If there was a buzz-phrase that resonated more than any other from the 3rd Annual Engagement & Experience Expo, presented by Loyalty 360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association, it was “customer intimacy.”
When brand executives delivered their respective stories during sessions at the conference, many discussed how they accumulated volumes of customer data, but needed a way to consolidate it in such a way so they could personalize communications.
Some brand executives believe that data and customer understanding go hand-in-hand, and that growth in the data/personalization area will be based on predictive modeling.
Doug Doyle, Senior Director, Microsoft, shared with Loyalty 360 his thoughts on customer intimacy and customer engagement. Doyle admits he’s not a big fan of industry buzzwords.
“I’m a bit of a cynic on some of the buzzwords that are sprawling about,” Doyle says. “Whether it’s Customer Voice, Loyalty, Net Promoter, Customer Effort, Customer Engagement, Customer-Centricity, Customer Delight, etc. – it’s just a load of buzz in many respects. When you break each model down, often times what I find is just a prettier version (or even just a different version) of the same thing.”
At the end of the day, Doyle lists four core values or principles “we’re all trying to unlock and kind of pivot off.”
Here are Doyle’s 4 Rules of Customer Engagement for brands:
Listen to your customer and don’t just build, sell, or service what you believe is the right thing to do
Consider the customer a partner in your own business choices
Know your customer – really know your customer – and invest in knowing everything you can about your customer
Build a knowledge base that enables smart parties to leverage what you know about your customer on three fronts:
a) What do they THINK?
b) What do they FEEL?
c) How do they ACT?
What’s more, Doyle says to never just rely on surveys.
“Build a system that enables ‘right-sized’ intelligence available across a spectrum of inputs, which span multiple experiences, overall relationship elements, and observational telemetry,’’’ he adds.