Excellence is no longer a "nice to have". It is a given.
This was the word from Momentum's head of iChannel, Elizabeth Lee Ming, who detailed how technology can be used to facilitate more sustainable and engaged relationships with customers.
She was speaking at the eCommerce Africa Confex in Cape Town this morning.
"The digital shopper is not like a traditional shopper," she said. "Retail is no longer focused on return on investment but about return on relationships."
With this, come sizable expectations around personalisation and changes to how we are engaging with existing customers and promoting our offerings to new customers, she stated. "Becoming more customer-centric involves marrying customer experience and user experience," she said, adding true customer engagement now involves having a deep understanding of the consumer.
She cited a British Airways campaign called "Visit Mum" as an example of the level of personalisation and deep engagement merchants need to strive towards. The campaign was launched in an attempt to promote flights between the US and India.
Making various emotional appeals, the commercial culminates with a mother in Mumbai being reunited with her son who has flown from the US after many years apart. Sales of flights between the US and India increased by 65% following the campaign. British Airways had a product that wasn't selling well, so the company researched who their potential customers could be and tailored its marketing strategy to appeal specifically to that demographic, she outlined. "This is an example of personalisation at work."
For her, effective use of social media is just one way that a merchant can gain a more holistic picture of their customer and facilitate true online engagement.
She detailed that in today's booming online marketplace, those who focus on personalisation, providing an excellent service and a positive customer experience will outperform their competitors.
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