Rapid Response: Optimising the Customer Journey

It’s complex. It’s personal. It’s the modern customer journey. 

We’ve taken huge steps forward in understanding how ‘they’ interact with ‘us’, and a few things are clear:

• The journey is complex
• It involves multiple touch points
• It is driven by unique influences and behaviour
• To engage, we must get personal

We have access to more data than ever, which brings a whole new set of opportunities and challenges. Today’s customer expects things to be done quickly, yet only 37% of companies are able to target personalised web content in the right context in real-time*. In today’s marketing landscape, they are the winners. 

Intelligent marketing is both possible and crucial, so what are the key factors in real-time customer journey management?

Make it timely

Timing is critical. The principles are the same but timings and methods for reaching the consumer have changed. 

A shorter window of opportunity makes it vital to optimise the customer’s interaction with your brand in any circumstance, including:

The ‘Abandoned Basket’: targeting visitors who have left without completing a purchase.

Re-engage ‘Above The Basket’: contacting customers who have left after viewing a particular product or category has proven effective

Make it personal

Making communication relevant is a mantra which never changes. It must go beyond a simple name check – ‘Hello Mrs Smith’ – to the level of personalised homepages, product ranges or purchase triggers such as free P&P, individual discounts or simply a warmer tone of voice. In terms of brand engagement and conversion, the benefits are huge.

Make it integrated

Smart marketers use knowledge gained online to personalise digitally printed catalogues or to feed through to call centres to enable intelligent and personal dialogue.

Marketers can also use offline purchase data to influence products and offers seen online. Giving the customer a disjointed experience should be a thing of the past. We have no excuse for inconsistency. Companies who offer a truly personalised, integrated, real-time approach are reaping rewards.

Crew Clothing increased their ‘lost’ sales by 93% after a campaign to re-engage those who had left their site without purchasing. How? With a simple email.

Now that large enterprise systems are not required to drive this level of intelligent marketing, smaller companies are jumping at the chance to take the lead.

The playing field is now level. The winners will be those that take the initiative.

*Source - eConsultancy
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