Personalization for successful selling dates back a long time and has been exceedingly viable. The benefit of knowing an individual’s preferences and recalling the customer’s likes and dislikes were the foundation of personalized service and selling.
There was a time when large-scale manufacturing and mass consumerism turned out to be progressively prominent. Customers were only numbers for large companies since there were so many and it was tough to know each one personally. This brought about a drastic reduction in personalization and the friendly neighbourhood store became a large store, with no understanding of customers. Customers, it would seem missed the days of personalization when buying, since it came back with a bang. The internet revolution made it possible to access, collect, and collate huge amounts of customer information, allowing companies to make products that were customized and use the most personalized selling techniques. Personalization in a digital world was unheard of and yet quickly became hugely successful. With the e-world, companies now had the capacity to learn customer behaviour, predict buying patterns, remember customer names, and most importantly put together offerings that were personalized depending on the customer’s feedback, likes, dislikes, and preferences.
With companies understanding and seeing the many advantages of personalization, they soon began allocating time and other resources towards bettering the level of customization of their offerings and service. The current level and thrust towards customized products and selling methods, has increased customer satisfaction levels, given the personalized experiences the companies they associate with, provide to them. Personalized products and service have become the differentiators and unique selling proposition for companies – saving them from the self-defeating price wars.
With heightened personalization, customers now have more and better choices and can make informed decisions of where to spend their money. They no longer need to buy goods because they ‘are the only thing available’. Customers are now able to make choices depending on their lifestyle, preferences, budget, and other factors that are personal to them, after reviewing all the options on-line. Marketing experts agree that personalization is the way to increase customer engagement and is the foundation of successful and profitable companies. The ever-increasing number of new companies, now, start with the premise of providing personalized products and services, are giving older companies a hard time – customer loyalty now seems ephemeral. Companies that do not focus on personalization in every realm of their business will find themselves relegated to the background and maybe into oblivion.
With customers becoming more demanding and knowing how to get what they want, it would be detrimental for organizations not to comply. Companies must harness the power and potential of the several digital channels of connecting with customers to promote their personalized products. Even though it may be challenging to appear unified and provide the same kind of messages across all the channels, doing so would immensely benefit companies. It is critical that companies mirror the real world personalization to the digital world, thereby making customers feel valued and important even without actual human interactions. Does it not feel nice when you receive a communiqué from a company, addressed to you by name? Customers love this feeling and would be more amenable to buy from a company that gives them personalized service and products, both in the real and digital worlds. Personalization leads to increased sales, revenue, and sustained growth – well because customers feel a sense of worth, comfort, feeling of being important, which in turn leads to trust. When customers trust and like a company – they stay with them for a long, long time!