Omni-Everything, Especially for You!
This year promises to be a watershed for digital commerce. Conversations with ‘digital’ leaders across industry segments have shown a remarkable turn in the last six to nine months. Personalization of all consumer interactions has clearly grown from an online-only context to an all-encompassing ‘phy-gital’. In my recent conversations, an omnichannel transformation executive from a leading grocery chain brought it home in a big way. One of us had dared utter the word ‘online’ with ‘personalization’ and bang came the rebuff – “Use ‘Digital’ or ‘Click and mortar’; ‘online’ is too limiting”! In fact, we love ‘Phy-gital’ more!
All of us today, deep in our subconscious, expect to be recognized. When we open an app on our mobile phone, we expect to have an express checkout that knows how we pay. When we check-in to a long haul flight, we expect the airline to know our choice of food. When you receive a promotional offer on a book, you expect the seller to know your tastes. When you log into your office intranet, you expect a clean screen with only those apps that matter to you. The other day, someone complained about their ‘smart’ home’s air conditioning that switches on automatically, when they get close to their home. However, darn it, it supports only one setting, while he and his wife like different settings! The so-called ‘smart’ machine does not accommodate their individual preferences when only one of them is at home! Nodding in agreement? But still, not everybody gets it. There’s a long way to go for personalization in most areas of our lives — personal and professional.
Two key hurdles will continue to slow this down:
Both need addressing. And, there’s a way to deal with them:
First, consumers told us loud and clear in our Shopper Study released at NRF 2015, that they are willing to share information with retailers so long as they can get good value and a great, personalized experience. But for them to convert this willingness to action, we need to lay bare our promise — what will they get in return?
Second, in today’s self-service world where ‘demand discovers supply’, consumers should have equal access to their own information, as does the service provider. Isn’t it frustrating that when you ask your airline to credit missing miles, they ask you to share copies of your boarding passes for them to act on it? On the contrary, I would say that the airline should help you have full access to all your information that they have stored — every conversation you have had with their customer service desk, excess baggage paid, full travel details and so on. Isn’t it only fair that you do?
I am sure you get the drift — we are not talking only of the online world here. Every time we interact with people and with things, we expect deep personalization. Last thing I heard someone discussing recently was a personalized toilet paper dispenser for the office bathroom. It can be programmed to re-order in different multiples of rolls depending on usage frequency!
Dare you say ‘omnichannel’? Omni-everything it is, personalized just for you!
All of us today, deep in our subconscious, expect to be recognized. When we open an app on our mobile phone, we expect to have an express checkout that knows how we pay. When we check-in to a long haul flight, we expect the airline to know our choice of food. When you receive a promotional offer on a book, you expect the seller to know your tastes. When you log into your office intranet, you expect a clean screen with only those apps that matter to you. The other day, someone complained about their ‘smart’ home’s air conditioning that switches on automatically, when they get close to their home. However, darn it, it supports only one setting, while he and his wife like different settings! The so-called ‘smart’ machine does not accommodate their individual preferences when only one of them is at home! Nodding in agreement? But still, not everybody gets it. There’s a long way to go for personalization in most areas of our lives — personal and professional.
Two key hurdles will continue to slow this down:
- Concerns relating to how much personal data can legitimately be used.
- Consumers seeing this as a one-way street and therefore, refusing to share data.
Both need addressing. And, there’s a way to deal with them:
- Businesses need to be transparent with consumers and share how their data is being used, and therefore how consumers benefit from sharing their precious data.
- Marketers need to embrace data symmetry and transparency better.
First, consumers told us loud and clear in our Shopper Study released at NRF 2015, that they are willing to share information with retailers so long as they can get good value and a great, personalized experience. But for them to convert this willingness to action, we need to lay bare our promise — what will they get in return?
Second, in today’s self-service world where ‘demand discovers supply’, consumers should have equal access to their own information, as does the service provider. Isn’t it frustrating that when you ask your airline to credit missing miles, they ask you to share copies of your boarding passes for them to act on it? On the contrary, I would say that the airline should help you have full access to all your information that they have stored — every conversation you have had with their customer service desk, excess baggage paid, full travel details and so on. Isn’t it only fair that you do?
I am sure you get the drift — we are not talking only of the online world here. Every time we interact with people and with things, we expect deep personalization. Last thing I heard someone discussing recently was a personalized toilet paper dispenser for the office bathroom. It can be programmed to re-order in different multiples of rolls depending on usage frequency!
Dare you say ‘omnichannel’? Omni-everything it is, personalized just for you!