How does personalized marketing feel?
We talk a lot and all the time about the potential personalized marketing holds but very rarely we avoid and in-depth discussion how it really feels. Today, we discussed the article in the HBR on How AI can help us build stronger Connections with Customers by Maureen Birns, Sharone Sankar-Kind, Priscilla Dell’Orto and Eduardo Rome and the discussion was heating up in our coffee kitchen if this was just another generic piece or how personalized marketing would feel in a concrete case. To make it really tangible, we use a Swiss Agency responsible to promote Switzerland as tourist destination at home and abroad. This is how personalized marketing should look like CONCRETELY in our views and we hope, this post helps to contribute to make the concept of personalized marketing a lot more tangible.
What are the key takeaways on AI helping build Customer Connection in the article?
The HBR article discusses the growing use of generative artificial intelligence in enhancing customer experience and its implications. Basically stating that the surge of generative AI offers innovative opportunities, but also raises concerns around data privacy and blind over-reliance on AI-powered bots. The authors urged to ensure that AI is used responsibly and not to sacrifice long-term customer loyalty for short-term efficiency gains or don’t through your common sense out the window when you hear an AI tool pitch but check the basic rules of the game: Look at the full customer journey for a AI bot and don’t fall victim of easy but highly fragmented solutions provided for one single client problem at a specific point in time of the user journey. Key challenge in the months to come where everyone will start experimenting more with such tools lies on avoiding fragmentation of the customers journey and the client experience. Prioritize Customer Experience: Instead of solely focusing on ROI, optimize AI applications around the entire customer experience. Do not forget about them as a Marketing Decision Maker and we could not agree more with the authors: Successful AI adoption should balance between automation and human touch, especially in sectors where trust and dependability are key. So far so good, but what to do about it and how to generate concrete personalized marketing projects for your company from such advise? Let’s dig deeper, because this is the point where is gets REALLY interesting and the article ends unfortunately… Which brings us to out team’s coffee kitchen discussion from this morning…
What could a concrete example, like a Swiss Tourism Agency, implement based on this advise? How could this change customer experience and connection for the better?
Just to provide full transparency: We have no concrete mandate in this industry but thought it is a great example because everyone understands their business and is familiar with the client experience. Hence, we will skip the client’s challenges and just jump to ideas how personalization could feel in their case in terms of improve client connection through AI:
#1 Try to be more personal and offer personalized pro-active advise by a Digital Assistant, emphasizing personalization
Utilize AI to offer personalized experiences, as customers increasingly expect tailored interactions and are willing to share data in exchange. For instance, AI-driven digital assistants can help in offering more personal experiences based on customer behavior and preferences.
#2 Make calling less anoying with augmented personal counseling via the phone or chat with AI-empowered customer intelligence tools
Empowering the employees in 1:1 discussions with all or a selected group of customers. Use AI to support employees by suggesting conversation topics based on recent customer engagement, past visit or past support questions.
#3 Use AI across the customer journey as tool to augment human premium services to a selective purpose
Rather than replacing the human element, consider AI as a tool to augment human capabilities. It can be used for tasks like predictive routing of customer inquiries or crafting highly personalized offers where there is enough data available. So crafting a strategic new value proposition for the age where most generative language models come up with a travel plan for 3 days as an Indian visitor with 2 kids and a dog with a preference for swimming and skydiving in 10 seconds flat.
#4 Re-imagine the emotional customer experience
Offer emotional, virtual walks to the Switzerland’s top site to help travelling groups to prepare for the trip and kindle the excitement beyond the person who booked the trip. Offer spectacular complementary services like a virtual flight over the Alps or a brief imergence into a thrilling river rafting situation or a free fall. Start playing with the new emotional spectre new technologies have to offer. and , sneak peaks to the personalized itinerary with complementary services (hotels, car rental, Reimagine the Customer Experience: Don’t just replicate human interactions with bots, but leverage AI’s capabilities to innovate and offer entirely new experiences.
#5 Disrupt the linear website
Adjust the website’s content based on the user’s location, language preference, or past interactions. For instance, if someone from India visits, the site might highlight Swiss locations popular with Bollywood movie shoots.
Make your website smarter: Analyze user behavior on the website to suggest personalized destinations or activities in Switzerland. For example, if a user looks up skiing locations, recommend related winter activities or specific ski resorts.Make finding relevant info much easier: Implement AI-driven chatbots to answer common tourist questions in real-time, such as visa requirements, best travel seasons, or popular events. Improve the quality of your content with AI: Use AI to generate quizzes or interactive maps where users can discover Swiss destinations based on their preferences, such as “Find your ideal Swiss holiday spot.”
Important to note about these exiting brainstorm ideas: Stay Ethical and Transparent abut technology and data used in the background: Address customer concerns around data privacy.
Ensure that the AI models of third providers are used ethically, responsibly, and transparently.
Rottmann Lab 