eTail 25
I had the pleasure of being interviewed at eTail 25 last week by Efrain Rosario, Global Head of Diageo Futures & Commerce.
A brief summary is below.
ER: Let's start by discussing why customer experience (CX) is so critical.
It improves resilience: Several years, McKinsey cited that CX leaders had 3X higher returns that CX laggards, based on analysis of the 2008 financial crisis.
GC: McKinsey have a point, but in reality, CX has always been important - Pandemic/Economy/Whatever.!
What is essential is understanding what is important to the customer
Notwithstanding what you think of the food, McDonalds delivers a consistent experience across their estate
John Lewis built their reputation on customer experience / service (they are two different things admittedly
Mr Porter is often seen as a standard bearer of ecommerce CX
Customer Service vs Customer Service : A perspective
Customer Experience (CX) refers to the overall journey a customer has with a brand across all touchpoints and interactions. This encompasses every aspect of a company’s offering—the quality of customer care, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability. It is the cumulative effect of multiple touchpoints over time, which results in the emotional connection the customer has with the brand.
Customer Service, on the other hand, is a subset of CX and refers specifically to the support and advice provided to customers before, during, and after they purchase a product or service. This typically involves direct interactions between customers and the company through various channels such as phone, email, live chat, and in-person support
ER: Customers now demand augmented experiences: what are the 'must haves' for consumers today?
GC: I think consumers want a connected experience because they
expect you to know them as a customer. What do you mean I have to create an online and offline profile and they are not connected?
want to engage with you on different touchpoints to fulfil particular needs along the journey to purchase: Research, be inspired, purchase, return, advocate.
want to touch, smell, taste the product before buying. I’ll never forget the aroma the first time I walked in an Aesop store
they want to know more about the products they are buying (connected packaging and connected spaces will feature more prominently especially for brands selling through wholesale partners). This is where augmented content really plays a part. Scan the wine bottle label and know more about the vineyard in Tuscany? Yes please.
ER: Personalisation sits at the core of delivering these connected experiences ... how can brands and retailers ensure a consistent personalized experience across all channels (online, in-store, mobile apps)?
GC: I get to use my well-versed mantra, ‘Personalisation without purpose is pointless’ Just because you have the technology and data to deliver hyper-personalisation doesn’t mean you have to! (I think a few marketers get a little hyper when they see what could be personalised
Figure out what are the key experiences that need consistency in the customers mind. What will make their experience easier, faster, more enjoyable if personalised. I love the way Marks and Spencer personalise my checkout knowing that 99% of the time I use Click and Collect and pick up from a particular store.
Think about the data that has to be surfaced consistently across those touchpoints. Do you have it? If not, how do you start collecting it.
ER: What are some effective personalized marketing strategies that you've seen proven successful?
GC: I think the most successful strategies are the ones that bring value to the customer and the business. And by business I also mean employees.
During my time as Global Head of CRM, I introduced Aesop’s new Welcome Journey that no longer just came from the brand but from the store the purchase was made in. It cemented the relationship between store and customer and made the retail teams very happy. They could see I wasn’t redirecting their new customer online!
Natura LATAM’s skin diagnostics app while I Group Head of CRM and Personalisation essentially used AI to make product recommendations based on a photo of my face. This also made the consultant happy as they were given a tool to support their ambition to be seen as a beauty consultant
Also important to note is that sometimes good personalisation works because it means you don’t send customers anything. My first purchase of Dr. Martens boots was a classic pair of 1461s. Within days of receiving them I received an email promoting their Marc Jacobs collaboration which was a million miles away from the type of footwear I had just bought. And if you’ve ever bought a pair of Docs, you’ll know it takes some time to break them in. I’m not convinced that customers are ready to buy another pair within 3 days!
ER: What are the challenges and solutions for integrating personalization across different platforms?
GC: I think the challenges sit in 4 buckets
Data
Technology
People
Process
ER: Let's talk data - the lifeblood to make this happen: the catalyst in all this is data - clean, structured, and harmonized across various data sources to make it insightful and actionable. Curious to hear from you on how does one get started on a connected data strategy?
GC: It starts with customer.
What are the customer’s needs and wants? Build these into use cases that then help you answer the questions
What data do I need to collect / flow through the business?
How do I fill the gaps I've just identified in Data, Technology, People, Process?
ER: The need for personalization and privacy appear to sit on two ends of the spectrum. How do you balance the use of customer data for personalization with the need to protect their privacy?
GC: Think about another one of my mantras: Minimum Viable Data (MVD). What is the least amount of data I need to fulfil my ambition of purposeful personalisation?
I remember hearing a lovely analogy about collecting data from customers should be akin to packing for a holiday. Only take what you need for the length of time you’re going to be away and based on your destination. When are you going to use the data and for what?
Brand is important too. When working with regional marketers at Aesop, they often came to me with specific data collection requests. Can we have birthdates? Before answering that question, I asked them what they were going to do with that data attribute as the brand would never send birthday emails or use your age to promote a product. At that point they decided that perhaps birthdate wasn’t something they needed.