Personalizing the Mobile Customer Experience

Our mobile devices are so heavily ingrained into our everyday lives, they might as well be sewn directly into our hands—upgrades might be a difficult maneuver, but surely there is a way around it. Joking aside, mobile engagement is at an all-time high, which in-turn has changed the way customers think and behave.  Over the years mobile practices have shifted customer interactions from face to face to screen to screen.  While a screen interaction may seem less personal, data shows that personalization is only increasing with the integration of mobile consumer services.

Consumers want an effortless experience that is tailored to their needs and interests. Salesforce research revealed that 58 percent of consumers find a personalized experience very important when interacting with a brand. While it may seem impossible to deliver a one-to-one customer experience to every individual, utilizing personal customer data helps to form a realistic approach to such a feat.

The Importance of Personalization

Personalization is not simply an isolated aspect of consumer behavior, but rather an inherent expectation of the modern individualistic culture.  Corporations are shifting to deliver on employee demands, schools are restructuring their framework of teaching and test-taking to cater to different learning styles, universities are offering more areas of specialization for students to choose from, and companies are forming their business strategies around the customer.  It is only appropriate to create a mobile customer experience in which the individual leads the way.

With the adoption of personalized CX, companies will benefit in a multitude of ways.  According to Forbes, personalization drives impulse purchases, increases revenue, increases loyalty, and decreases amount of product returns. .  The data shows that 49 percent of U.S. consumers have spent more on a product than they intended due to the personalized service that they received.  Additionally, 44 percent of shoppers stated that they would likely repeat after a personalized experience. It comes down to using customer data as a robust tool to build a customer-centric mobile program.

Privacy is a Novelty of the Past

Strong, personalized CX requires the acquisition of data that oftentimes compromises the customer’s private information.  Luckily for businesses, online privacy has become a nostalgic sentiment of the past alongside landlines and shoulder pads.  More often than not, consumers are willing to grant companies chunks of personal information in exchange for a more individualized experience that requires less effort.  Avionos’ 2018 Customer Expectations Report illustrates customers’ willingness to share certain information.

• 72 percent of customers are willing to share their email address.
• 69 percent would share their first name.
• 67 percent would share their gender.
• 63 percent would share their age.
• 50 percent would share their last name.
• 47 percent would share their shopping preferences.
• 46 percent would share their hobbies or interests.
• 37 percent would share their ethnic demographics.

While it may be easier than ever to obtain customer data, the transaction is not without its conditions.  In a time in which it is almost impossible to remain anonymous online, people are concerned with the circulation of their information.  Consumers expect businesses to utilize customer data to improve their personal experience and decrease customer effort.  Ensuring the proper use of information is a necessary step in cultivating a strong B2C relationship.  In addition, customers appreciate, if not demand, a high level of transparency.

Maintaining Consistency

With mobile being one channel of customer interaction, users are mingling with companies on a variety of platforms.  It is important to remain consistent across all channels to create a satisfactory customer experience. Consistency is optimal when both ends of the interaction are centralized.

A single customer view (SCV) strives to consolidate the entirety of a customer’s available information and interaction history with the brand into one comprehensive profile.  The benefit of a SCV is the ability to create a one-to-one customer experience that can interpret and anticipate a customer’s needs.  With a mobile strategy that utilizes the single customer view, connecting different screens and platforms becomes a simpler task on both ends.  Storing a user’s information in one place allows for an easier interaction that requires less from the customer.

In a recent interview Dunkin’ Brand’s President of Global Marketing and Innovation, John Costello discussed the ways in which Dunkin’ Brands aims to reach customers using a multi-screen approach.  Identifying their tagline, “America runs on Dunkin’”, as an overall mission to connect with customers at multiple touch points throughout the day, he highlighted the importance of maintaining consistency across all platforms.  In an effort to do so, Dunkin’ Brands created a department that is specifically dedicated to customer engagement.  In doing this, they are more equipped to combat the lost momentum that many companies experience due to information silos within their corporation. The single customer view and multi-screen approach work in tandem to create an efficient, personalized experience for the mobile consumer.

Mobile interactions will continue to grow and diversify.  To stay on top of the evolving practice, companies must fuel a constant collection of updated and relevant customer data.  The key is to offer customers an incentive to exchange information, such as the reward of quicker, easier service.

 https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/11/swap-data-for-personalized-marketing.html

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/10/29/personalized-customer-experience-increases-revenue-and-loyalty/#73d328b04bd6

 https://www.emarketer.com/Chart/Personal-Information-that-US-Internet-Users-Would-Willing-Share-with-Brand-Shopping-Experience-that-More-Tailored-Their-Personal-Prefer/218328

 https://www.cmocouncil.org/thought-leadership/expert-views/videos/best-practices-in-engaging-mobile-customers-a-conversation-with-dunkin%E2%80%99-brands%E2%80%99-john-costello

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