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In this episode of the Mobile Presence podcast, part of the Reimagine Growth series sponsored by CleverTap, our host Peggy Anne Salz talks about hyper-personalization with our very own Chief Customer Officer, Abhishek Gupta. They discuss how retailers can deepen customer relationships and drive repeat purchases by harnessing hyper-personalization.
We revisit some highlights from the conversation below.
As he explains it, the job involves “thinking for the customer, thinking along with them, thinking through all the obstacles which they may have in their path and solving for each one of those things in a methodical manner.”
And, the most critical aspect? Doing so in a repeatable manner across the board.
The focus is always on customers. Gupta shares: “I have always kept a customer at the center of our decision-making, and it has improved our ability to help our customer succeed. And when a customer succeeds, we basically succeed along with them.” The retention that a company needs to keep growing is a direct result of being able to help customers succeed.
To get there, Gupta talks about necessary first steps: “We need to have a deep level of understanding with respect to their business.” This includes the way they’ve set themselves up for success, their business objectives, and their KPIs.
But apart from short-term tactical goals, he also spends time with customers “to help them chart their long-term goals and in the process lay out a plan that helps them move forward.”
Part and parcel of focusing on the customer is to deliver a customer experience that answers the needs of that customer — and that stems from the product UX to marketing and all the way to customer support.
“Product is a part of the customer experience,” Gupta says, “it is how they realize value… We work very closely with the product team to make sure that the innovation roadmap, our ability to help customers realize value through incremental use cases, the experience that we deliver to our customers using the product — it’s one and the same.”
In fact, to help our customers in retail, Gupta and his team put together a playbook for ecommerce and retail companies entitled Fit for the Future of Retail, which outlines actionable campaigns that companies can set into motion immediately. The framework was built on insights that CleverTap gleaned from working with customers.
Gupta says: “Fit for the Future is an industry playbook that gives marketers a jumpstart on the strategies and use cases that drive user retention, drive customer lifetime value, and in the process, increase their revenues, reduce costs, and improve profitability.”
The playbook collects 30 tried-and-tested tactics gleaned from ecommerce benchmark reports as well as customer interviews and focus group discussions. Each tactic rolls up into one of four business objectives for ecommerce: increase new user retention, increase customer engagement, increase order transactions, and reduce churn.
Gupta says: “What this report provides is a blueprint that marketers can use to build campaigns around hyper-personalization. Customers have realized conversion rates of up to 250% higher using hyper-personalization strategies compared to one-size-fits-all campaigns.”
Download the Fit for the Future of Retail ebook here.
Overall, the Fit for the Future ebook solves one of the foremost challenges that ecommerce marketers face.
According to Gupta, the problem stems from focusing on only acquisition without realizing retention is just as critical in growing your user base.
“Now, when you’re starting a journey as a business, acquisition is important,” Gupta says. “But over a period of time, retention becomes paramount.”
What adds to the challenge is the highly competitive landscape around us, where consumers expect personalized content delivered to them from every service they use — the Netflix-ification of everything from fintech to ecommerce.
“If you look at some of the statistics, 90% of the users acquired by a brand leave them within the first 90 days, and that’s a massive problem for marketers. They are basically trying to solve this problem of user retention and user engagement to build strong businesses.”
The tipping point though is in reframing the challenge in a way that makes it actionable. Gupta shares: “Marketers have to realize that as much as user retention is a challenge, it’s an opportunity for them to get across to the consumers and create value for them at every touchpoint.”
Listen to the complete podcast below:
Abhishek was also interviewed on video for Business Reporter and got to explain hyper-personalization as both a differentiator and a strategy that ecommerce brands should be using to boost retention and customer lifetime value. Watch it here.
