How To Stop Wasting Your Personalisation Efforts
Personalisation is one of the most important factors in customer experience. Research shows personalisation can deliver 5 – 8 x the ROI on market share and can lift sales by 10%. It is undoubtedly worth the effort to try and get it right.
I spent a number of years in the hospitality industry and had the great privilege of working with someone who I still rate as the greatest hospitality operator that I've ever seen or worked with. Peter had the most extraordinary way of connecting with and remembering his customers. He had a fan base of people that would come into the restaurant, not only for the fabulous food but because of how he made them feel.
Peter would remember their names, the conversation from their last visit, what they had to drink, the names of their children, or which football team they followed. I was fascinated to watch him when he was at the back of his house with his little black book, writing down names and notes as his reminder about each customer that he interacted with and served. His fan base continues to this day.
These days, automation, technology and customer relationship management software have made it significantly easier to be able to remember and record customers' preferences. Who wasn’t’ recently excited when Spotify let you know your music tastes and your top 5 songs and artists for the year? Both through leveraging technology and human personalisation there is a huge opportunity. Whether this is in hospitality, healthcare, the barista who remembers your coffee order, retail, hotel management, or customer service at the front counter of a Council, the ability to remember people and what is most important to them makes a huge difference to their experience.
I see this often as a customer, be that in a restaurant, a retail store, or a hotel. As someone who travels for work regularly, I am a loyal customer with a brand I love and often when I arrive in my room, there is a lovely handwritten card and a bottle of champagne.
And whilst it is a lovely touch and I am very grateful for the thought; I don't drink champagne.
And so, the effort is wasted. Beyond human effort, this is where technology could be better utilised to capture customer preferences if we want to make a personal touch meaningful. It could as simple as having a tick box for what somebody drinks or prefers. There are many people who do not drink alcohol and this could even be a trigger for some customers. It comes down to awareness, effort and often small changes to technology.
This extends to both the customer and employee experience.
From a leadership perspective, be it for recognition or gifts for our team, particularly at this time of the year, it is essential to know each of our team members and be aware of their preferences and what is important to them. Are they gluten-free? Do they eat chocolate? What are their interests or hobbies?
Personalisation that is meaningful to a person shows a deep level of care and consideration. At the end of the day, we are all walking around with an invisible sign on our head that says, “Make me feel important.” The customer and employee experience is so much about how we make people feel. Seizing opportunities whereby that extra level of thought and care can go a long way to building and strengthening both customer and team member loyalty.
