Most brands are collecting a ton of customer data, but are facing a number of limitations related to what they can do with that data due to the shortcomings of their current legacy technology stack. Exploring and deploying new technology is a big production though. There are so many vendors vying for your attention and saying such similar things, it’s hard to distinguish what actually makes sense for your business needs. It’s our experience that marketers who need a new customer data and engagement solution are plagued by the same problems. In this blog post, we’re taking a closer look at four signs your brand might need a customer data and engagement platform. Keep reading to learn more:
You don’t have a complete view of your customers
Does your brand have multiple, fragmented profiles for an individual customer? Do you lack the ability to take action on the data you’re collecting? There’s no value to collecting all of this information if you don’t have a way to quickly organize it into a singular view and take action. If that sounds like you then your brand probably needs a customer engagement platform.
With a customer engagement platform, brands can stream in customer data stored in various sources such as POS systems, mobile wallet apps, web ordering systems, SKU tracking, and in-app ordering to create a single customer profile that is updated in real time. Even better–that data is accessible to any other system. And it’s actionable from any of those systems too!
You can’t trigger campaigns based on behavior
Do you have marketing automation, but haven’t nailed the ability to trigger campaigns to individual customers based on historical, locational and behavioral data? Do you lack the ability to access and target customers while on premise (missing huge opportunities to upsell and cross-sell with data-driven offers)? If you answered yes to one or both of these questions then a customer engagement platform could help.
Inevitably, certain regions, stores, or restaurants perform better than others. With a customer engagement platform, marketers can set up targeted campaigns specifically to those underperforming entities to incent customers in that area to come in, rather than promoting to the entire market. You could also send out a campaign based off of impromptu events, like weather. For example, on a rainy day, a coffee shop can execute a campaign targeted to customers based in one region — enticing them to come in for a warm cup of coffee; or, if sunny weather is in the forecast for a week in April in Boston, a shoe company can execute a campaign to just Boston area shoppers with an incentive to buy their first pair of sandals for the season.
You don’t have a sophisticated loyalty strategy
Is your approach to loyalty one-size-fits-all? Does it reward existing behavior instead of motivating incremental spend or frequency? If that sounds familiar, it’s probably time you considered a customer engagement platform.
Customer engagement platforms enable marketers to predict the optimal experience or offer to motivate high-value behaviors by leveraging dynamic, personalization and predictive analytics.
Are you looking for ways to increase engagement and loyalty? Customer engagement platforms give marketers the ability to display offers specifically targeted to the customer within your mobile app, or through a campaign, based on previous purchase history. Unlike other loyalty technology solutions that depend on standard segmentation to send offers, customer engagement platforms can personalize engagements on a 1:1 basis with unique content, and offer personalized product recommendations based on a customer’s preferences and deliver the offer at the moment of impact.
Customer engagement platforms also enable marketers to gather data across all channels to develop models around customer behavior/value based on purchase history and other latent factors that influence affinity, motivation, and intent to purchase. Calculate backwards-looking scores such as recency, frequency, and monetary spend for multiple activity types and forward-looking metrics such as probability of churn and customer lifetime value to design optimal customer experiences.
You can’t create offers based off of customer transactions or store locations.
Are you unable to create targeted offers and rewards in real time? Customer engagement platforms allow marketers to deliver personalized customer rewards based on their purchase history and behavior. Are you blanketing your database with discounts to items customers would already purchase? In contrast, customer engagement platforms enable you to surprise and delight customers with unpublished rewards they weren’t expecting and based on location, previous purchase behavior, a certain market and any other aspect of her profile or personal preferences. These personalized closed loop offers can be redeemed at a POS system.
Do your employees lack the ability to validate offers at POS or track redemptions to deliver the next best offer? With customer engagement platforms, employees can immediately recognize an offer and instantly process it at the POS. Every time an offer is redeemed, that individual customer’s operational profile is updated to inform future offers. You can even issue points to customers in real time to keep them coming back in the future.
Many organizations are struggling to take action against customer data. In order to do so they have to endure a manual process, which can take days or weeks (time that most marketers don’t have). Customer engagement platforms are designed to help marketers fill the gap between insight and action–and capitalize on every opportunity to upsell, cross-sell or delight customers during the moments that matter. Is your brand ready for help?
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