Hyper-personalization, the path to the future

The relentless technological development permeating today's society makes the hyper-digitalization of our entire ecosystem impossible to ignore for customers. Naturally, this disruption has permanently altered expectations. People are getting used to the responsiveness, convenience, and personalization they experience through applications that handle key aspects of their daily lives. Gone are the days when we could segment customers into a single group and create generic marketing campaigns through mass marketing techniques.

Different market studies confirm that less than 25% of buyers are satisfied with the current level of brand personalization, indicating that many brands are not inspiring customers to make a purchase through personalization. We still have a long way to go and improve, but are we part of this chosen group?

As is happening in the vast majority of industries, organizations need to change the way they interact with customers, shifting from offering products to services and evolving towards user experience as a key and fundamental piece.

To address this evolution, we understand that all technologies play a significant role in our customer learning model, as they must be driving forces that capture and analyze our concerns, needs, preferences, and fears to predict behaviors, purchases, conceive new products, define new market segments, or eliminate intermediaries by incorporating more value at a lower cost. We are at a moment where creating a high-value experimental scenario at a lower cost is the only thing that makes us competitive.

This scenario leads us to continuously think about personalizing interactions and offering unique experiences. When customers feel valued and understood, knowing that you are familiar with their preferences and concerns, it increases their loyalty. This hyper-personalization creates stronger bonds and reduces the likelihood of customers seeking alternatives, combining real-time behavioral data, such as when a buyer browses a website for cleaning products and, at the same time, the website recommends similar products based on their search history. It may seem simple at first glance, but it needs to be done well by proposing things that convert to sales. And this is not so easy anymore!

Highly satisfied and hyper-personalized customers are more likely to recommend a brand to others, creating a positive emotional bond, a unique sense of belonging, and a social influence that is difficult to measure. We cannot underestimate the power of networks and digital communication that has a decisive impact on purchasing decisions. Who doesn't look at recommendations nowadays?

Hyper-personalization is an effective way to differentiate oneself from the competition. Let's strive to be among the 25% who feel understood and have their needs addressed appropriately and personally. And I want to be there! What other challenge is more important in our company than this?

Successful companies must be able to treat each customer as a unique individual. We have to think about the concept of "one-to-one marketing," where companies need to treat each customer as a unique and exclusive market. It's also essential to have immediacy and omnichannel capabilities in both the physical and virtual worlds to develop a seamless experience.

Emphasizing the importance of data collection, precise customer segmentation, and the use of technology to tailor offers and messages to individual needs is essential. Through real-time data and artificial intelligence, companies can develop highly personalized experiences. Let's not forget the underlying principle of hyper-personalization: regular access to accurate customer data is a key requirement for effective action. In hyper-personalization, things happen. Do we have that mix of data, technology, and action in our organization?

A centralized, digitized database and suitable decision-making technology enable the creation of automated content, saving time and money, and allowing for better customer segmentation and more personalized management of customer needs. Do you find this important?

Regarding how to develop it, I recommend first building a personalization strategy by identifying customer needs and developing individual journeys. As I always say, think about making things happen and impacting customers. Once the strategy is developed, implementation requires hard and detailed work, involving analysis, collection of relevant data, and the use of suitable technology and architecture to respond to the designed strategy.

But let's pause for a moment on the importance of customer data. How much and what type of data is really needed? Companies need access to relevant data about their customers: preferences, purchase history, behavior, and interactions on social networks. It is important to segment customers precisely for later effective data analysis. As we are witnessing, using AI, machine learning, and data analysis to identify patterns, trends, and individual preferences is a necessity, not an option. We are increasingly becoming software and service companies even if we don't sell software or services.

Finally, I cannot help but think about culture, people, and their importance in this customer-centric philosophy and dedication. The orientation towards hyper-personalization requires a customer-centric mindset and culture throughout the organization. All areas of the company, from marketing to the warehouse, must consider the individual needs of customers. At this point, I want to highlight how essential the coordination between sales and marketing is, having common goals, maintaining smooth communication, and continuous feedback are mandatory. We have to make joint and coordinated use of all the tools at our disposal, but do we have them? Are we making the most of them? Is our CRM well-managed? Is the relationship between marketing and sales appropriate? A "no" to any of these questions is a hindrance on this path.

In conclusion, whatever approach is taken, the implementation of hyper-personalization techniques is the path of the future. Becoming data experts and learning how to exploit them is part of this process. Let's start developing both the technologies and the individual and collective skills to achieve it.