Personalization continues to be very important in all phases of the Customer Experience.
When we use the term personalization, we are not just talking about taking a mailing list and printing a person’s name on an envelope. Personalization is way more powerful than that. It goes across all marketing channels. From the start of a campaign to the company website. To the shopping cart and thank you. It’s omni-channel. It’s all encompassing.
Personalization means giving customers offers and recommendations that are relevant to them. For example, when you go onto the Amazon webpage, you see purchase suggestions based on your last searches. Instapage maintains that personalized shopping cart recommendations influenced 92% of shoppers online to buy products. This strategy definitely works on me. I know I seem to press those recommendation buttons!
For naysayers who believe that personalization is an invasion of people’s privacy, not true. According to Accenture, 74% of consumers say “living profiles” with more detailed personal preferences would be useful if they were used to curate personalized experiences, products and offers.
In the same study, 73% of consumers reported that they never felt that a business communicated with them in a way that felt too personalized or invasive.
A worthy investment
According to Epsilon, 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides a personalized experience.
Investing in personalization to build relationships and create better experiences can pay off. In fact, 86% of companies that invested in personalization saw a significant lift in their ROI. One company reported tripling their ROI due to personalization.
So many companies are focused on improving personalization. Nowadays, those companies that don’t make this a priority run the risk of getting left behind.
Awesome for loyalty programs
A strong loyalty program can really show a customer that they are worth our time and effort. When we offer them a truly personalized experience, we can make them feel very special. We need to understand our customer’s hot button. Is it free shipping, priority ordering or special gifts with purchase?
I like to think of personalization in Loyalty programs as providing a concierge service that zeros in on a customer’s needs and wants. It doesn’t matter whether they are in the store or on-line. The brand knows their customer and the customer knows it.
That’s the kind of personalization and customer experience I look for.