Think about a brand that has surprised you lately. You may be surprised. Your own reaction might simply be one of a shake of the head or an “aha” moment. It’s a tough world out there, trying to get headspace with customers and brands that do it well are leaving an impressionable mark.
On the one hand, it is about the specialism that a particular brand might have, on the other, it might be the solid experience and reputation that all customers have with that brand. Whichever it is, brands recognise that being clear, present and unambiguous will likely win them loyalty and repeat business.
The pandemic, for example, will have left many of us unclear on some aspects of our lives like debt management, travel and health care.
Simple questions like, “if my employer goes to the wall, will my bank come after me for settling my credit card bills or call me out as a heightened risk of mortgage default?“; if you booked to travel during the pandemic and were not able to fly, what happens to the value associated with those airline tickets and more importantly, what happens to your air miles and perhaps your air mile status if you’ve not been able to maintain topping up your account? With health care, it becomes even more fundamental. Will my health insurer pay for my treatment if I contract COVID-19 or one of the many variants?
Savvy brands have cottoned on to these anxieties. Some financial institutions have reached out to customers to provide them with assurances that they won’t come after them; some airlines have banked the value of your flight anticipating that you will travel later, or have frozen your airline miles account expecting a return to normalcy at some point and healthcare insurers have provided updates to their members informing them on safe practices, self-diagnosis and what to be aware off if members suspect COVID-19 illness.
All of these approaches hinge on three very important aspects of understanding the customer.
The first is, “who exactly is my customer“; do I have all their basic details and more? If your systems carry only the most basic of data, perhaps now is a perfect opportunity to revisit your customer master data management strategy. Get rid of the duplicates, and take stock of the overall quality and completeness. What do you need to have in terms of customer data records and how can you gather updates as quickly and as effectively as possible?
The second aspect, is that you may have a lot of customer data but is that data current and relevant? It is not unusual for companies that have had customers for literally decades, to still have some of the most geriatric data in their systems, some of which may paint an entirely incorrect picture of the customer. Here again, consider what should you have, how current should it be, and when last did you update it. If it is old and potentially irrelevant,m what’s the plan for it?
The third is the general usability of data. Again, this isn’t a particularly astonishing fact, but the reality is that people do change, their email address, phone number and physical address and yes, there is the concept of customer churn.
Would you reach out to former customers assuming that they are still current customers? Probably not, but you would be surprised at how many marketing departments still send marketing materials to households blindly without a clear understanding of the relationship with the customer base. To maintain brand awareness, you need to be pushing more than just the logo and a story of what your business does, you need to also consider personalization and in particular, targeted personalization.
It is probably worth considering the meme below as another case in point wherein some data is used to inform machine learning and AI algorithms but falls short of the need and in fact, could be very frustrating for a customer, when their buying journey has long ended. This implies that all data management should be considered important, not just customer data management but it also means that the ecosystem of supplementary data needs to be considered too!
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SAP, the sellers of ERP software reputedly once used a slogan that is perhaps super resonant. “Your best customers leave quite an impression. Do the same, and they won’t leave at all.” – I couldn’t find the original but it seems appropriate.
Do you subscribe to the belief that we find and maintain an allegiance to brands with which we find affinity? Being impressed is something that builds affinity. If we meet someone we like, we will want more of their time. If we watch a television program and enjoy it, we will likely spend more time watching that program and if we read a book that we enjoy, we are likely to seek out that author’s other writing.
With the level of messaging that bombards each and every one of us every day the number of real opportunities that each brand has at its disposal has become severely limited. Gulf Business News in the UAE posted an article in mid-2021 that suggested that a survey by Cisco Appdynamics App in the Attention Index research series offers up statistics of 73% of consumers giving one shot to brands ith their digital experiences before they switch to another provider. This likely translates to more than that market and more than just digital experiences.
we want more customers like ….
Overall, everything suggests that as we move through 2022 we are likely to see very few retail industry improvements for example; supply chain problems will continue to be aggravated, stocks will remain low, and prices will rise. Customers will move on to the competition if you don’t improve their experience at every touchpoint.
Consider then, what those touchpoints might be. Your systems likely contain three types of customers. The prospect, the past customer, and the active customer.
Customer Touchpoints
| Prospecting | Active Engagement | Past Engagement |
| Advertising | Merchandising in store | Warranty Support |
| Social Media/Influencer | Point of Sale/Billing | Marketing emails |
| Product Reviews | Website/eStore | Online help |
| Referral/Word of Mouth | Customer Assistance/BOT | Documentation |
| Marketing Emails | Installation/Delivery | Service Delivery |
Not all of these will be particularly relevant but what you should do is examine these and perhaps even other touchpoints that have not been considered and examine what you can do to help those touchpoints with data on the customer, about the customer, and for the customer.
Pretectum Customer Master Data Management is all about providing your systems with the necessary information to support these touchpoints. Using a combination of APIs and direct integrations, you can have the Pretectum C-MDM operate as the customer master data hub to your touchpoint engines serving up insights on the details of customers’ social media identifiers, their associated product reviews, and personalized emails. In-store personnel has the opportunity to directly engage with identified customers in a much more personalized way that conveys a sense of care and attention that your competitors may not be able to offer.
Shopping carts and point-of-sale can extend promotions but only if the customer is known and their loyalty identifiable. Finally, when customers engage through help, service, or support; by phone, email, or chat – having a relationship that demonstrates familiarity and understanding may just draw that customer a little closer and extend the customer lifetime value to your business.