Although product recommendations by eCommerce sites have become a familiar sight to online shoppers, it seems many of these retailers are still missing the mark. A recent global survey by SAP has indicated that three out of four online shoppers worldwide fail to regularly see product recommendations that interest them.<\/p>\n
There are numerous reasons why so few shoppers receive meaningful referrals, but perhaps the single biggest one comes down to personalization , according to Amrish Singh, customer experience solution architect at SAP.<\/p>\n
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He explains that true personalization is all about the brand connecting with the customer on a personal level. It is about understanding their past, knowing what they are doing now and, most crucially, how to influence their future through personalized messages and recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of marketeers believe that personalization is the key to customer experience (CX) success. After all, it is believed that at least two thirds of online customers prefer to buy from brands that deliver relevant recommendations. Of course, the challenge is to do this without invading the customer\u2019s privacy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, there are three challenges to be overcome to ensure that you have the right customer and are targeting them correctly. Firstly, the data needed to achieve true personalization is found in different systems and departments, so it is essentially siloed. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to integrate this or to create a centralized data management platform to provide a true 360-degree view of the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is important to know your customer at every possible touch-point, in order to deliver personalization that creates lasting loyalty. This, in turn, boils down to the company\u2019s ability to collect customer data effectively and then to analyse it to gain deeper insight, suggests Singh.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember that when you have information silos, you will always have a fragmented view of the customer. Without a single view, your customer engagement strategy will miss critical opportunities \u2013 basically, you won\u2019t know when the exact right time is to market something to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second challenge is data privacy, as regulations governing this are very strict and any failure on your part here exposes you to legal and brand reputation risks. The way to solve this is to give the customer the tools needed to manage their own data. That way, they can tell you what products they would like to have marketed to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, there is also the issue of the inability to manage data volumes. Singh points to a plethora of touchpoints that exist, which create vast amounts of information. However, many organisations don\u2019t have the flexibility or agility to manage these many and varied touch-points properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is one other important part of personalized CX, and that is to ensure that you keep the promise you offer to customers in terms of the service or delivery you are supplying. You need to understand the back-end processes \u2013 such as invoicing, delivery schedules and what is available in the warehouse – and connect this expertise to the front end. In this way, you can ensure the customer receives the product that they ordered or a suitable replacement, and delivered according to the estimated delivery time or quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
CX is all about creating a living, breathing customer profile that delivers a 360-degree view, adds Singh. For this you must gather three forms of data: first party, where the customer tells you about themselves; second party, which is about what they are doing; and third party, which is more in-depth data from social media platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue personalization is about much more than sending a client an automated \u2018happy birthday\u2019 message. It is about knowing specific details so you can deliver a specific service. A good example might be knowing the client recently bought a new phone from your store, because you have that data, so send them a personalized birthday voucher offering them a discount on a new phone cover. This is the ultimate aim of CX \u2013 to create hyper-personalization, or the so-called \u2018Segment of One\u2019. Remember the key to engagement: the right content at the right time via the right channel at the right price,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n
Amrish Singh is customer experience solution architect at SAP.<\/p>\n