How to improve customer experience with personalization

Gone are the days when a “one-size-fits-all” approach from your end will work for customers. They seek to establish more meaningful relationships with the businesses they buy from. 

For example, look at the below image.

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There are different ways to send a push notification to Jim, your loyal customer. But if you’re looking for results, you don’t send him just another message that you send to your entire customer base. You personalize the content in a way that makes him feel you understand him.

Studies show that 65% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and requirements at an individual level.

So, the need of the hour isn’t big-budget marketing campaigns studded with celebrities but a more intuitive and cost-effective method called personalization. In this article, we’ll give a quick introduction to the concept and see how to improve customer experience with personalization.

What is personalized customer experience?

In a personalized customer experience, brands target customers with a tailored experience through communication, product recommendations, and promotions. A vital component here is that all these aspects must have high relevance to the customer receiving them at that point.

This helps to build customer trust and faith since you show them that you understand them well. The immediate reaction to effective personalization from the customer end is high engagement which finally results in building customer loyalty.

How to improve customer experience with personalization

Personalization should be consistent across the customer journey map for it to be effective. In this section, we’ll show you how to do it the right way.

‍Collate and analyze first-party data

This is more of a preliminary point before we begin the actual process of personalizing the customer experience. Data is the golden currency today. 83% of consumers are willing to share their data to enable a personalized experience. The pre-requisite here is that you have to be transparent about how you’ll use it. 

If you noticed the heading of this point, it says “Collate” and not “Collect”. You most likely already have a capable CRM tool picking up information at every step in the customer journey. The idea here is to collate all that data to create a unified pool. 

This can also involve cross-functional collaborations across teams. For example, analyze your support tickets to understand what your customers look forward to. Use this collated data to then draw useful insights and define your personalization strategy.

Profile and segment your customers

Now that you have the data ready, you can start building customer profiles. Look out for details like demographics, purchase behavior, search history, and more. Identify common groups of customers with similar characteristics and create defined customer segments. 

The next step is to chart every customer’s purchase journey. A customer journey map plays a vital role here by laying the foundation for creating a personalized customer experience. It allows you to identify crucial touchpoints across their journey where you can target them with your personalized offerings and product recommendations.

Act on customer actions

Once you’ve mapped the touchpoints, you can now get a better idea of the actions performed by your customers across their purchase journey. Plan your next steps by utilizing the information about their previous actions. 

Consider the below scenario on how you can send a push notification that corresponds to customer actions. 

It is a very frustrating experience for customers when the product they intend to buy goes out of stock. In such cases, they are not going to visit your app or website every day just to check if the stock is back or not. 

This is when a proactive approach from you can win customer affinity. A simple reminder notification saying “Hey, your favorite <Product> is back in stock. Buy it now while stocks last” is all they need. This adds that personalized touch by showing your customers that you remember what they wanted and are trying to inform them when it's available. 

Offer customized solutions

Personalization need not be limited to predictive customer preferences. There could be customers who have a unique set of requirements that may not be answered by your default offerings. In such cases, try to create some wiggle room and offer customized solutions that suit their needs better. 

Here’s an example from Juicy Chemistry, a beauty and skincare brand that offers a quick consultation to help customers with a customized skincare routine.

Enable customers to self-serve

Nothing is more personalized than letting the customers take care of themselves. In a business environment where speed is of paramount essence, self-service methods do wonders in reducing customer frustration. 

Portals like FAQs, help docs, and how-to guides serve as a viable method for customers to quickly find a resolution for their problems. By mapping these portals to expected problems that customers might face, you show how well you understand them, increasing their trust in you.

Look at this screenshot of The Mobile Manicurist’s app homepage. They sell nail supplies for professional use. True to their vision, they offer many online classes to help their customers (professional nail artists) learn all about nail art and start a career in it.

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Give special treatment to your special customers

All your customers deserve nothing but the best. But your loyal customers deserve a little more. Show your long-standing repeat customers some extra love with special promotions. Recognizing them for their unwavering relationship goes a long way to solidify your bond. 

How about special, targeted notifications like these to invite your customers for a special live selling session or an online course?

If you have a dedicated loyalty program in place, you can reward your returning customers with loyalty points or exclusive shopping benefits after a certain milestone. You can also offer early access to some of your newly developed products or features before the public gets a hand on them.

Provide an omnichannel experience

“Omnichannel” is a buzzword in the retail industry today. In the context of personalization, it refers to giving customers an integrated experience regardless of the communication channel. Be it in-store, on a website, or a mobile app, you should deliver a consistent experience across all channels. 

This applies to other areas like support interactions as well. If a customer has contacted support online after buying something in-store, the conversations should proceed with the acknowledgment of their purchase beforehand. Marketing automation tools like Klaviyo or WebEngage help analyze customer behavior patterns and deliver an omnichannel experience through SMS, email, and push notifications.

Garner feedback  

Everyone loves a good listener and your customers are no exception. Gathering feedback is a great way to get an understanding of where you are in terms of fulfilling their requirements. It also allows you to assess where you are missing out and can improve. 

One of the most relevant touchpoints to get feedback is when they leave a negative review. By immediately asking them what went wrong and where you could improve, you are very likely to get some useful and actionable insights. The true act of personalizing the customer experience comes by implementing changes to meet evolving customer needs.

Create personalized shopping experiences with a mobile app

Personalization is a powerful asset that drives customer loyalty. Vajro’s mobile app builder goes beyond conventional loyalty programs and offers personalized shopping experiences to reward customers. Through push notifications, analytics, and app-exclusive benefits, Vajro empowers Shopify and Shopify Plus brands to engage, convert, and retain loyal customers for life. Download our 30-day free trial or book a demo today.