By now we have all heard the importance of personalization and how companies like Amazon use data science for personalization of “Customer who bought this…” to their customers.
The latest trend however is hyper-personalization in almost every industry from Retail to Travel to Hospitality and so on.
Hyper-personalization is use of browsing histories, past purchases, social media data and internal customer data to provide more personalized and targeted products, services, and content. It is about being relevant at the right place and right time to the right person.
Rapid growth of social and newer digital channels has created an opportunity to collect even more relevant customer data, thereby helping companies provide a personalized outreach.
How it is done?
Focus on 3 important ‘W” of hyper-personalization:
- Who you personalize
- What you personalize and
- Where you personalize.
Focus on defining your customers, their likes / dislikes, and most importantly their issues and challenges. By understanding these intricate details about your customers, you get an in-depth look at the pain points in their purchasing cycle, and also the factors that affect their buying decisions.
Once you have listened to them and grouped them into the right segments, you can begin to create personalized content, deliver it in a most relevant way, and help drive engagement.
Collecting data on an individual-level vs. collecting data by segment is an integral step in the hyper-personalization process. For example, if a customer searches for flights to a particular location, then travel agencies could use this info to target that customer with relevant travel packages.
Share personalized content in the context of a customer’s needs and location to deliver it across different devices so that it can translate into positive experiences for the customer. While doing this also ensure your brand is not placed among the relentless marketing which irritates customers.
Mobile has become another important medium which generates more than 60% traffic of internet and most importantly customer location.
Big Data & combined with Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence play a huge role in hyper-personalization. It becomes more effective when cloud is used for storage and processing for faster time to market.
With wearables on the rise and IoT is collecting personalized data for a consumer which is being used for special promotions on self care, health plans.
Netflix, Starbucks & Coca Cola are using hyper-personalization for increasing revenues.
Travel is the place where hyper-personalization gets the most exciting where remote check-ins and specialized door keys are used.
Today by looking at your digital footprint, companies can offer you additional insurance when you move into new house, or education loan for your child’s post-graduation, increase credit limit on your cards based on expenditure specially customized only for you.
Welcome to hyper-personalization!!