Digital People – Seamless Zero-Party Data Capture

by | Jul 28, 2022 | Blog, Technology

Entering the new era of Customer Insights

According to a recent Americans and Privacy” report from Pew Research Center, 79% of Americans are concerned about the way companies use their data. 41% of U.S. consumers regularly delete cookies, and 30% have installed an adblocker. This growing distrust has increasingly been reflected in corporate and government regulations.

“As obstacles to accessing consumer data grow, brands will need new ways to learn about their customers.”  – Forrester, Predictions 2022: Customer Experience

The societal move away from cookies and third-party data has triggered the rise of first-party data collection. Companies gather this data firsthand from its customers as they navigate their digital platforms. It can be extracted from behaviors and actions taken across websites, online applications, and social media accounts. If you’ve ever looked at a product online and then keep receiving ads for the same or similar products, that’s first-party data retargeting at work. First-party data is also used for making predictions and forecasting behavioral trends.

As brands are focusing at delivering more personalized user experiences, zero-party data has become increasingly relevant. Zero-party data (ZPD) is data that customers intentionally and proactively share in exchange for an improved and more productive service or for promotional incentives. It can include preferences, purchase intentions, satisfaction ratings, and personal contexts.

Both zero and first-party data can drastically improve business outcomes such as increased sales volume, reduced sales cycles, increased customer loyalty, and more. It gives an opportunity for brands to build long-lasting connections with customers rather than just maintain transactional relationships, but for this, they need to create meaningful moments and authentic experiences to engage and delight their customers.

Level Up your Zero-Party Data collection with Digital People.

 Digital CXO helping with plant sales on a website

Level Up Your Zero-Party Data Collection with Digital People

Digital People can have roles across all industries ranging from assistants, educators, influencers, brand ambassadors, and even companions. They are created to deliver pleasant and personalized services across every touchpoint of a user journey and are ideal vectors to collect zero and first-party data in a natural way and with the consent of the customers.

Soul Machines’ Digital People are powered by a Human OS which gives them the ability to understand the context, intent, and intensity of a conversation, and to respond with emotionally appropriate expressions and gestures. If connected to a camera, they can perceive the emotional state of the user and integrate this input into their response.

Human OS allows Digital People to provide meaningful and empathetic assistance to customers, and also to uncover the connections between users’ behavior and emotional drivers. The return on empathy is high-quality data that can help improve business outcomes.

What makes Digital People amazing Zero-Party Data collectors?

Get seamless information that is:

Sincere

Make the customers comfortable telling what they are looking for, what they like and value, and how they really feel about your products, services or brand.

Spontaneous

Collect Voice of the Customer data at the right time and through a natural conversation, making the customer feel heard and valued.

Emotional

Capture data through multi-modal communication, including voice, text, and video, tagging points of happiness, confusion, neutrality, or negative emotions during the conversation.

Detailed

Demonstrate empathy and boost the willingness of the customers to share more data and deeper feelings.

Compliant

Express sensitivity to customer’s privacy and consent and ask for verbal permission at relevant points of the interaction.

Use Cases

Maddy, Digital Product Specialist

Maddy is a digital product specialist for a furniture brand with hybrid spaces (digital and in-store). She greets and helps customers find the furniture that best fits their style and requirements. She showcases products with videos and 3D animations and updates her recommendations according to the customers’ real-time reactions. She learns their preferences, constraints, and price ranges and suggests package deals and financing plans when appropriate.

What to make of Maddy’s zero/first-party data?

– Understand customer sentiment around different furniture styles, origins, and materials

– Design pricing strategies around popular pieces of furniture

– Predict future trends to stay ahead of the market

– Allow customers to express their values with regard to sustainability and the environment

Matt, Digital Teaching Assistant

Matt is a digital teaching assistant that helps students with their homework and test practices. Matt’s interactions with each student are personalized as he learns their demographic, preferences, interests, goals, academic strengths, and weaknesses. When tutoring, Matt detects the points of excitement, interest, and confusion of each student throughout the course.

What to make of Matt’s zero/first-party data?

– Curate content and test practice to increase the student success rates

– Identify areas where students are struggling the most to improve the course materials and delivery, and reduce drop-off

– Provide satisfaction and utility metrics to better train the academic personnel

– Adapt programs to the student demographic

Zero-Party Data – It’s only the beginning

As the customers’ expectations move towards a more private yet personalized digital experience, zero-party and first-party data will become increasingly relevant for their engagement and retention. They are also an avenue for maintaining transparency since companies can show and prove how the information was gained, assembled, and managed. Data collection will take place at an unprecedented scale with the advent of the Metaverse, its decentralized infrastructure, and channels such as virtual experiences, e-commerce in games, and other digital forms of media. Marketers and advertisers must assemble a new portfolio of tools and shift to data strategies. Digital People can be positioned as part of this emerging tech stack bringing a human presence to the metaverse and capturing insights in a new way.

Read more on Soul Machines Digital DNA Studio, an end-to-end platform to create, customize, deploy and capture insights from Digital People.
Learn about our Digital CXO package, a preconfigured version of Digital DNA Studio to collect voice of the customers and build valuable insights for your business.