How does a brand relate to a client in a meaningful way? Yes, they lean on the data – but just as importantly, they ACT on it.
A study released by IBM reports a massive perception gap between how well businesses think they are marketing and the actual customer experience. While 90 percent of marketers agree that personalizing the customer experience is critical to their success, a whopping 80 percent of consumers stated that the average brand doesn’t understand them as individuals.
Ironic, given that today’s consumer shares so much data with businesses. It seems that brands - aka businesses - consistently fail to deliver their part of the relationship.
Or, as a columnist at Forbes put it, “An abundance of data and analytics on customer behavior and actions is a nice-to-have, but even more important is to act on it – providing a personalized experience when it is most relevant to the customer.”
In other words, are you connecting with prospects and clients in a way that is meaningful to them, is personalized and includes a two-way conversation, including follow up that suits the different stages in the conversation?
Here’s a great video of young people discussing brand experiences. Swap out the phrase “brand experience” for customer service and you will have a clearer picture of what we mean...
When millennials go to a website to shop, they appreciate the fact that they can return to the site and will find their previous searches. When they have a Twitter conversation one week with a company, they appreciate a follow up contact the next week. They expect that the companies are gathering their information and using it. This is not seen as intrusive or problematic. In fact, if the information is not used and not acted on, they wonder if the business knows what they are doing.
You may not think that millennial consumer behavior matters, but think again. They are now in their middle thirties, raising families and starting to take care of their parents. And their parents have adopted social media and are interacting with companies and brands in these new ways.
Here’s an example: a woman calls your office with a question about a will for her father, who is near 85 and having some health problems. If you have a top notch support staff, they have gathered her name, his name and a good telephone number, maybe even an email address. If you were not able to take the call in the morning, you call back before the end of the day.
Your conversation starts with “I understand that you are concerned about your father?”
You have the data – phone number, basic idea of the scenario. The action required is a phone call, made in a timely manner, with the right message.
Data combined with action equals a new client who appreciates your getting it right!