Personalisation fosters strong customer engagement and builds long-term trust throughout the customer journey. With rising customer expectations and buying habits ever-evolving, personalisation helps brands deliver extraordinary experiences and build rewarding relationships that drive sustainable brand profitability and growth over the longer term.
Do you have a deep understanding of who your customers are? Are your customers able to pick up where they left off with each online or in-store experience with your brand?
If your answer is no or if you’re still in doubt, then you have come to the right place. In this article, we’ll share with you how you can leverage personalisation in your customer experience strategy to increase genuine customer loyalty and advocacy.
Customer engagement is all about building a solid relationship with your customers, inspiring them to take part in the experiences you have created to help them get their jobs done with your brand. It starts with knowing your customers and what they truly value through the use of personalised information.
Personalised information refers to the zero-party data that “known customers” willingly share during interactions or transactions with your brand - from basic personal details such as name, email address and favourite store to more advanced information like purchase history and size or brand preferences. This information is an essential asset for understanding your customer’s needs and where your brand fits into the equation for them.
With the right data on hand, you’ll be able to create relevant experiences where:
Tip 1:
Remember, customer data on its own offers little benefit to your brand. You have to be clear about your goals and your “why” to maximise its value. Do you want to harness customer data to improve your CX? Do you want to know your customers’ likes and dislikes as well as purchase behaviours to further develop your products and services?
Tip 2:
Your best customers will happily share information with you to make their shopping lives easier. This means you need to design experiences where information is captured anytime, anywhere, with minimal or “happy” friction.
Whether it's done by your staff, accessible on “my profile” pages of your website or present throughout an online shopping journey, if a customer is ready and willing, you need to be equipped to facilitate. Most information collected can be stored either on the profile as a permanent attribute, or to a transaction or interaction linked to that profile.
A personalised recommendation is a great way to increase purchase probability. In fact, according to studies, 56% of online shoppers are more likely to return to a site that recommends products; whilst 45% are more likely to shop on a site offering personalised recommendations.
Leverage your customers’ personalised information by recommending products based on their individual behaviours, likes and dislikes. This adds a level of relevancy and value to your customers during their buying process, making them feel known and valued by your brand. It also provides convenience, saving them search time as they can simply pick up where they left off.
By giving these benefits to the customers, they will likely purchase more often and at a higher transaction value.
Human-powered personalisation
A 2019 SmarterHQ survey reported that 90% of consumers are actually willing to share their data for a better shopping experience. When your customers become willing participants in the creation and enrichment of their profiles, you will gain deeper insights that will allow you to serve your best customers more effectively.
Take, for example, Omneo Lists, which allow customers and their agents to create and customise one or many personalised product recommendations catalogues just for them. By having the ability to create multiple context-aware wishlists (e.g. things I like, things I tried on, things I think you'll like, things I want to be notified of when back in stock), customers can make the shopping experience their own. The lists also bring utility to the brand. It provides product engagement insights which can then inform merchandising decisions, and become a new leading indicator to predict future revenue.
Delivering the right products at the right time
A great customer experience strategy is not about being everywhere and being all things for all people. It’s about showing up for the right customers at the right time and place - especially when they are ready to buy; you must be ready to serve.
Omneo helps our retail clients achieve this through New to You - a part of our Curate Element. New to You displays a series of products known to have not been seen by an individual customer. It shifts away from the tired “most popular” logic and allows customers to pick up where they left off and discover something fresh each time they come back to the brand.
From here, the customer can “Like”, “Dislike”, “List”, or “Buy” each new item with a swipe. This stream of intention data can be hugely valuable for both brand and customer.
Personalisation has become a critical brand differentiator for customers and a game-changer in the retail space.
A 2019 Gartner survey shows that brands with poor marketing personalisation efforts risk losing 38% of their customers. However, when done right, personalisation can enrich customer experiences and convert those experiences into sales. It will also:
Customers expect the companies they interact with to know more about them and their preferences. When they receive relevant and personalised content, they feel more connected to your brand. They stay on your online store longer and are more likely to look forward to your future communications.
Research from Econsultancy shows that 93% of companies saw an uplift in their conversion rates from personalisation. By helping your customers find what they want quickly based on their interests and past behaviours, you’ll be able to increase your ongoing and post-purchase sales.
It’s now easier for customers to switch from one brand to another just to find the best differentiated experience possible. Personalisation helps ensure you continue to remain relevant for your customers. This means increased customer retention and referrals for new customer acquisition.
Personalisation is also about giving your staff the utility to serve your customers better. When your staff think of themselves as value creators, they are more motivated to work and deliver the best customer service possible,
Whilst customers expect hyper-personalised experiences, they’re also increasingly concerned about privacy.
At Omneo, we often refer to the “Creepy-Convenient Continuum” to test how we’re using customer data - does each personalised experience feel convenient and logical, or a little bit too familiar and creepy?
On one end, personalisation can provide efficiency and relevance to the customers’ shopping experience. On the other end, however, it has the potential to be disturbing or annoying when targeted offers invade personal spaces by “knowing more than I’d expect you to know about me.”
So how do you ensure your personalisation efforts don’t get labelled as “creepy”?
Make sure you understand and respect your customers’ personal boundaries. This is also where the “human-powered personalisation” comes into play. Enable intentional customer participation where data is willingly provided and used by your customers.
Imagine you were using a member app and iBeacons to track when a customer visits a store. Using a push notification to welcome them and present them with their last purchases, size information or what’s in their wishlist would be “convenient.” It will also let the customer know that you know they are in the store. Further, it won’t be creepy when the staff member can refer to them by name when they approach the counter.
In a recent publication, Raconteur predicts personalisation to continue to influence future retail trends in the next decade - from data-driven algorithms and sophisticated devices like facial scanners that will drive hyper-personalised offers to highly personalised experiences through user-generated content in social platforms. As the global retail landscape continues to transform, brands that will be able to meet rising customer expectations and engage their customers not as demographics or segments but as individuals will undoubtedly emerge as winners.
Build rewarding relationships by having a deep understanding of your customer’s specific needs and delivering extraordinary customer experiences every time. Want to learn how Omneo can help you take your personalisation efforts to the next level? Get in touch with us today.
