A brief discussion of the benefits and challenges of digital personalisation to businesses.


Ultra personalisation in the delivery of goods and services is a long predicted trend that has been coming to fruition. Today, we may take it for granted with respect to, for example, product or movie recommendations made to us by Amazon or Netflix, or the posts that are included in our news feeds on social media.

Although it can sometimes be a bit unnerving when the recommendations are made – which also point to how much our movements online are being tracked – frequently, they are appreciated, as they can help us to quickly isolate what we might be looking for out of the deluge of information and options that exist. To businesses, a number of benefits, including the following, can be realised – if they are able personalise the engagement with their customers,

  • Greater understanding of individual customers.  Without a doubt, being able to offer truly useful suggestions to one’s customers, or allowing the engagement platform to be adjusted to suit a user’s need, demonstrates that a business wants to understand its customers. Organisations are able to discern not only what drives them, but may also be able to predict future needs, based on, among other things, their profile, online movements and behaviour, along with past purchases.
  • Building and nurturing those relationships. A natural follow-on from the previous point is better engagement between a business and its customers, which provides a favorable foundation upon which to build a relationship with one’s customers over the longer term.
  • Easier sales and conversions. In being able to provide useful recommendations and advice, can build trust between a business and its customers. Through that trust, customers may be more likely to follow the recommendations made, which can lead to quicker sales and shorter conversion cycles
  • Improved customer experience and greater retention. Finally, a desired consequence of all of the previous points are that customers are retained, thus lowering the acquisition cost to the business. Further, in having a great experience when engaging the business, augurs well for that relationship to continue.

Though digital personalisation can be mutually beneficial to both a business and its customers, it is not easy to implement. Collecting sufficient data and implementing the requisite analytics are essential. However, they can be costly to realise, as there are infrastructure technology and expertise that would need to be acquired and maintained. Unfortunately, such initiatives tend to be most viable among large corporates, but MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) may actually be the ones to truly benefit. However, they are likely not to have the funds, nor the wherewithal, to develop and manage a comprehensive digital personalisation platform.

Having said this, there are still things that MSMEs can do to improve their relationships with their customers. They may not be completely automated, but technology can be used to facilitate engagement and to gain a better understanding of customers’ needs, and behaviour. Developing those features and capabilities will become even more critical, as they may eventually become a way to distinguish so-so businesses from the gold star ones.\

 

Image credit:  Timur Saglambilek (Pexels)

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