There is now a large amount of research proving that investing in customer experience pays off. Recent research shows that 80% of customers are likely to recommend a brand or company to friends and family if it provides a convenient customer service experience. We know in our own lives as customers that we will gladly buy from companies that make our lives easier and better, but still many companies are missing the boat on delivering that seamless experience.
But some are starting to make customer experience a priority. Twenty thousand people gathered at Adobe Summit 2023 in Las Vegas to learn and network around how technology can help companies create better customer experiences. This is the world’s largest gathering of digital experience leaders all focused on experience-led growth.
Digital efforts must be centered around personalization. With new tools and channels to reach customers, providing a personalized digital experience is key to creating loyal and satisfied customers.
Adobe Firefly: The Next Tool in AI CX
The foundation of a customer-centric company is a strong customer experience strategy and the technology to support it. Scalable experiences that lead to growth can only happen when companies leverage new tools, especially AI and machine learning.
During Adobe Summit, Adobe unveiled Adobe Firefly, an AI-powered tool that creates images and text right in existing experience and marketing workflows. Using AI, Firefly has the potential to take companies’ marketing and experience strategies to the next level by generating content in their own style and brand language. Imagine seamlessly being able to build a cohesive customer experience and brand message—AI tools make it possible. And adopting new technology is what it takes to create scalable, personalized experiences.
At the summit, I spoke with Veronica Vargas Lupo, Business Development Lead for the Adobe x IBM Strategic Partnership, who said companies need end-to-end integration at the data level. Every aspect of the ecommerce customer experience matters, from the ordering experience to fulfillment and future recommendations. Companies that can combine data for a seamless, technology-driven experience have a strong competitive advantage.
Personalization at Scale
Experience-led growth, especially driven by AI, is crucial as modern customers demand personalization. To meet their increasing demand, companies must deliver personalization at scale and align their entire business to provide valuable, individualized experiences to customers. It’s all about having the right conversation at the right time. For example recent research shows if it’s raining outside, people are more likely to be inside shopping digitally—and brands need to be able to quickly be there for customers to capitalize on their spending, as Adobe data shows.
Seventy-five percent of customers would switch companies if they found out a competitor was more convenient to do business. Part of convenience includes the business serving up relevant, in-context, just in time content and experiences. Customers prefer to buy from brands that deliver personalized experiences, and personalization can lead to loyalty and increased sales.
Personalization at scale doesn’t happen without concerted effort and the support of advanced tools and AI like Firefly. IBM – an Adobe consulting partner of 20 years – created 5 pillars of personalization at scale:
- Establish responsibility for the customer experience. Customer focus starts from the top and requires executive buy-in and leadership with someone expressly in charge of leading CX and personalization efforts.
- Embed customer-centric thinking into new skills and ways of working. Leading companies have an organization-wide focus on CX and prioritize nimble cross-functional teams to move quickly, adapt to feedback, and continually improve.
- Unify customer data to create individual customer profiles. Personalization at scale can’t happen with standalone channels. To succeed, brands must unite their data from multiple customer touchpoints for a cohesive understanding across multiple data types.
- Maximize the value of advanced analytics. Tools like AI at scale and real-time segmentation provide brands with powerful customer insights to adjust personalization efforts and reach customers at the right moments.
- Create a fully integrated and synchronized tech ecosystem. Even with connected data, companies must coordinate across the organization to create a layer sharing personalized data with the apps that consume it and drive personalized experiences.
There’s a clear link between personalization and growth. When brands focus on leading and growing through experiences, they build strong customer relationships and set themselves apart. But that requires leveraging the right technology to offer personalization at scale.
At the core, personalization at scale is a simple three-step process: first – collecting data, second – analyzing the data, and third – personalizing the customer experience. But it requires the right tools and mindset to lead to impactful experience-led growth.
AI tools and personalization are necessary for companies that want to embrace modern customers and lead the charge to a new digital future.
Disclosure: IBM is a client of Blake Morgan’s
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Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist and the author of The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her weekly email here.