Have you noticed Microsoft trying to revolutionize search by not only displaying what you're looking for but also by predicting what you might also want to see?
Amazon pioneered this concept with their state-of-the-art recommendation engine. And Double Click did it with search ads. How far will Microsoft try to go?
Well, I have a surefire way to figure out what customers want … ask them. People don't care about what an advertiser thinks the consumer might want. People only care about what they do want.
If a consumer cares about your site, your brand or your products, they will tell you what they're looking for (if you ask). If that same consumer isn't willing to give up a tiny bit of information in return for a better, more customized experience, then they get … a bland experience.
But bland is far better than guessing what they want and being wrong.
The danger of guessing
In a past life, I was involved with an enormous data append project. We were building a recommendation engine for a field sales staff to use as they dealt with prospects. All they had to do was get a ZIP code (and a name really helped) from the potential client and our new tool would instantly recommend which product best fit their needs.
Imagine the power of allowing the sales staff to target products and services to customers based on their tier of wealth, activities, presence of children, etc. We also developed a tool to custom-build all promotional material for each prospect based on this data. It was to be a cutting-edge, cool, industry-leading initiative. (It was also insanely expensive.)
During the initial trial run for the tool, I placed myself on the seed list to see what recommendations it returned for me. To my surprise it was dead wrong. If I were an actual customer, I would have received email and direct mail communications talking to me as if I was a 60-year-old, wealthy, retiree who loves to read and go to the opera (wrong on all counts, except my love of reading). Talk about missing the mark.
Unfortunately, my experience wasn't an exception. All the money we spent to build this recommendation engine was a waste, at least for a good many people like me. Instead of creating something to delight potential customers (and our sales force), we ended up with something that would likely alienate a good percentage of them.
How to avoid the danger
So, with all the cool technology out there, why not employ a few simple ideas that will allow the customer to have a personalized experience without much effort on their part? All it takes is:
1. When capturing profile information for an email program (or anything for that matter), tell people why you want their information and what they'll receive in return. Few people will give up correct information willingly, but if you excite them about what they'll get out of it, you may be shocked by what people will tell you.
2. Capture information about how they interact with your brand to populate future communications. For instance, if in a welcome communication you highlight five products, be mindful of what they click on.
Let's say you offer movies for rent and the movie blurb a customer clicks on is about sci-fi — congratulations, that person is a sci-fi fan in your database! Future communications should take advantage of this initial interest in sci-fi and monitor to see if continuing behavior reinforces this profile. This kind of continuous monitoring often gives you better profile information than asking customers to fill out 15 questions about themselves. One is based on actual behavior, while the other is based on how they want to portray themselves to you. Big difference.
3. The homepage of your site is a great place to ask one or two simple questions that allow you to customize their experience.
Royal Caribbean, for example, asks for responses to these simple statements on their home page (note that this is in no way personally identifiable, so the objections to divulging this information should be small):
• I am new to cruising and would like to learn more.
• I've been on a cruise, but not with Royal Caribbean.
• I've been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before.Think about how much they can ascertain about the level of cruising experience and the prospect's knowledge of Royal Caribbean before they even get in the front door. If you gathered similar information, how much more valuable might your website experience for your users? Taken one step further, in which you explain to viewers what value they get for giving you more detailed and personal information, you could make their experience even better.
Now, I admit, Royal Caribbean doesn't do much with this information yet, but they're on the right track.
The moral of the story is this: Customers don't want you to guess about them, and there must be a value exchange to convince them to give up significant information.
So, go out there and ask your customers what they want and invest in the reasons why they should give this information to you. If you do it right, you will be rewarded with the ultimate business prize without hazarding a single guess: a loyal customer.
Mark Niehaus is Director of Interactive Solutions for Javelin.
