Privacy is an important part of Royal Bank Financial Group's customer relationship management (CRM) system. Employees explain Web "cookies" to customers, the bank offers cell phones with special encryption chips for wireless transactions, and it has a pilot pro- gram through which it gives away firewalls and other security products to customers. That's right, for free. So where's the profit in that? For Peter Cullen, chief privacy officer at Toronto-based Royal Bank, there's profit in privacy. "It is one of the key drivers of a customer's level of commitment and has a significant contribution to overall demand," he says. As more countries adopt stricter privacy laws, companies have to adapt their CRM systems to comply. But Royal Bank clearly sees privacy as more than a legal issue; it's also a pathway to a customer's loyalty and spending.
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