SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A survey conducted online in November among over 2,000 U.S. adults ages 18+ by Harris Poll on behalf of Transera Inc., a company which provides data analytics for customer engagement programs, provides insights into the American consumer's views on the trend of companies collecting and analyzing increasing volumes of data about customers and whether that’s translating into better products and service. Here’s a summary of the findings from the survey:

• Despite sharing more information with companies, only 25 percent of consumers feel that their overall customer experience has improved in the past twelve months due to increased use of personal data about them by the companies they typically buy goods and services from.
• Where many consumers are seeing the most benefit from sharing their data is in improved discounts and product recommendations. Forty-four percent of consumers feel that in the past 12 months they’ve received much/somewhat better relevant discounts, offers and special deals by sharing more personal data with the companies they typically buy goods and services from, 35 percent say they’ve received better product recommendations, while only 25 percent feel that they’re getting better online or phone customer support when buying a product or when they contact customer service and support.
• The majority of consumers (67 percent) would be willing to give companies access to at least some of their personal information in exchange for better service or products; however, that’s primarily limited to basic information. For example, 53 percent of consumers would be willing to provide their name, 35 percent would be willing to provide demographic information, and 34 percent are open to sharing contact information (phone number, address, email) in exchange for better, more personalized services/products.
• While close to half (49 percent) of consumers believe businesses that market to them have access to their online habits (e.g., web history, social media activity), less than one in five (16 percent) consumers are willing to trade online privacy (i.e., their online habits) for a better customer experience.
• Who do American consumers trust the least to use their data to the benefit of users? Fifty percent of consumers called out social media companies.

“With so much focus on Big Data and data privacy lately, we wanted to see if consumers felt that they were directly benefiting from the increased collection and mining of customer data,” said Rich Guth, SVP, Marketing, Transera. “The results show that at least a sizeable portion of consumers—25 percent—are indeed seeing some benefits, while the vast majority still aren’t. I see this as a call-to-action for brands to extract more value from Big Data in ways that can be directly experienced by their customers.”

A report summarizing the findings of the survey is available online at: http://bit.ly/1r3Yf5Q.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Lewis PR from November 12-14, 2014 among 2,037 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Transera@lewispr.com.

About The Harris Poll

Over the last 5 decades, Harris Polls have become media staples. With comprehensive experience and precise technique in public opinion polling, along with a proven track record of uncovering consumers’ motivations and behaviors, The Harris Poll has gained strong brand recognition around the world. The Harris Poll offers a diverse portfolio of proprietary client solutions to transform relevant insights into actionable foresight for a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer packaged goods. Contact us for more information.

About Transera Inc.

Transera makes sense out of diverse customer interaction data so that sales, marketing and customer service and support organizations can increase sales, retain customers and improve customer satisfaction through improved customer experiences. A pioneer in cloud-based analytics-driven systems for contact centers, Transera brings data together in the cloud from automated call distributor (ACD) applications, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) applications and other customer data sources such as demographic services so that contact centers can analyze, understand, manage and automate customer interactions in new and innovative ways. www.transerainc.com.