Personalization of the customer experience has now become a priority for all those companies operating in the retail sector. Physical stores are where customers interact directly with the company’s products and staff. For this reason, creating a personalized shopping experience has become critical to building customer loyalty and increasing sales. In this article, we will look together at 10 useful tips for personalizing the customer experience for your customers, real or potential, online and at the point of sale. We will find out how understanding who you have in front of you is critical to delivering hyper-personalized shopping experiences, even from an omnichannel perspective.
What does personalized customer experience mean?
Before reviewing the different tips, let’s dwell on the phrase “personalized customer experience.” What does it mean? In the concept of “customer experience” encompasses the set of experiences, feelings, and emotions that a customer accrues when interacting with brands.
Customizing it means making it unique, that is, creating and building it based on the specific characteristics and needs of each customer. All this entails, for a brand, in-depth knowledge of its audience, which is only possible through the collection of valuable data and information.
But few Italian companies are yet ready to develop customer-centric strategies, according to research conducted in 2023 by Minsait with respect to the topic of “the digitization of customer relationships in the industrial and retail sectors in Italy.”
In fact, among the aspects to be improved is precisely the need for greater coordination between the different channels of contact between company and user and better use of external channels for gathering information on customers, real and potential and on the integration of data itself.
#1 Find out what your customers (real and potential) want.
In this scenario, to get a clear picture of your customers you need to equip yourself. Collect data and understand who you are dealing with. This is, in fact, the first stepto effective marketing strategies aimed at personalizing the customer experience.
At this stage it becomes critical to opt for technology solutions that allow you to collect and integrate data from multiple sources and channels. Only then will it be possible to get a holistic view of each user and deliver a consistent and personalized experience across all interaction and sales channels.
#2 Invest in relationship care
Through a system that fosters the relationships at the heart of your business, you can turn an occasional customer into a repeat customer. Think loyalty systems or loyalty cards: both of these tools aim to collect useful data and information about customers in order to devise ad hoc loyalty strategies.
From there on you can know if, when, and how much the user interacts with the brand both online and offline. Knowing the preferences and needs of your audience allows you to set up customized marketing activities and stimulate relationships with your customers.
#3 Collect and integrate data with a CDP.
If data and information about users and customers are the basis from which to deploy an effective strategy for personalizing the customer experience, even at the point of sale, it is crucial to know how to make the most of them.
This is where solutions such as the Customer Data Platforms, i.e., platforms that can collect data from multiple sources and channels, normalizing it to a single customer view. All this translates into the ability to effectively track the buyer journey of each user and customer, having a complete view of them. Just as the user can, in this way, be “recognized” online and engaged through personalized browsing and purchasing experiences, so can the same be done at the point of sale where staff will have the ability to consult and, in turn, enrich, complete master data sheets with behavioral information and qualitative data.
#4 Customize your commercial offerings.
Collected data and information make it possible to better profile and segment one’s audience in order to identify customised commercial offers or recommendations tailored to specific customer needs.
How much more effective is a commercial offer relevant to what we are interested in? Not a generic offer aimed at just anyone, but specifically aimed at customer X who has a specific purchase history.
Adopting a CDP means improving relationships and the quality of interactions not only with current customers, but with all those users who interact with the company, both online and offline.
Essential for both marketers and those working in the store.
Imagine a customer who has purchased online from a clothing eCommerce. The moment he goes to the brand’s store, he can be recognized. The salesperson, at that point, can suggest items in line with the purchases already made, starting with size, for example, or style.
Imagine, also, the situation in which a user chooses to make an appointment at a point of sale because he or she is interested in products that cannot be purchased online. In this case, too, the point-of-sale staff will be able to recognize the user and exploit in the negotiation phase the information that constitutes the user’s profile (e.g., site pages consulted, products viewed…). Last but not least, there is also the possibility of fielding follow-up activities online as well for those who do not close the offline purchase.
#5 Analyze the data you have
As we have seen in the previous paragraphs, in the physical store, personalization can be achieved through in-depth knowledge of customers, gathering feedback and creating a welcoming and comfortable environment.
Analyze your customers’ data and create detailed profiles. Take into account factors such as:
- age
- the genre
- the geographical location
- purchasing preferences
- purchasing behavior
Understand the needs of people approaching your brand-this is a huge competitive advantage.
#6 Offer hyper-personalized experiences.
Once you have identified your customers, the challenge will be to create a personalized shopping experience that fits their needs.
Create, both online and offline, a connection with your customers through message and promotion personalization, customized product recommendations and engaging shopping experiences. All of this, with an omnichannel perspective that puts the customer at the center: he or she should feel pampered, not just taken care of.
But how to obtain data, which online is simply available, on people’s behavior at the point of sale? By involving staff in the information-gathering phase.
#7 Create sales strategies through feedback gathered from in-store staff.
Store staff are the first point of contact with customers and can provide valuable information to make the customer experience excellent by observing and keeping track of products or offers that interest them or simply inviting them to sign up for a loyalty card.
Therefore, it is alsoimportant to collect the information from the store staff.
Use tools such as surveys and push reminders to capture customer feedback in real time. In this way, you can better understand your customers’ needs and personalize the shopping experience effectively.
#8 Train staff appropriately
Physical contact with the customer is a huge opportunity, and any brand that cares about its reputation must take this into account. And it is precisely at the point of sale that you need to invest. You must have properly trained staff so that, in addition to knowing the product well, they are able to create a relationship of trust, to empathize with customers. Accompany her on the path to purchase.
Have you ever crossed the threshold of a store and observed a salesperson busy with a cell phone as you wander around looking for something to catch your eye?
Could we not consider such an occasion as a missed opportunity?
Undoubtedly, if the staff had welcomed your entrance and understood the type of products you expressed interest in, they could have engaged in a conversation with you. He could have provided you with useful advice on how to use the product or even made you an offer for a complementary product so as to increase the store’s sales.
#9 Activate omnichannel marketing strategies
Enrich your customers’ profiles by integrating data from their online buyer journey: interest categories or purchase interactions are valuable data for relevant business offers. Also offline, through point-of-sale staff.
Activate new loyalty cards. Track customers at the point of sale, store data on their purchasing behavior, it will serve you to understand their preferences and propose products or services in line with their expectations and desires. And activate win-win mechanisms, in which you reserve exclusive benefits for your customers, making them feel at the center of your marketing activities, and offering them benefits in exchange for their consent to data processing.
Omnichannelality is thinking about the entire Buyer’s Journey that considers all touchpoints between customer and company, physical and digital. The real revolution for your marketing department starts with knowing your audience, and therefore your actual, and potential, customers.
#10 Measure the results obtained
To evaluate the effectiveness of your customer experience personalization strategy, it is important to measure the results.
Use advanced analytical tools capable of integrating and mixing data from different environments, as Blendee allows you to see far and monitor your KPIs.
Conversion rate, session duration, average value of orders placed, and repurchase frequency are all metrics you can access incredibly easily.
So you can finally make changes to your strategy and continuously improve the buying experience for your customers.
Make the customer feel centered (not a mere target)
An individual’s ability to purchase goods or services using his or her available income or financial resources is, not surprisingly, called purchasing power.
Here, this power makes the customer powerful
That’s right. He feels that way. We all feel powerful and entitled to attention the moment we, as customers, enter a store.
And indeed it is. The customer has purchasing power on his or her side.
The customer must be helped, accompanied, guided, advised. The user experience, as well as your brand reputation, travels through all physical and digital touchpoints between you and him.
Putting in place marketing strategies geared toward personalizing the customer experience requires the right ally.
