2015 has definitely been the year where the notion of “Data, “Customer Intelligence”, “The Internet of Things”, “Digital Transformation” and all the buzz and hype associated with it has rapidly sprung to life across the corporate space in South Africa. Furthermore, companies have also been talking about, blogging and pushing content around single, cross, multi and Omni-Channel customer experiences in an attempt to convince readers which is best suited to enhance their customer experiences. Many companies I have consulted to tend to focus on channel blasts in which to engage their customers – then addressing an SMS or e-mail form of communication as “Dear John Smith” in a desperate attempt that this method of “personalisation” improves customer experiences and revenue growth.
If these methods of attracting and building your customer portfolio seem to be working – good for you and I salute you. For the rest of us, let’s get real and to the crux of the issue – C-Suites have never seen customer experience or enterprise customer-centricity as a priority or key differentiator because the idea of “Customer Experience” (according to some) cannot tangibly be tied to an organisation’s financial outcomes. This is an area in which Effective Intelligence continues to excel in as we assist our clients in devising winning strategies, tied directly to profitably growing their ROI.
So, how do we do this?
1. Do you have the most up-to-date CONTACT information for your individual customer?
If you don’t have the most recent contact information on your customer, obviously you won’t be able to identify and contact that customer. Ensuring adequate data quality means way more than just contacting a “Mr, Ms, or Mrs J. Smith”. It means being alert to stale entries, bogus addresses/misspellings and duplicate records. Poor data quality means higher marketing costs and the potential to seriously misunderstand the life-stage of customers and prospects. You want your data to be complete, because every single customer and prospect matters. The better the quality of your contact information, the better your chances of extracting insights to understand and connect with your customers.
2. The importance of a physical address
Ensuring you have the correct physical address (which in today’s digital age is significantly undervalued), will contribute to ensuring a sustainable and reliable customer segmentation model. Content provision that combines location information with corresponding demographic data allows targeted, relevant interaction - personalised to specific customer profiles. Marketing costs can be reduced and campaign responses increased. Accurate addresses enable the building of valuable household information and profiles.
3. Understand your customer
Companies should use technology as tools that allow them to recognize customer behaviour at multiple touch points as belonging to one and the same relationship. Failing this, it is impossible to get a true sense of each customer’s value and their corresponding pain and pleasure points. Using the right analytics will help you uncover customer insights to get you past the what to discover the why. Understanding changes to customer preferences immediately can help anticipate trends and keep shoppers loyal.
4. Now you are ready for true personalisation
Given the steps above, you will avoid presenting things that will annoy your customer. Sending the right message, to the right person at the right time creates the groundwork for a respectful relationship between you and your customer. Personalisation, done properly, caters to the segment of one. It works on the premise that your company can send tailored content to customers based on available (most recent) information – personalised at the speed of customer interaction with your brand. So you’re empowered to enable the next best action in the interaction with your customer, INSTANTLY.
It’s hard to understand where you need to go when you’re stuck on yesterday. Mail me on sardagh@e-intelligence.com so we can start discussing how I can help in redefining your individual customer journeys.
