Customers have more choice than ever before about where to spend their hard earned dollars. With so many competing retailers as well as a wide range of ways to purchase, working to personalise your customer service is becoming even more important. Many businesses would say that they already have personalised marketing in place, but do they really?
Research shows that customers have grown more sophisticated than the basic personalisation that many businesses offer. Strategies to personalise communication, like the annual birthday email for example, are not having the traction many would expect.
In a recent survey, only 7% of respondents said they would be likely to engage with a birthday email, and similarly only 8% would engage with a brand if addressed by their first name in marketing campaigns. This shows that the basic strategies being employed by many Australian businesses to personalise their communication are having little affect.
Why is personalising your customer service so important?
Personalising your customer service and shopping experience can result in higher conversions, and a better customer experience. It ensures that in a sea of emails or marketing communications received by your customers, your message is relevant and has cut through. It costs an average of 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one coming back, and existing customers spend 67% more than new. So, it’s important to ensure that your customers want to come back and are receiving cross-sell opportunities that are likely to get them to buy.
If you’re still not convinced about the return that personalising your customer process could have for your business, check out these stats from a recent survey:
* Only 22% of shoppers are satisfied with the level of personalisation they receive.
* 31% of customers wish their shopping experience was more personalised than it is now.
* 57% of customers are willing to share personal information in exchange for personalised offers.
* 62% of customers expect customers to send tailored offers to them (not generic ones).
How can you personalise your customer service easily?
While personalising your communication & marketing to each customer takes time and effort, there are some simple, automated ways to help you stand out from the crowd. From ways to gather data to automated email platforms, tailoring your message to each customer is easier than you think.
Step 1: Gathering the data
The first step in creating personalised marketing campaigns tailored to your customers is to focus on how to gather the data required. Specific information about each customer’s shopping habits, product choice and the campaigns they are likely to engage with, will help you ensure you’re getting the biggest return for your efforts, translating into more sales and a better return on your cross-sell activities. Here are some simple ways you can capture this information easily:
Membership cards: Membership cards scanned at each new transaction will provide you with information on when, how and what customers purchase. They can also help your customers feel special to your business.
RFID event passes: RFID enabledevent passes scanned at each booth will allow you to track attendee habits, how they move around the event and what sessions and products they engaged with the most. This information can help you build better future events that result in increased customer interaction.
Online shopping data: Use information stored in your online store to send relevant new products and discounts to past customers. This will likely lead to higher conversions and happier customers.
Your tools to gather data could also benefit from some basic personalisation, such as custom printing each membership card, event pass or loyalty card with your customer’s name and details. This is achieved simply through variable data printing from Redegroup. Our team start with a base template for your cards, creating personalised fields for each new customer. These fields can include everything from text to barcodes, and we can even personalise the image to what the customer likes to purchase from you.
Step 2: Creating your marketing campaigns
Depending on your customers and the goals for your next marketing campaign, this step will look different for each business. However, there are some great easy ways to create and roll out your new personalised communication to your customers.
Automated email platforms: Automated email platforms like MailChimp are great, but you will have to extend your campaigns beyond the standard birthday email or generic monthly newsletter to really leverage the data you have gathered. Use your email campaigns to send custom emails triggered by a specific event or behaviour. For example, send a discount offer to customers off their next purchase from your Winter line shortly after they have made a similar purchase. This will help make sure the customer is coming back to your business for their next purchase, with a cross-sell opportunity that they’re likely to take up.
Automated SMS programs: There are a range of automatic SMS programs that you can sign up to that won’t break the bank. Send out relevant SMS messages to customer segments when the time is right. For example, your art gallery may want to send a reminder about an upcoming contemporary art show to any customer who has engaged with a contemporary art show in the past. The data you have gathered on attendees to previous events will allow you send this personalised invitation to a list of specific customers.
Automated Mailhouse services: If you would like to have your brand in your customer’s letterbox rather then their inbox, or you want to send physical gift cards and offers, our MailHouse service at Redegroup can help. We can personalise plastic gift cards and attach to a wide range of stationery, designed for your business & campaign! This allows you to get back to running and growing your business instead of messing around with databases and printing.
Redegroup can help!
Redegroup believe that your existing customers are vital to the strength and growth of your business in the future. Engaging with existing customers comes from personalising the shopping experience for your customers and members. We can help! From plastic membership cards to combo cards and everything in between, we can help you create a personalised customer program that will keep your customers coming back.
Click here to order a sample pack of our key tags & combo cards or click here to request a quote from our team.