Personalisation continues to play a big role in digital experiences. As brands move from 3rd party to first party data the northstar of one-to-one personalised experiences continues to be banded around. But when it comes to luxury experiences, is hyper-personalisation really desirable?
Modern digital experiences cater for a wide-range of distinct audience needs, but personalisation often falls into the trap of over familiarity. The 'hello Dave, welcome back' veneer of personalisation that is both tactless and useless. When creating personalised luxury experience we've been thinking of it as almost invisible moments of thoughtfulness.
Thoughtfulness
In real-world experiences such as restaurants and hotels, the moments that are signs of real luxury are the moments of attention to detail. Folding the napkin while you're away from the dining table, remembering your preferences (without being asked) or when the concierge checks ahead to smooth your flight home. These are human moments of care and thoughtfulness.
Where are the moments in your digital experience where you can go that extra-mile to show you really care about the customer?
Concierge thinking
Every moment of data collection and display is a chance to behave like a concierge - the staff members who treat every guest as a valued individual. A way to embody concierge behaviour is to gracefully gather information, only ask for what we need, remember what we are told.
This could result in clean, concise forms, the bare minimum of intrusion, and as persistent as possible data storage.
Basic, broad segmentation
Broad segmentation, such as taking into account in-bound journeys (e.g. CRM and search), or bucketing users based on browsing patterns enables you to tailor content and create an experiences which feel connected. Don't attempt create 1-to-1 personalised experiences, its much simpler to show "we know what you were interested in, and we'll bring you just what you were looking for".
It's not rocket science, but many brands are siloed and fragmented, just connecting the basics will make the experience feel thoughtful.
Measurably improved service
As always, performance and efficacy must be front of mind. Personalised moments can be both memorable for the customer and valuable for business, but it is vital to ensure what you develop is measurable, performant and maintainable. If it isn't working, if its too hard to keep up to date, or if customers don't value it - change it.
