I’m a frequent business traveler who’s likely to rack up $30,000 in airline, car rental and hotel expenses every year. I also vacation with my family twice a year, which offers a potential value of $15,000 annually. That means that over the next three years my value as a customer is approximately $150,000. I’d say I’m pretty valuable to an online travel retailer.

So, while I’m navigating a travel vendor’s site (one that I use frequently) – looking at available fares and the cost of car rentals and hotels in the area – does that vendor know my value as a customer? It sure doesn’t seem like it! Do they offer me a service experience that’s relevant to my needs, based on my preferences or previous buying patterns? No. My experience is similar to all other customers’, irrespective of my potential value.

Many brands create experiences to be all things to all people. I can understand that it can be tempting to create customer service experiences that appeal to everyone. Yet, such a broad approach to experience design can lead to a split personality that appeals to no one

A good experience design should not be a catch-all classification. A good experience should be deliberately exclusive and personalized. That’s what gives it teeth. It is what will compel consumers to identify with your brand.

I’d love for this online travel retailer to offer me SMS/text updates informing me of flight delays. When my flights are delayed, it’d be great if one of the vendor’s reps called me before I called them and offered to book an alternate route. These simple examples of a personalized service experience amount to what I refer to as delivering good service experience. Consistently delivering this service would certainly earn my loyalty as a longtime customer.

Speaking of loyalty – and by inference, the travel vendor’s marketing programs – I receive an email once a week offering me a deal for a trip that, without fail, I have no interest in taking. In fact, I have never clicked on any of their offers. My unresponsive behavior should serve as a clue. It offers ample evidence that cookie-cutter offers are not working on me.

The travel vendor could use this type of evidence to make me a more relevant offer. For example, say I have been traveling to a particular city every three weeks for the last four months. It’s natural to assume that I’m going to continue this travel pattern in the future. So, why not use the evidence to offer me a package deal for that city?

The technology exists to take advantage of customer actions, choices and feedback on an individual level—despite billions of clicks, millions of emails and comments, and thousands of customers—to automate truly personalized experiences. The technology is sophisticated but the goal is simple: to deliver relevant, efficient service—i.e. good experiences. KANA customers are using Service Experience Management to do just that.

The email offer I get every week has an almost adverse effect—serving as a reminder that the company sending them really doesn’t get me. Few businesses seem to truly understand just how much a particular customer is worth! And even if they are able to recognize different customer values, they fail to tailor the experience to suit the diverse needs of these customers.

When it comes to courting customers, this one-size-fits-all strategy just doesn’t cut it anymore. In fact I’d go so far to say that ‘one size fits no one’.

It’s time to begin asking the right questions, gathering customer data and applying the evidence intelligently. In doing this, we’ll be able to better quantify the value of our customers, offer personalized service experiences and launch more informed, effective marketing campaigns.

(Vikas Nehru is VP, Product Marketing, KANA)

No related posts.