Why a ‘Personal’ Customer Experience Is Critical to Your Business’ Success

Why a ‘Personal’ Customer Experience Is Critical to Your Business’ Success

Personalization? Just be sure to be transparent about how you use their data. So, whether you're perusing your newsfeed, product recommendations or suggestions as to what movie or video you should watch, you'll have a personalized experience based on data the site has previously collected about you (or any user),to create a homepage unique to you that truly feels like your own. For your business to remain competitive in today’s online business environment, it’s vital that your company do the same thing: embrace the power of personalization to deliver a unique customer experience. Increasingly, consumers are expecting a personalized experience from the websites they do business with. Yet, according to Adobe, “Sixty percent of marketers struggle to personalize content in real time, even though 77 percent believe real-time personalization is crucial.” And, according to Salesforce, “70 percent of consumers say a company’s understanding of their individual needs influences their loyalty.” Given those important findings, your failure to personalize the customer experience may very well negatively impact perceptions about your business as well as your conversion rate itself. Alex Allwood, author of Customer Experience Is the Brand, argues that customer experience is an even more crucial competitive differentiator than pricing or technology. According to a Columbia Business School survey, 75 percent of consumers polled expressed a willingness to share their personal data with companies they trust. One of the best ways to build this trust with your own customers is to be fully transparent about the data you're collecting from them, the uses that data will be put to and the benefits customers may derive from this use. But marketing platforms like Exponea are helping to level the playing field so that small businesses can also deliver personalized content to their customers.

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Personalization? Customers don’t fear it; they expect it. Just be sure to be transparent about how you use their data.

Why a 'Personal' Customer Experience Is Critical to Your Business' Success

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What do some of the world’s most popular and successful websites have in common? While Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and YouTube all have different business models, each one does one thing very well: personalization. If you’re a member of any one of these sites, the content that you personally see when you visit its homepage will be different from that other users see.

So, whether you’re perusing your newsfeed, product recommendations or suggestions as to what movie or video you should watch, you’ll have a personalized experience based on data the site has previously collected about you (or any user),to create a homepage unique to you that truly feels like your own.

For your business to remain competitive in today’s online business environment, it’s vital that your company do the same thing: embrace the power of personalization to deliver a unique customer experience.

Here are some reasons,why you should do that, along with practical advice on creating a personal customer experience.

Customers expect personalization.

Increasingly, consumers are expecting a personalized experience from the websites they do business with. A recent survey by Epsilon found that 90 percent of consumers surveyed found personalization to be either very or somewhat appealing. Yet, according to Adobe, “Sixty percent of marketers struggle to personalize content in real time, even though 77 percent believe real-time personalization is crucial.”

And, according to Salesforce, “70 percent of consumers say a company’s understanding of their individual needs influences their loyalty.”

Given those important findings, your failure to personalize the customer experience may very well negatively impact perceptions about your business as well as your conversion rate itself. According to Experian, even some of the most rudimentary forms of personalization — like marketing emails that address the recipient by name in the subject line — are being practiced by only 30 percent of businesses,

The message: If you’re looking for a way to differentiate your business from your competition — and what entrepreneur isn’t? –personalization can be a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.

Alex Allwood, author of Customer Experience Is the Brand, argues that customer experience is an even more crucial competitive differentiator than pricing or technology. As Allwood told The Guardian, “Today’s marketplace has become very competitive and commoditized. There is little differentiation between one brand and the next.

“And so if you are already competing on price, technology or innovation, what is going to differentiate you from your competitors? What is going to be your point of difference?”

The answer is how your customer experiences your brand,” Allwood said. It’s how your…

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