Today’s customers expect digital communications to be convenient and efficient, but they’re also experiencing digital fatigue. That means organisations face a multi-part challenge: how to address consumer preferences while limiting attrition, avoiding greater complexity and maintaining low costs. How can you design consumer experiences that are impactful rather than ignorable? It’s not simple, but it is possible – and those who figure it out will gain a competitive advantage.
The digital personalisation communication paradox
Methods for effectively connecting with customers online are now a business necessity. According to a Symend survey from July 2021, 42% of respondents reported using their service provider’s digital tools substantially more than they did before the pandemic. New digital converts are part of this trend: according to a McKinsey Survey, 75% of those who used digital channels for the first time claimed they’d continue to use them after COVID-19.
The hitch is that while consumers want to employ digital communication tools, they are also exhausted by the constant barrage of emails and texts. Service providers must negotiate the future of digital engagement since they deal with opposing desires: customers have high expectations but they’re also receiving a deluge of messages.
According to the Symend survey, four out of 10 customers will quit a supplier if they don’t give the resources they expect. At the same time, a Deloitte survey found that 32 % of respondents felt that since the pandemic began, they’ve been overwhelmed by the number of devices and subscriptions they need to manage. This makes them more likely to ignore digital communication. Symend found that 35% of consumers are more likely than ever to ignore emails and texts.
This creates a digital interaction paradox that companies must address.
Individualisation is making a real connection
Most efforts to address this issue are focused on automation and targeting technologies, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Customers are more astute than many businesses believe. They require individualised interaction, particularly those who are suffering from digital fatigue. It’s crucial, yet most firms — a staggering 67% of respondents – admit they don’t have the right tools to implement customisation at scale.
Companies need a mechanism to dynamically hyper-personalise engagement at scale, so it stays relevant as customers’ requirements and desires evolve. Every customer engagement should be viewed as an opportunity to learn more about the customer, gain a better understanding of them and develop your connection with them.
AI machine learning hyper-personalisation vendors offer an advanced analytics solution that watches every action taken by each consumer on your site, to calculate imminent and immediate predicted purchases. Displayed on a predetermined stylesheet it sends details of the products at exactly the right time. These 100 % autonomous solutions avoid undue and derisory interference by human input into what would otherwise be an immediate purchase.
Not only does this immediately deliver a significant dividend (20x the return of omnichannel marketing, triggered solutions and standard email marketing combined according to McKinsey and Statista). A free month’s trial verifies compatibility with existing software and strategy, alongside viability for adoption.
It is essential marketers appreciate the distinction between personalisation and individualisation, which delivers derisory returns in comparison.
Make yourself heard
The pandemic hastened a trend that was already underway: the digitisation of customer communications. Simultaneously, the issue of digital fatigue has arisen, in which people become overwhelmed by digital interactions, and it becomes increasingly difficult to get their attention.
Companies face a big hurdle as a result of this digital paradox. When it comes to digitising consumer communications, you can’t just lift and shift; you need to do it carefully and strategically, taking into account each customer’s preferences and habits. It necessitates a tool that can scale while also personalising interactions. That’s what it’ll take for businesses to overcome digital fatigue create opportunities to learn more about their customers and make each communication worthwhile. The companies that do so will be the ones that get heard.
