Data-driven personalisation
Today, I’ve been thinking about how businesses find the right balance between experience, data, and trust in order to give their customers personalised experiences that help them succeed. With the spread of the internet and improvements in technology and data processing, businesses are becoming more aware of how important it is to put people first, which seems crazy when you think about it.
How personal is personal?
Personalisation has been around for a long time, and as time has gone on, its importance has only grown. Data suggests that more than 70% of consumers respond to personalised marketing. In the past, most personalisation was done by putting users into groups, called segments or personas, based on their similar traits or behaviours. This method can be useful for sending relevant content or offers to a large group of users with similar interests or needs, based on their demographics, purchase history, or browsing behaviour.
But since there is a lot of information online, it is hard to put people into groups based on their interests and preferences. Because of this, brands are now using “person-based personalisation,” a type of customisation that takes into account the unique needs and habits of each user instead of putting them into specific groups. Everything in this 1:1 approach is based on the person as a whole, from interactive experiences to advanced personalised marketing strategies.
Businesses need to use an industrialised process for real-time, person-based personalisation because it can lead to high returns on investment (ROI). But some brands are still hesitant to fully embrace real-time data-driven personalisation at scale, which involves personalising every touchpoint in the customer’s journey based on real-time context. For businesses to win in the growing personalisation and interactive experience market, they need to create an industrialised process for personalising each customer that goes beyond the required data analysis.
Personalisation is based on what people like, how they act, and what they need, which can only be learned by collecting and analysing data. Enterprises need a lot of data from many different sources, and this data needs to be accurate, useful, and of good quality because bad data can lead to wrong conclusions. Another important part is gathering different and up-to-date information.
Data collection and AI
With more digitisation and improvements in data and analytics, it is now possible to collect and analyse huge amounts of data through digital channels. This means that the scope of data gathering has also grown. The growing use of AI in the end-to-end customer experience creates more relevant and engaging solutions for customer conversion, engagement, and retention.
But if businesses want to set up industrialised data collection and analysis on their own, they will need to spend a lot of money. You can think of data platforms as systems or infrastructures that were made to collect, manage, and process large amounts of data. It usually includes technologies and tools for storing data, processing data, integrating data, keeping data safe, and making decisions about what to do with data. Data Experience Platforms (DXPs) are a group of tools that businesses can use to meet their needs. These tools include Digital Asset Management (DAM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Data Platforms (CDP), and personalisation tools.
Getting people to trust you and giving a personal touch
Not everything can be solved by collecting and analysing data. To give customers an interesting, personalised experience, it’s also important to build trust and rapport with them. In fact, a recent survey by Salesforce found that 84% of customers say that being treated like a person and not a number is very important to getting their business.
One way to build trust is to be clear about how data is collected and used. Businesses must make sure they have the right permission from their customers to collect and use their data. Data privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) require companies to be open about how they collect and use customer data. They also say that customers should be able to see and delete their own information if they want to.
One more way to build trust is to show that you care. Even though chatbots and automated responses can be helpful, people still want to talk to a real person. Personal communication channels, like email or phone calls, can add a touch of warmth that can’t be done with automated responses. This kind of personal touch can help build customer trust and keep them coming back.
Also, businesses should focus on making sure the experience is smooth and consistent across all channels. Customers should be able to move smoothly from one touchpoint to the next, without running into any problems. For example, if a customer starts to buy something online but then decides to finish the purchase in-store, the shop employee should be able to look up the customer’s information and make suggestions based on the customer’s preferences and past purchases.
Lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that customers are more than just a bunch of numbers. They are people with their own tastes and personalities. Businesses need to know more than just what data they collect about their customers’ needs and wants. This requires empathy and a human touch, like making personalised recommendations based on the customer’s interests and preferences or sending birthday messages and special offers to customers who have been with the company for a long time.
In conclusion, giving customers personalised experiences is a must if you want to keep them coming back and grow your business. To do this, businesses need to build a data-driven personalisation process that is strong, scalable, and automated. For data-driven personalisation to work, a lot of data needs to be collected and analysed. To create positive, personalised experiences for their customers, businesses must also earn their trust and show them that they care. By doing this, businesses can build customer loyalty, make customers happier, and get them to buy from them again. The question now becomes how easy is this for most businesses to achieve?
