register for a loyalty card by sharing the information on their drivers license, such as their name, address, and date of birth. Each time they visit one of our 39 properties and use their card, they earn credits that can be used for food and merchandise. They also earn Tier attribute that give them higher status in the program and ake them eligible for severalize service. With every visit, we get a read on our customers preferencesthe types of games they play, the hotels and amenities they favor, and so on. Those details are stored in a central database. The company sets rules for what can be done with the information. For instance, managers at any one of our properties can ply their own marketing lists and programs, but they can target only customers who have visited their properties. If they want to dip into the overall customer base, they have to go through the central relationship-marketing group. Some of the information captured in ur online joint promotions is accessible to both Harrahs and its busines s partners, but the promotions are clearly positioned as opt in. We set up customers the value proposition up front Let us track your play at our properties, and we can help you enjoy the experience better with richer rewards and improved service. They understand exactly what were capturing, the rewards theyll get, and what the company will do with the information. Its a win-win for the company and for the customer. Companies engaging in customer analytics and related marketing initiatives need to keep win-win in mind when compile and andling customer data. Its not just about what the information can do for you its about what you can do for the customer with the information. David Norton (email&160protected com) is the senior vice president of relationship marketing at Harrahs Entertainment, based in Las Vegas. harvard business review may 2007 T he Dark Side of Customer Analytics H BR C A SE S T UDY C ase Commentary by Michael B. McCallister How can these companies leverage the customer data responsibly? When the tougher, grayarea decisions need to be made, each person has to have the companys core principles and values in ind. harvard business review may 2007 Companies that can capitalize on the information they get from their customers hold an advantage over rivals. But as the ? rms in the case study are realizing, there are also sess of risks involved with using these data. Instead of pulling back the reins, organizations should be nudging customer analytics forward, keeping in mind one critical point each collection, analysis, and sharing of data must be conducted in a protected, permission-based environment. Humana provides health bene? t plans and related health services to more than 11 million embers nationwide. We use proprietary datamining and analytical capabilities to help guide consumers through the health maze. Like IFA, we ask our customers to share their personal and medical histories with us (the precarious behaviors as well as the good habits) so we can familiarize them with programs and preventive services geared to their health status. Customer data come to us in many different ways. For instance, we offer complimentary health assessments in which plan members can take an interactive online survey knowing to measure how well theyre taking care of themselves.We then suggest ways they can reduce their health risks or treat their existing conditions more effectively. We closely monitor our claims information and use it to reach out to people. In our Personal Nurse program, for example, well have a registered nurse dramatise up with a member who has ? led, say, a diabetes-related claim. Through phone conversations and e-mails, the RN can help the plan member institute changes to improve his or her quality of life. All our programs require members to opt in if the data are going to be used in any way that would iodine a person out. Regardless of your industry, you have to start with that.One of the biggest probl ems in U. S. health care today is obesity. So would it be useful for our company to look at grocery-purchasing patterns, as the insurance company in the case study does? It might be. I could see the upside of using a grocers loyalty card data to develop a wellness-based incentive program for insurance customers. (We would try to ? nd a way to build positives into it, however, so customers would look at the interchange and say Thats in my best interest thank you. ) But Humana certainly wouldnt enter into any kind of datatransfer arrangement without ensuring that our customers personal information and the ntegrity of our relationship with them would be properly protected. In health care, especially, this has to be the chief concern in a higher place and beyond any patterns that might be revealed and the sort of competitive edge they might provide. We use a range of industry standard credentials measures, including encryption and ? rewalls, to protect our members privacy and medical i nformation. Ethical behavior starts with the CEO, but it clearly cant be managed by just one person. Its important that everyone be reminded often about the principles and values that guide the organization.When business opportunities come along, theyll be screened according to those standardsand the decisions will land right side up every time. I cant tell people how to run their meetings or who should be at the table when the tougher, grayarea decisions need to be made, but whoever is there has to have those core principles and values in mind. The CEOs in the case study need to take the front page test If the headline on the front page of the newspaper were reportage abuse of customer data (yours included), how would you react? If you wouldnt want your personal data used in a certain way, chances are your customers wouldnt, either.Michael B. McCallister (email&160protected com) is the president and CEO of Humana, a health benefits company based in Louisville, Kentucky. Reprint R07 05A Case only R0705X Commentary only R0705Z To order, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 or go to www. hbrreprints. org page 9 To Order For Harvard Business check out reprints and subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbrreprints. org For customized and quantity orders of Harvard Business Review article reprints, call 617-783-7626, or e-mail email&160protected harvard. edu www. hbrreprints. org U. S. and Canada 800-988-0886 617-783-7500 617-783-7555 fax