Financial Services, Government and Healthcare providers remain most trusted by ANZ consumers

Highly regulated organisations earn the most trust from consumers in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) with regards to the protection of their personal data. This is according to a new opinion survey on data personalisation, privacy and trust conducted by Genesys®, the global leader in cloud customer experience and contact centre solutions. 

Overall, Australian (52%) and New Zealand (57%) respondents feel institutions they regularly do business with do empathise with their situation when trying to resolve issues, thus, leading to greater trust in those organisations. 

Along with trust, personalisation has also continued to be a focus for businesses in the region aiming to improve their customer’s experience through technology.  67% of New Zealanders and 70% of Australians claim businesses have become more personalised over the past five years. This was relatively on par with the global average of the surveyed countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan). 

The top three organisations most trusted in ANZ are Banks/Financial services, Government agencies and Healthcare providers, all ranking above the global averages. 

Banks & Financial Services take top spot:  

Interestingly, in Australia, banks and financial services rank as the most trusted institution (53%) for protecting personal data despite the recent Royal Commission investigation into the sector. Among the countries surveyed, there is a 22% gap between the lowest level of trust by the Japanese and New Zealanders’ high trust level, with 55% having faith in the financial sector to keep their personal data secure. 

Government ranked second most trusted: 

Australian and New Zealand respondents have significantly more trust (13%) in government agencies to keep their personal data safe compared to the global average. In Australia, this finding is particularly interesting given several recent data breaches involving government platforms. 

Healthcare providers highly regarded:

42% of Australians trust healthcare providers in protecting their personal data. New Zealanders trust healthcare institutions to protect their personal data 8% more than the global average of 40% for all countries surveyed.  

Thumbs down: 

When respondents were asked who they trusted the least, there was one clear result – social media.  54% of Australians and 60% of New Zealanders trusted social media companies the least with protecting their data. Despite this, only 17% of New Zealanders and 18% Australians claim to read privacy statements on social media platforms ‘all of the time’. 

There is a massive gap amongst the generations in New Zealand with Baby Boomers trusting social media 31% less than their Gen Z counterparts; in Australia, there is a similar sentiment, however, at a significantly lower margin of 10%. 

Cryptocurrency providers were rated the second least trusted by both Australian and New Zealand respondents, aligning with the findings of the other countries surveyed. 

Smart home technology was the third least trusted, with 24% of both Australian and New Zealand respondents not trusting the technology with their personal data. This is interesting given the primary purpose of these platforms is to learn from people’s behaviours and share this data with other organisations for purposes such as advertising. In spite of this fact, they still remain widely popular.

The overall impression of responses indicates ANZ consumers are generally well educated and aware of data collection and use. Even though there is a lack of trust in some industries, they are still open to using their platforms and services. If further regulation occurs, it will most likely aid in building consumer trust in the management of their personal data by all organisations. This sentiment is in line with the overwhelming response from all the countries surveyed which was that governments should regulate the use of personal data by businesses because they cannot be trusted to manage it themselves. 

-ENDS-

Research results: 
Press and analysts may request a copy of each country’s survey findings from the Genesys media relations team. For Australia and New Zealand contact: genesys@zadroagency.com.au 

Research Methodology:  
The online survey was conducted by Wakefield Research in April 2020. Participants were 5,000 adults ages 18+, balanced by gender, in the following markets: 1,000 in the U.S., and 800 each in Australia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.K.  

About Genesys 
Every year, Genesys® delivers more than 70 billion remarkable customer experiences for organisations in over 100 countries. Through the power of the cloud and AI, our technology connects every customer moment across marketing, sales and service on any channel, while also improving employee experiences. Genesys pioneered Experience as a ServiceSM so organisations of any size can provide true personalisation at scale, interact with empathy, and foster customer trust and loyalty. This is enabled by Genesys CloudTM, an all-in-one solution and the world’s leading public cloud contact centre platform, designed for rapid innovation, scalability and flexibility. Visit www.genesys.com/en-sg. 

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Media contacts 

Genesys APAC 

Manali Pattnaik, Senior Public Relations Manager, APAC 
Genesys 
manali.pattnaik@genesys.com  
+65 8321 7924 | +65 9126 9831  

Australia 

Yvette Schlegelmilch, Account Manager 
ZADRO 
yvette@zadroagency.com.au 
+61 423 954 224 

Oakley Grioli, Account Coordinator
ZADRO
oakley@zadroagency.com.au 
+61 434 295 302