Capgemini have published a new report which indicates that companies that comply with GDPR avail of certain advantages thanks to improved customer engagement and profits. The report has found that GDPR compliant organizations have outperformed non-compliant by an average of 20%. The company polled 1,100 senior executives in various industries in many different markets.

There were a number of other key takeaways including the fact that just 28% of firms surveyed claimed to be completely GDPR compliant. Capgemini then compared the performance of these GDPR-compliant organizations against those who claimed not to be completely compliant. From the results the group was able to determine that “92% of executives from compliant firms say their organization has gained a competitive advantage thanks to the GDPR.”

The chart, produced by Capegmini, shows that there were significantly better consumer ratings, greater trust, improved lead quality, better employee morale and a better overall brand image vs. for GDPR-compliant companies as opposed to those that have failed to adhere with the data privacy legislation. It must be remembered that these results are based on the self-perceptions of survey respondents. Despite this it is clearly noticeable that GDPR-compliant companies are outperforming their rivals. Even if the outperformance is not a huge surprise, the extent of it was not expected.

In tandem with this survey, Capgemini also surveyed U.S. businesses in relation to CCPA and the results indicate that approximately 70% of the companies that replied feel they will be compliant with CCPA when it becomes enforceable. The same proviso has to be taken into account as these figures are based on companies self-assessing their level(s) of compliance.

One very noticeable result uncovered int he survey that higher participation rate in the loyalty programs of companies that are known to be GDPR-compliant and further growth of transactions in those program since GDPR became active. Initial expectations had been that participation in these loyalty schemes would drop. Consumer participation in loyalty programs is up in

74% of compliant retail firms, compared to 54% for the non-compliant firms.

In the report Rachel Glasser, chief privacy officer at the global digital agency, Wunderman Thompson said “The GDPR has increased cybersecurity. It has improved awareness about data and how we use it, and what data we are using.”

Other key takeaways include:

80% of compliant firms agree that the number of data subjects targeted in campaigns has increased thanks to the GDPR, compared to 57% of non-compliant firms.

Online purchases have increased since the GDPR went into effect for 83% of compliant firms, compared to 63% of noncompliant firms.

Henri Kujala, data protection officer for Netherlands-based HERE Technologies also was quoted in the report, saying: “Customers do recognize and appreciate the level of effort and impact the GDPR compliance brings with it. Compliance has brought increased levels of trust.”