Today's business environment is more competitive than ever. It means that companies need to step up their game by enriching their customer experience. The best way to do that, however, is through personalization.
For better or worse, most customers today are used to expecting personalization at every touchpoint. Nevertheless, not all brands are to deliver a single, personalized experience on all of their channels. Be that as it may, personalization is a critical element for providing an excellent customer experience.
Statistics indicate that over 69% of businesses consider the personalization of their customer experience as a priority. It's also important to remember that 86% of customers say that customization plays a crucial role in their purchasing behavior, while 73% like doing business with companies that use personalization as a means of enhancing their shopping experience.
Personalization for Enriching Customer Experience
When implemented correctly and efficiently, personalization can drive purchases by almost 50%. It can only be achieved when application leaders responsible for digital commerce technologies and customer experience support, will partner up with marketing, sales, and customer service. They need to deliver a comprehensive, personalized experience to their customers.
Mainstream Approaches
Around 85% of marketers say that they're using personalization on at least one channel. Among those who don't employ any customization whatsoever, 55% say they will do so within the next year. These numbers not only indicate that personalization is being used but that it's become mainstream.
Start by incorporating mainstream approaches to personalization across different channels. Make sure that you remain consistent across all of these so that your customers will recognize you, regardless of what channel they are using.
Constant Improvement
Going forward, you will also have to analyze and improve customer-facing processes and touchpoints continually. These will create a strong foundation when starting on your personalization journey. It is when you understand the entire customer journey, end-to-end that you will be able to know where things run smoothly and where they need improvement.
On that same note, you should deploy and monitor personalization metrics to continuously improve your customers' experiences. Among these metrics, we have things like conversion rates, engagement scores, average page views per visit, bounce rates, new vs. returning visitors, click through rates, etc.
Utilizing a Digital Personalization Engine
Lastly, you should build or use a digital personalization engine for commerce to enhance the customer experience. In a sense, personalization engines are like friends recommending books to one another. We emphasize the word "friends" here because friends know each other, as opposed to strangers.
Like a friend, a personalization engine needs the proper context about the other person to make the best recommendations. With it, these engines can recommend products and services to a customer that they would have probably not considered, otherwise. With the right information, personalization engines will look at an individual's past purchasing habits, their interests, needs, and desires to make the most accurate recommendation possible.
Customer experience personalization is now mainstream in the marketing and sales world. Due to the technology of the past decade or so, customers expect it and will quickly turn to another company if their desires in this regard are not addressed. For more information about digital personalization, customer experience, and their implementation, contact us today.
