Privacy Best Practices: The Importance of Customer Consent in Messaging

Overview

Obtaining customer consent at the start of any conversation, be it with an automated assistant or human agent, is crucial, from both a legal and customer trust perspective. Below, Quiq will highlight some best practices for ensuring privacy and legal compliance across the ever-evolving messaging landscape.

Persistent Privacy Policy

For customers who have deployed web chat, Quiq provides the option to add a persistent footer that can display relevant privacy and consent information, as well as links to additional detailed policies:

Alternatively, a privacy message can be added into the chat header as well:

The important thing to take away from both examples above, is that your users can always quickly and easily access relevant privacy information, regardless of where they are in their web chat conversation.

Get Consent at the Beginning of the Conversation

If your users are engaging in a channel like SMS, Apple Messages for Business, or any number of rich messaging channels, where you do not have control of the header or footer of the chat, or if you’d like to cover all your bases from a legal and privacy best practices standpoint in addition to the chat disclosure, a disclaimer and explicit opt-in can be sent as part of first message to your users:

With this approach, you’re ensuring that your customer’s are giving explicit opt-in before beginning a conversation, as well as providing a privacy disclaimer upfront when one cannot be added to the header or footer of your chat.

Provide On Demand Access

It is plausible that customers may consent to the explicit opt-in at the beginning of a conversation, and then wish to revisit the privacy policy again during the course of their conversation. In addition to the persistent privacy policy approach outlined above, brands can also configure their assistant to respond to privacy requests during the course of a conversation:

While Quiq recommends the best practices outlined above, it is important to note that local laws and regulations, along with the requirements stipulated by your internal legal teams, may supersede or complement the aforementioned guidance. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you seek guidance from your legal teams to determine the most suitable approach for your company.

If you have any questions about the strategies outlined above, or would like to learn more, please reach out to your Account Manage.