Personalisation techniques for modern CX

One major component of the modern customer experience involves personalization or customization. It’s somewhat of a gamified process that allows consumers to control the experiences or content they engage with. Sometimes, it’s expanded to allow them freedom and personalization options such as changing social media pictures, or writing a customer bio that’s connected to all user reviews. 

On the other side of that equation, it opens up many opportunities for brands and businesses to deliver targeted, efficient, and optimized experiences.

As part of the sweeping digital transformation occurring in the industry, personalization becomes a key component for the shift to mobile.

Through retailers such as Amazon, for instance, it enables systems to recommend new or potential products, get feedback, and much more. Amazon will even deliver targeted ads based on recent content you viewed. Read an article on the latest smart locks, and you’ll get smart home and smart lock related ads. Even though it may not seem like it, this is all part of that personalization process.

75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer or brand that recognizes them by one of many personal traits including name, past history, and preferences.

Customer experience and engagement levels see a significant boost when users feel that web content, news, interactions, data, marketing and more are tailored to them. They are delivered contextually relevant data based on who they are, what their role is, and what needs or demands they have. In the business world, that’s enhanced tenfold to encase relevant materials for brands and industries.

The Rise of the Personalization Machine

Personalization is crucial to providing a positive and memorable customer experience in today’s market. This has been driven by many things, primarily modern technologies and their advancements, IoT or connected devices, big data and metrics, and obviously, mobile devices and smartphones. Why?

In person or physical experiences are important, but somewhere along the line they stopped being the end all be all. Online experiences, particularly on mobile, can be just as lucrative when deployed properly. And if you’re resourceful, you can merge the separate platforms into one, allowing your mobile and digital experiences to complement in-person ones. This can be done through planning preparation and more, to deliver instant verbal and non-verbal touchpoints.

It’s always been around sure, but desktop - and related platforms - are limited not just in terms of personalization options, but the kind of information and data you can extract.

Comparatively, on mobile, you can monitor local search and location data, communications, recent app installs, and engagement levels. But that’s merely scratching the surface.

Furthermore, because a mobile device is designed to be carried on your person, used all throughout the day just about anywhere, it becomes an incredibly valuable asset to businesses and brands.

You could, for example, extract various types of data based on in-app interactions, and then program managers, chatbots, or even smart apps can use this data to tailor present and future relationships. Amazon, as we already pointed out, relies on this strategy to deliver targeted, efficient ads to its user-base.

It does beg the question, what are the consequences of not delivering personalized experiences? Well, 74% of customers are frustrated when web content and materials are not personalized to them specifically. Brands have the potential to lose a lot of business, and suffer some serious setbacks regarding reputation by not adopting this new platform.

How To Personalize: Delivering Modern Customer Experiences

Want to make it matter? What are we talking about exactly? Why, your customer experience program, of course.

Every time a new or potential customer discovers your brand or product, they embark on a journey, one which you crafted specifically for them. That is the concept behind personalization, but it’s not just for on-boarding, it’s for the entire experience you deliver to your audience.

We’re going to reel it in a bit and talk about powerful in-app content and how you can personalize through it. Just keep in mind that personalization, by and large, is a much more broad concept that can and should encompass all areas of your business.

Some things you can personalize include:

• Your name, company, and associated branding
• Welcome materials and initial message
• Consistent or regular content
• Mobile notifications and alerts, including local data results
• Customer profile settings and or preferences
• Maps and location based services, including local search
• Proximity based marketing or promotions
• In-person real-world interactions when tied to an app or user data
• Communications and newsletters or outreach content

In the end, what you need to remember is that customers want a contextually relevant experience online and off. That’s only possible through data collection and personalization programs that allow you to really dig-in and tailor to the core of your audience.