For decades, one of the biggest consumer complaints has been that companies don’t really know them. Businesses may use segmentation for marketing, yet for inbound customer service, even this level of personalization is nearly non-existent. Now the race is on—because personalized service experiences are quickly becoming a brand differentiator.

When customers reach out to solve a problem, they want to feel reassured and valued. But too often, they’re treated like a number and end up more frustrated. Even if they get good service on one call, the next time they contact customer service it’s basically starting at ground zero because the next agent doesn’t know them.

As more digital customer service channels have emerged, consumers have gained more choices and digital convenience. But that creates a new challenge: people often use different channels at different times, switching between calls, web chat, digital messaging, and social media. And because those channels are often siloed, customers may get a very impersonal and disjointed experience.

The new demand for personalization requires something significantly better. Consumers now expect seamless experiences across their relationship with a company—and without it, brands will struggle to earn repeat business, let alone loyalty. In fact, nearly 60% of consumers say personalized engagement based on past interactions is very important to winning their business.

Increasing value with a unified channel journey

Knowing your customers means providing seamless continuity wherever they engage with your brand. Typically, the experience is fragmented, and consumers have a right to expect better. They provide a considerable amount of data through various channel interactions, and 83% of consumers are willing to share that data to receive more personalized experiences.

When a company barely knows them from one engagement to the next, how do you think that affects their trust in the brand?

It’s no surprise that 89% of digital businesses are investing in personalization. Cutting edge technologies are eliminating the friction and fragmentation of multi-channel journeys, by meeting customers with full context however they make contact. With a unified, AI-powered platform for customer experience, companies can seamlessly integrate voice and digital capabilities—and ensure customers are greeted every time with an understanding of their history with the company, where they’ve been and what happened in previous interactions It gives customers greater flexibility and ease for engaging using their preferred channels, which can dramatically improve satisfaction ratings and NPS scores.

Another powerful benefit of multi-channel integration is that it enables contact centers to think in terms of conversations instead of cases. A unified platform weaves together voice and digital messages into a cohesive thread for a given customer. Any agent can easily step in and join that conversation, having all the right knowledge about the situation and visibility into previous interactions. That continuity enables agents to provide more personalized attention that helps ensure the customer feels known and valued.

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Customer service needs to be about conversations, not cases. Creating intelligent, personalized continuity across all engagement channels shows customers you know and value them—and that’s the great CX that wins loyalty.

Michael Lawder

Improving proactive engagement with personalization

Tapping into a wealth of customer data from many different channels, companies can take customer experience to the next level. Using AI and machine learning, you can build more comprehensive customer histories and serve up predictive, personalized action plans specifically relevant for each customer.

I’m talking about gaining a holistic picture of when, why, and how each customer has engaged over their lifecycle with your company. That opens up significant opportunities, such as:

• Improve customer experience and earn loyalty
• by providing highly personalized support each time someone reaches out.
• Increase customer lifetime value
• with more relevant and timely proactive engagement that is more like personalized conversations, all based on data-driven insights.
• Boost marketing ROI
• using customer data to develop persona-based segmentation strategies and nuanced messaging driven by sentiment analysis and a deeper understanding of intent.

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Most consumers now expect companies to know them better and see that reflected in their communications. And the demand for personally relevant experiences isn’t just about marketing—it’s across the journey, including customer service. That’s why ASAPP technology is so compelling.

Support interactions are often the defining moments that dictate how people feel about a brand. The more you can personalize those customer service moments, the more you will earn loyalty, and even word-of-mouth referrals as your happy customers become brand advocates.