6 Things Customers Hesitate to Give You

Every time you buy something in person from a store like Target, Neiman Marcus or Best Buy, the cashier asks you if you have a membership with their store in the form of a membership rewards program or a credit card. Chances are you either have such a card or you are offered an application for such a card. Many businesses ask you for your personal information in order to sell you credit cards and rewards programs to make more money. While such trends are very popular, businesses also realize that customers are very hesitant to hand out their sensitive information.

Your business and blog can perform better if you asked customers information that they are not hesitant to give to you. You can also work harder to make customers feel at ease when you ask them very sensitive information that a potential scammer could misuse. If you ask customers for their real full names while your competitor only needs their e-mail address for the same product or service, chances are your potential customers may start going to your competition. Similarly, if you only need an e-mail address and PayPal information from your customers, while your competitors need more information in addition to those, potential customers may prefer your business because of not having to divulge too much personal information.

What kinds of information should you ask your customers in order to provide more services and to generate more profits? You can start figuring out the answer by looking at the different levels of hesitation customers have when sharing personal information with businesses.

6 Sensitive Things Customers Hesitate to Divulge to You

The following list is sorted from the most sensitive to the least sensitive, with #1 below being the most sensitive to #6 being the least sensitive of the group.

1. Their personal identification numbers, driving license # and social security numbers.

   Considered more private than even credit cards, many people avoid giving out their social security numbers and other legal association numbers that are directly and probably forever linked to them. In very few rare cases would you need such a number, like when you are hiring contractors or employees or when you are offering someone a credit card offer. Avoid asking for something like this when you have no use for it, because customers may end up not shopping from you if you ask personal information that has nothing to do with their purchase.

2. Their Credit Card Numbers.

   Many people avoid giving out their credit card numbers to anyone, including many businesses over the phone. Many people prefer using PayPal and many others prefer paying your merchant processor directly. Therefore, asking your customers the last 4 digits of their credit card numbers to verify orders or account numbers may turn off some customers. There are other ways to verify identities.

3. Their Home and Work Address.

   At #3, more people are willing to give out their home and work addresses than their credit card and social security numbers. Still, people will prefer to give out other information than their home address. Avoid requiring customers to share their home or work address unless you need it to process a credit card or to mail something. Once again, a service like Google Checkout or PayPal allows you to circumvent such a step indirectly.

4. Their Phone Numbers.

   Because of the increasing number of annoying marketing calls people get, you may feel some resistance when asking people for their phone numbers. You may even get a lot of phone numbers from customers who do not think a phone number should be required by you.

5. Their Real Full Name.

   It may sound strange, but many people prefer being completely anonymous online, even to people and businesses they deal with on a regular basis. Unless you absolutely need someone’s name, avoid forcing people to enter their actual full names. For example, RA Project tries to discourage spammers from submitting useless comments by having them use a real name, a fake name, or any nick name, in place of using only keywords.

6. Their E-mail Address.

   For many people, sharing an e-mail address is the easiest thing to do compared to any of the above points. This may be something you can ask anyone, as people may usually only be scared of getting more spam in their e-mail accounts. Try to avoid asking people for their e-mail address when it is not related to something that those people have actually requested from you.

What are you asking your customers to share?

Based on the above points, what do you usually ask your customers and blog readers to share? Are you asking customers too much or too little? What do you yourself like or dislike sharing with other companies and blogs online?

Please share your opinions, experiences, any tips or questions by commenting below. Thank you for reading.