Journalists feel digitized, as opposed to humanized, frequently. Dealing with a large company that the writer has not reported about previously, so she lacks a media representative to contact, the journalist often is asked to enter the company’s digital newsroom.
Once there the hapless media member is asked to type a question(s) into the space provided. The more helpful digital newsrooms offer the name of a person who’ll be receiving the question. The writer hits send, wondering who or what is at the other end of the communication. Again, the more helpful newsrooms send an automatic communication acknowledging receipt of her question. Then the journalist waits, feeling far more like a number than a person.
More times than not, nothing happens.
For its 2018 Personalization Pulse Check report, the consulting firm Accenture surveyed 8,000 consumers across the globe, wondering whether or not the myriad of technologies and piles of data brands have at their disposal combine to serve customers better than the journalist in our example.
In other words, are customers treated well and like people?
Its main questions:
- How do consumers think businesses are doing when it comes to personalization?
- Have consumers’ expectations for personalized experiences changed?
- What is the “next evolution” in world-class personalization?
This line of inquiry followed one of the central conclusions of the firm’s 2017 report, which was that the top challenge for business in handling customers was “learning how to uniquely serve everyone without overwhelming anyone.”
Too Many Options and Poorly Presented
In short, the 2018 study found the demand for personalization is outpacing the experiences brands are providing to consumers. Part of the problem is the digital landscape offers consumers too many choices and, unlike the journalist in our example, they feel overwhelmed.
This is more than emotion. 40% of consumers have left a business’s site and made a purchase elsewhere online or in a store, the survey says, because of the plethora of choices.
Nearly half (48%) have abandoned a site because the multiplicity of choices were poorly presented. Accenture found this to be so globally, “indicating that digital experiences are trending in the wrong direction.”
Guide Us Don’t Command Us
Consumers prefer brands set up guidelines that allow them to create journeys. They feel, however, brands are trying to define those journeys.
Another issue is brands focused on trying to predict a customer’s journey to create personalized experiences are realizing this approach is difficult to scale. The survey found 75% of consumers say they would find it valuable to create and manage a “style profile,” or a living profile, that brands could use to better curate experiences and make recommendations.
One way around all this is for brands to create “a continuous, two-way digital dialogue,” says Jeriad Zoghby, global personalization lead, Accenture Interactive. “This shifts control of the experience to the customer, enabling brands to more effectively listen to the customer and enable them to buy and consume what they want on their own terms,” he says.
Another tip is online or bricks-and-mortar businesses should follow the Four R’s of Personalization (see upper portion of the chart).
Good News on Data
As Europe’s GDPR looms, which requires companies to ask consumers to opt in to data-sharing regimes ( PRN, April 24), the survey found 83% of consumers willing to share their data to enable a personalized experience as long as businesses are transparent and afford customers a degree of control.
Can We Get Too Personal?
Turning to the possibility of brands becoming too much like Big Brother, marketers will be glad to learn 73% said a business has never communicated with them online in a way that felt too personalized or invasive.
A Critical Metric for Marketers:Of consumers (27%) who felt a brand invaded their privacy, 64% said it was because the brand had information about them they didn’t share knowingly or directly, such as a recommendation based on something they bought from another business.
Consumer Location Tactics Smacked
In general consumers appreciate when businesses know their purchasing history and particularly are aware of any customer-service issues they’ve had. But what about other personalization tactics, such as apology emails after a poor online experience or using consumer location data to offer personalized deals?
41% find it “creepy” when a brand texts them as they walk by a physical store. 35% find it creepy when they get ads on social sites for items they’ve browsed on a brand’s website
Respondents (45%) like apology emails or an apology message on the brand website (41%).
