100,000+ privacy requests a year. Less than 30 minutes a week for Aerosoles.

Privacy requests kept interrupting the week

Aerosoles doesn't have a dedicated privacy team. Privacy requests arrived through customer service tickets, so the work eventually landed with Samantha Clarke, Customer Experience Manager.

“Privacy didn't fall to me. It was kind of thrown into my lap.”

Deletion and erasure requests had to be handled as they came in through support, pulling Clarke back into privacy three to five times a week. She wasn't confident in the process she'd inherited, either.

“Before TrueVault, our process was very convoluted,” she says. “I'm not even sure that it was correct. I wasn't confident in that process at the time.”

Managing privacy another way would also require involvement from several departments, according to Clarke.

“It would have to go to marketing, it would have to go to ecommerce, it would have to go to HR. This keeps things focused in one area, one person.”

At Aerosoles' current volume, that manual process would be especially difficult to sustain. The company receives 200 to 300 privacy requests every day, most of them opt-outs.

“There is no way we could complete the privacy compliance requests manually,” Clarke says. “There's just no way.”

Aerosoles needed a process that could handle the volume while keeping the day-to-day work manageable for the people responsible for it.

Finding a process Clarke could confidently manage

Clarke first heard about TrueVault from a colleague at another brand who was already using it. As she evaluated TrueVault and other privacy vendors, she paid attention to the experience Aerosoles customers would have as well as the guidance she'd get from the team behind the product.

“TrueVault really jumped out at me as a very clean and user-friendly experience for the customer. To take a convoluted subject and make it digestible for the customer was really important to us.”

The difference became even clearer during the demos. “By the time I was done with my demo, I had learned five or six things that I didn't learn from the demos with the other brands,” Clarke says.

That guidance mattered because privacy laws aren't Clarke's full-time job.

“Privacy compliance can seem so intimidating, because the laws are kind of gray. They're written for the consumer, and that leaves brands in this world where we don't fully understand exactly what they want of us.”

Once Aerosoles chose TrueVault, Clarke and the company's ecommerce manager met with their TrueVault Customer Success Manager for about an hour each week. They worked through the setup together and gathered anything they needed from other teams between meetings.

The full onboarding process lasted about six weeks, with the core workflows running within two to three.

“We were up and running with our basics after two to three weeks. It was just a one-hour weekly process.”

More than 99% of requests run automatically

Today, more than 99% of Aerosoles' 200 to 300 daily privacy requests are processed automatically through TrueVault's consumer request workflows. Anything that requires Clarke's attention waits for her in TrueVault so that she can work through the remaining items together once a week.

“Instead of touching privacy three to five times a week, I'm touching it once a week.”

That weekly block typically takes less than half an hour.

“Most of our process is automated, and anything that isn't has a really easy checklist,” Clarke says. “Then I just move on with my life.”

Over the past year, Aerosoles processed more than 100,000 requests through this workflow. Clarke can focus her time on the small percentage that requires her attention rather than returning to privacy requests throughout the week.

When something changes, Clarke knows what needs attention

Customer requests are only one part of the privacy work Aerosoles has to manage. New vendors and changing privacy requirements can create additional work, so Clarke also needs a clear way to respond when something changes.

When Aerosoles recently added a vendor, Clarke worked through the steps in TrueVault and asked her account manager, Jillian, to review what she'd done. Jillian flagged a few adjustments.

“The left-hand panel really just walks you through everything that you need to do, whether it be in the data center or the DSAR automations.”

TrueVault also surfaces changes in privacy requirements. When one state's requirements changed, TrueVault made the relevant updates ahead of the effective date and emailed Clarke. If she needs to take action herself, she sees it when she logs in.

“Here's your action item that you need to complete. Sometimes it's a process that has to be built out, or sometimes it's just answering these quick questions.”

Asked whether TrueVault has surfaced things she didn't already know needed attention, Clarke's answer was simple: “All the time.”

That gives Clarke a practical way to keep up as the business and privacy requirements change. She can see what requires her attention, follow the workflow, and turn to someone who knows the Aerosoles setup when she has a question.

Keeping 100,000+ requests manageable for one person

Aerosoles now handles a volume of privacy requests Clarke says the company couldn't manage manually, while keeping the work that requires human attention largely with one person.

Automation handles most requests, while TrueVault gives Clarke a clear workflow for the work that reaches her. When vendors or privacy requirements change, she can see what needs attention and get help from a TrueVault team member who knows the Aerosoles setup.

More than 100,000 privacy requests came through Aerosoles in the past year. For Clarke, managing the work that requires her attention now takes less than half an hour most weeks.

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