How to Use Relevant Customer Data to Drive Personalized Experiences
In a recent Gartner survey, 83% of respondents reported that their organization struggles to use customer journey maps to identify and prioritize customer experience efforts. Consumers’ expectations have heightened, so organizations must have easy access to a holistic view of customers’ personalized data to ensure the best possible customer experience.
A one-size-fits-all approach has run its course in the world of customer interactions. Customers seek unique and personalized approaches to their experiences with companies. Personalization to customer experience causes a corporation to feel more like a brand in the consumer’s mind, building trust between the customer and the company.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have made the connection of data sources possible so brands can execute practical personalized CX approaches.
How Customer-Facing Departments Can Access Relevant Data
Connecting numerous structured and unstructured data sources is the key to uncovering data to be applied in personalized CX strategies. This task requires data extraction, recognition, and relationship-finding capabilities fueled by AI. In addition, information needs to be accessible by any client or customer-facing department.
Data silos refer to a collection of data that can only be accessed by a single department. Breaking data silos down is a significant step in becoming a data-driven organization, especially when it comes to personalized CX.
A customer journey map looks at a customer’s path with your brand, all touchpoints considered. A customer’s journey is a story with many chapters. Mapping the data from every touchpoint can help your company comprehend your audience’s story in a 360-degree holistic view. To achieve this, data from social media interactions, chatbot conversations, website activity, email correspondence, and calls need to be consolidated into a single repository.
The connection of scattered data allows customer support teams to personalize how they solve specific support tickets and even help shape the language they use with particular customers. Sales teams can use the same data to personalize demos or cold calls to potential leads. Marketing can understand the types of campaigns that work best with specific customers and inspire the way certain offerings are presented to a client.
However, some data, like payment information or contracts, is not for everybody’s use, so data privacy and proper access rights need to be enforced by IT departments through the use of a knowledge management system. AI solutions can ensure the data that support, sales, and marketing teams use are privacy-compliant and that only the relevant information for CX efforts appears in intelligent search results.
What Does a Personalized CX Look Like?
While sales and marketing teams can benefit from holistic views of customer data, an essential indicator of positive customer experience comes from customer interactions with support teams. By the time a person or company becomes a paying customer, they have already been hit with numerous marketing campaigns or have come through the sales funnel. This means the organization already holds essential pieces of data on the client.
Suppose a caller dials into a support number or fills out a ticket. In that case, AI can show a holistic view of their journey directly to the employee handling the problem. Understanding previous details about this customer and similar customers, support teams will be a step ahead and ready to address the issue efficiently. Information will be displayed in an easily digestible graphical format. Therefore, they can already begin personalizing their approach.
In addition, the support person can search for different topics related to the case. All relevant intelligence surrounding the subject or customer will be at their fingertips in seconds. For example, suppose customer X has a problem with a pair of shoes they purchased. In that case, a search for the shoe model will feed departments all documentation related to the exact type of shoe and how similar cases were handled in the past.
The End Goal for Personalization and CX
The end goal of transforming customer experience to be more personalized is to make life easier for employees and customers. The world is only becoming more digital and establishing the groundwork for more personalization will trigger the emotions you want people to associate with your brand.
Building a personalized customer journey doesn’t require magic or higher powers. Breaking down data silos and granting access to the right people for relevant and proactive information for personalized needs is what it takes to join the future of CX.
Daniel Fallmann is CEO and founder at Mindbreeze.
