Reach your customers with a personalized customer approach

Customers have high expectations of an online store today. As an online merchant, you have a wide range of options to meet these expectations. One of them is the personalized customer approach. Personalization and individualization can be implemented on all channels in online marketing.

If you don’t take the step now to break up the relatively rigid systems and personalize the customer approach, you will lose customers to the competition in the long term. When it comes to professional implementation, modern technology supports personalization – and reduces effort, time and costs in the process.

The challenges of customer communication

Email, social media, live chats, telephone consultation – online shops have diverse ways customers can get in touch and be reachable on their part. An advantage that can nevertheless quickly become a challenge, because questions rapidly arise:

• How does interaction with customers work in the various ways?
• What needs to be taken into account when addressing customers?
• What is the best way to address customers?

The key: personalization oriented to your target group

75% of customers are happy when a company uses their preferred communication channels. Do you know your target group’s preferred ways to contact you? Then you can optimize these sustainably and efficiently with a personalized customer approach, as well as gradually expanding other options at the same time. Focus on the most important ones first and implement other options step by step.

Better yet, you’ll immediately earn bonus points if you address your customers’ preferences with a personalized customer approach. This not only brings the online shops sales, but also new customers and promotes long-term customer loyalty. As a rule, companies that express their appreciation with thoughtful personalization via email or message are significantly more likely to be recommended to friends and family.

What happens without an individual customer approach?

There is also the other side of the coin. If you fail to convince with a personalized customer approach, customers will clearly show you that without any detours. 41% will punish you by unsubscribing from your communication services like your newsletter.

It stands to reason that the intention to buy will drop to a minimum and a revisit to your online shop will also be in question: 19% of those surveyed would break off the business relationship.

What does your target group really want?

A personalized customer approach only succeeds if you know what your target group really wants. This starts with the choice of communication channel and continues with the question of which approach and tone of voice (factual, cordial, hip) is preferred.

The following information helps to get some initial inspiration:

• More than half of customers would like to be able to determine for themselves the way in which a company reaches them.
• The same applies to the time of day.
• Younger generations want a personalized customer approach on multiple channels.
• However, personalized communication also plays a key role among older generations.
• Personalized advertising/sales messages are particularly well received by the middle age group.
• If young target groups have bad experiences in terms of communication and a personalized customer approach is lacking, they tend to draw consequences quickly.

Around 40% of middle-aged customers have already made a purchase once because a company communicated with them in the right way. In combination with a personal customer approach, this is an unbeatable tool for your online marketing.

How does personalised customer approach work?

To prevent you from being one of those online shops where 94% of customers are annoyed by the wrong communication, on the wrong channel and the wrong approach, we want to give you some food for thought.

• Always address your customers individually.
• Offer different ways of reaching them.
• Use individual and preferred communication channels.
• Surprise customers with relevant content. More than half of consumers are annoyed by content that is irrelevant to them.
• Create added value with a personalized customer approach.

Personalized customer approach with smart technology

Your customers show you how important a personalized customer approach is. It pays to strive for personalization in the long term. Intelligent software solutions such as those from uptain help to ensure that this succeeds, in addition to the numerous other requirements.

The personalized customer approach is fully automated according to your target group on several channels such as email and popups. For this purpose, the intelligent uptain® ALGORITHM is used, which decides on a customized customer approach with regard to form of address, tonality, content and timing. Abandoned cart emails, exit-intent popups and newsletter popups are thus perceived as efficient support in the buying process.

Personalized customer approach: reaching your customers

Personalized customer approach is one of your most important ways to really reach customers and turn them into true fans. Reach your customers with the personalized customer approach on the right channel, at the right time and with the right content, and the chance of interaction and a long-term relationship is significantly higher.

Frequently asked questions about customer approach

How does a personalised customer approach work?

It works by matching four things to the individual: form of address, tonality, content and timing. Always address customers personally, offer several ways of reaching you, use their preferred channel and deliver content that is genuinely relevant, since more than half of consumers are annoyed by irrelevant content. Done consistently, this keeps you out of the group whose communication annoys 94% of customers.

What do customers expect from a personalised customer approach?

Customers expect control and relevance. More than half want to decide themselves how a company reaches them, and the same applies to the time of day. Younger generations expect personalisation across several channels and react quickly when communication disappoints, while it also matters to older generations. Personalised sales messages land particularly well with the middle age group, around 40% of whom have already bought because a company communicated in the right way.

What happens without an individual customer approach?

Customers react immediately and visibly: 41% unsubscribe from communication services such as your newsletter, and 19% of those surveyed would break off the business relationship entirely. Purchase intention drops to a minimum and a return visit becomes unlikely. Shops that keep their systems rigid instead of personalising the customer approach lose those customers to competitors over time.

What is a personalised customer approach?

A personalised customer approach means addressing each customer individually rather than sending the same message to everyone: on the channel they prefer, at the time that suits them, with content that is relevant to them. It can be implemented across all online marketing channels, from email and social media to live chat and pop-ups, and it is one way of meeting the high expectations shoppers now bring to an online store.

How can software automate a personalised customer approach?

Intelligent software takes over the decisions that manual personalisation cannot scale. The uptain® ALGORITHM determines form of address, tonality, content and timing for each visitor and plays the result out fully automatically across channels such as email and pop-ups. Communication is then perceived as support in the buying process rather than advertising, and personalisation costs less effort, time and money than doing it by hand.

What makes customer communication in online shops challenging?

The sheer number of channels is the difficulty. Email, social media, live chat and telephone consultation all give customers ways to get in touch, which is an advantage until three questions arise: how interaction works on each channel, what has to be taken into account when addressing customers, and which approach actually works best. Answering those questions is what makes personalisation manageable.

What do online shops gain from using their customers’ preferred channels?

75% of customers are happy when a company uses their preferred communication channels, and that satisfaction translates into results: more sales, new customers and stronger long-term loyalty. Companies that show appreciation through thoughtful personalisation by email or message are significantly more likely to be recommended to friends and family. Start with the channels that matter most to your target group and add others step by step.