Customer Personalization Strategies: Best practices for refocusing on the customer relationship

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One of the most common questions marketers get asked is how they can personalize their outreach more effectively. The importance of personalization has been growing for years, but most companies haven’t mastered it – and the amount of data available is growing faster than most marketers know what to do with.

From technological changes to increased expectations, customer relations isn’t the same as it was a decade ago. Traditional differentiators in sales such as processes, product, or promotions are typically not as effective today as they once were because most competitors can and are doing the same. However, differentiation is still possible through a personalized approach where companies create customized experiences for each and every customer.

To build a fully personalized customer experience and journey, you must first have a complete and solid understanding of your customer’s current challenges and goals. In order to achieve this level of understanding, one must have access to a full range of customer data – and from there, be able to put that data into action. And while most marketers are already using available customer data to influence their outreach approach, companies can elevate this practice through coordinating multiple touchpoints – which is the type of sophistication that makes a winning impression on customers.

Customer-focused businesses are built around customers’ needs and unknown wants. This means going beyond the basics to consider how every interaction helps the customer discover their immediate needs while also anticipating how those will evolve over time. Often times companies focus too much on how customers will help their bottomline, so its best to remember that a happy customer base will always pay-off.

Here are three tips to improve personalization:

Ensure that your company is able to treat historical data and real-time data as the source of truth; and that combined with the ability to connect the data dots, will help to uncover insights while also preventing personalization fails. Getting granular with your customers data will allow for deeper personalization – while remaining relevant and giving your company the competitive advantage.

Look for opportunities to bring in data that can give a more holistic picture of the customer. An example of this might be within untapped data that your company hasn’t considered in the past – such as customer support or initial sourcing call notes. This data can unveil crucial information needed to improve the customer’s journey and drive company growth.

Finally, look for ways to combine this data in real-time, from inventory to pricing to suggested products, to create better personalization and avoid uninformed missteps. When you stay on-top of your data, you’re more likely to uncover potential communication touchpoints with your customers; allowing you to check-in, upsell or pivot your product offerings.

By taking these steps to improve your marketing and data technology infrastructure, you’ll be on the path to create a product offering that’s uniquely relevant to the customer at the point of activation. The objective is to use more data to provide a better, more personalized experience for customers.

Sean Evers
Sean Evers, Vice President of Sales & Partner at Pipedrive, brings nearly two decades of sales experience to Pipedrive working at companies, including Funding Circle UK where he served as Head of Global Sales, Fluidly and Sage where he was Vice President of Sales, and Pitney Bowes and Spicerhaart as Director of Sales Operations respectively. At Pipedrive, he is responsible for developing sales plans and strategies, organizing and maintaining sales operations, and leading sales teams.

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