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The Dynamic Duo of CX
16 June 2020
The customer experience has become a differentiator for firms. But what specifically can companies do to improve their customer experience? The answer lies in a combination of tactics: hyper-personalisation and contextualisation.
Hyper-personalisation and contextualisation make customers feel as though a firm understands them and what they need. Read on to learn more about these two concepts, how they boost the customer experience, and how you can apply them.
What Is Hyper-Personalisation?
The term ‘hyper-personalisation’ doesn’t have a specific definition. However, it’s easy to think of it this way: hyper-personalisation takes regular personalisation techniques even further than before.
Traditional personalisation would look like addressing an email to an individual. Hyper-personalisation, on the other hand, uses data that a firm has gathered about a person (such as their browsing history, previous purchases, and real-time behavioural data from a variety of touchpoints and channels) to tailor content, products, or services to a user.
What Is Contextualisation?
‘Contextualisation’ means that you deliver the right message to someone at the right time.
Let’s say you walk past your favourite store. You wonder if there’s a sale on, but you’re in a rush and you don’t have time to pop in and ask. Hours later, once you’re back at home, you get an email from the store about a 50% off sale. While it might be the right message, it’s definitely the wrong time; the store is closed for the day, and you’re not going back there any time soon.
The Combination of Hyper-Personalisation and Contextualisation
Now that it’s clear what these two terms mean, let’s explore what the combination of hyper-personalisation and contextualisation looks like.
We’ll go back to the example of walking past your favourite shop. Let’s say the store has implemented a solution that puts hyper-personalisation and contextualisation techniques in place. When you walk past the store, a beacon inside sends a message to your phone with a coupon for a sweater to complement the new trousers you just bought.
Hyper-Personalisation, Contextualisation, and the Customer Experience
How can hyper-personalisation and contextualisation improve the customer experience? The combination of these two technologies makes a customer feel valued and understood.
Think again about the example of the shop. When you receive an ad as you walk past for the right product at the right time, you feel as though the shop understands who you are as a customer, what you want, and where you are in your purchase journey.
Hyper-Personsalisation, Contextualisation, and CX Management
‘CX management’ refers to the collection of processes a company uses to track, oversee, and organise every interaction between a firm and a customer over the course of the customer lifecycle. What does CX management have to do with hyper-personalisation and contextualisation?
These two tactics can be used as part of a CX management strategy to improve the customer experience.
When you use hyper-personalisation and contextualisation, you create a customer experience that is closely tailored to the customer’s needs and wants, which encourages them to continue to do business with you.
How Can You Incorporate Hyper-Personalisation and Contextualisation into Your CX Management Strategy?
You can incorporate hyper-personalisation and contextualisation with the right CX management platform.
The right CX management platform allows you to do six things:
- Achieve a 360° view of your customers
- Nurture your users
- Leverage location-based personalisation strategies
- Identify your most valuable customers
- Provide customer-focused business results
- Achieve multi-channel cohesion
Achieve a 360° View of Your Customers
A 360° view of your customers means that you understand how your customers have interacted with you in the past, how they’re reaching out to you now, and what steps they might take in the future.
When you have a complete view of your customers, you can customise your content far beyond addressing communications with a customer’s name. Moreover, you can deliver those messages at the right time, so the customer will be more receptive.
Nurture Your Users
Hyper-personalisation and contextualisation allow you to nurture your users more effectively. What do we mean by ‘nurture’? It’s about building trust and putting the customer’s needs first.
Highly personalised messages, offers, and content delivered at the right time show your customer that you want to build a relationship with him or her and you value their business. Nurturing customers is good business sense – it’s far cheaper to retain customers than to acquire new ones.
Leverage Location-Based Personalisation Strategies
The right CX management solution enables you to personalise messages to customers based on their location.
Our previous example of the shop that uses a beacon to send you a coupon for an item that goes with something you’ve already bought is an excellent example of location-based personalisation. The company can tell when you’re in the vicinity, and based on its knowledge of your previous purchases, it can send you a targeted offer.
Identify Your Most Valuable Customers
There are some customers that are more valuable than others. Your valuable customers are easy to work with, always pay on time, don’t cause problems, and are receptive to your message. You need these customers.
The right CX management platform builds a 360° view of your customers to determine who your most valuable customers are. Additionally, contextualisation helps you deliver the right messaging at the right time to help you keep them.
Provide Customer-Focused Business Results
At a customer-focused business, customers come first. They’ll also want to continue working with you.
Hyper-personalisation and contextualisation allow you to do this by building that aforementioned 360° view of your customers and creating the context for your messaging, so it always resonates.
Achieving Multi-Channel Cohesion
Today, customers have a number of ways to connect with you. However, each of those channels should provide a consistent, enjoyable customer experience.
With hyper-personalisation and contextualisation, the channel always has the right information about a customer so that the interaction is smooth and hassle-free.
Enlighten Designs: Helping You Deliver an Excellent Customer Experience
For over two decades, Enlighten Designs has delivered excellent customer experiences. We’re proud partners of Sitecore, experts in customer experience management. To learn more about how hyper-personalisation and contextualisation improve your customers’ experiences, contact us.
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