More Relevance, Less Interruption

With the explosion of customer data it might seem as if customer communications should grow in scope, reacting to address needs and interests, correspondingly increasing customer interactions and interruption. But does personalisation have to mean more communication and intrusion?

the pursuit of providing more relevant interactions but interrupting the customer less

In our work over the last 3.5 years we are finding a naturally occurring bell curve as organisations amass vast data assets and seek to maximise customer intelligence & targeting. This is all in the cause of creating a more controlled and customer centric approach to marketing, in the pursuit of providing more relevant interactions but interrupting the customer less. With this transition comes the double benefit of more effective customer communications; driving commercial outcomes and improved customer experience which in turn drives satisfaction & loyalty.

Increasingly our client's ambitions are evolving from 'data-driven' to 'customer-centric and relevant'. This is a step-change in thinking for two reasons:

• It is a move beyond an insight & research orientated approach towards an individual customer level understanding, both enabling intelligence and personalisation at a granular level which can be activated immediately across channels
• There is an understanding that experience should not only be analytics driven but also context aware, balancing what we have learnt about a customer and the signals which we are able to observe in the here & now
• Awareness, sensitivity and governance regarding data privacy should be at the centre of any activities, both in the processing and activation of what we know about prospects & customers

focussed attention on realising actual customer value from data and a need to apply controls to profiling & targeting

This change appears to be explicitly driven from a combination of commercial and regulatory dynamics which have focussed attention on realising actual customer value from data and a need to apply controls to profiling & targeting. These dynamics are perhaps the catalysts for affecting genuine change.

As we so often observe in our own consumer relationships, there is in fact very little evidence of real data-driven experience in our everyday lives and their remains significant opportunities to increase relevance in both what is said and how it is delivered.