Every retail segment is rethinking customer loyalty in the wake of the pandemic. Why? Because a new consumer persona has emerged.
This “new modern consumer persona” is far more research-savvy and convenience-driven than ever before. They are also more willing to award their loyalty to retailers that anticipate and cater to their personal wants and needs.
As we continue our customer data series, we’ll dive deeper into three segments poised to redefine how they leverage customer data to capture and retain loyalty — starting with the furniture industry.
Moving Beyond the Showroom
The physical store, or showroom, has been the cornerstone of the furniture buying experience — which presents a unique challenge as digital commerce accelerates.
For example, furniture and home goods are more difficult to return, whether in-store or via delivery. Sure, you may buy five shirts with the intent to keep just one. But it’s not as easy to buy five couches and return four.
So, home goods retailers must get even savvier, leveraging data to ensure customers can find and buy precisely what they want. And, once they do purchase, continue to nurture that relationship to build lasting loyalty.
This hard-earned loyalty will become more critical as digital commerce accelerates. The online furniture market is expected to grow by $84.26 billion through 2024. That’s a lot of revenue up for grabs – and loyalty will help you earn your share.
Four Steps to Better Loyalty for Furniture Retailers
80% of customers say they’re more likely to buy from brands that personalize experiences. The key to personalization is high-quality, actionable customer data.
The problem is that many furniture companies started as brick-and-mortar businesses, with little focus on data. They often lack well-oiled processes or technology for data collection and management. In turn, they struggle to foster loyalty with modern consumers.
If that sounds like your challenge, here are four points to consider.
1 – The Importance of First-Party Data
To build loyalty and personalize experiences, you need to know your customer. And with browsers like Google Chrome phasing out third-party cookies, companies now realize the necessity of acquiring and utilizing first-party data. This type of data — information collected directly from the customer through web and app analytics and user behaviors — is critical for creating individualized interactions and predicting customer wants and needs. Consumers are willing to provide personal information if they think they will receive benefits, better personalization from that information and that you will be good stewards of that information.
Now is the time to prioritize the customer data most valuable to your business, strategize how to best collect it, and use it to drive loyalty.
2 – Establishing an Essential Golden Record
After you’ve collected customer data, what do you do with it? If it all gets dumped into a data repository with little emphasis on quality and governance, you’ll end up with inaccurate and inconsistent data. Plus, your data won’t be easily accessible to personalize customer interactions.
A critical step to achieving customer loyalty is creating a golden record of your data. Often achieved with a customer data platform (CDP), your customer data is compiled from all your disparate sources into a Single Customer View.
This customer golden record gives you an accurate, complete picture of each individual customer — which is the gateway to driving experiences that earn loyalty.
3 – The Intersection of Customer Data with Other Domains
Effectively managed customer data is highly valuable on its own. But when it intersects with other data domains, you can leverage it for rare insights and personalized experiences.
For example, say your customer just updated their information with a new address. Looks like somebody just moved! They could probably use a new sofa and some accessories to make the new house feel like home.
By combining your Single Customer View (including information on prior purchases, demographics, preferences, etc.) with the Product data domain, you can predict the best type of furniture and accessories to offer. Then, using digital asset management (DAM) and a content management system (CMS), you can push out personalized offers (across channels) with relevant images and content. Maybe you can even offer a configurable product that allows them to customize the piece per their exact tastes.
4 – How to Apply Your Data Insights to Improve Loyalty
A Redpoint Global/Harris Poll shows that 82% of consumers are loyal to brands that demonstrate a thorough understanding of them as a unique customer. That’s how much personalization affects loyalty.
To get to that level of hyper-personalization, there are other tools a furniture retailer should consider. Automated machine learning (AML) helps companies draw the best insights from the golden record in real-time and deliver personalized customer experiences at scale. Also, a real-time decision engine calculates the next-best-action for each customer at the moment of interaction.
But it starts with a golden record as the foundation that supports everything else. Only then will marketers have the confidence that they can engage a customer with consistent relevance throughout a dynamic, omnichannel journey.
Putting Together the Loyalty Puzzle
As the demand for hyper-personalization grows, combining quality data with a leading CDP is a must. Yet putting all the pieces together—from strategy, technology, processes, and beyond—can be a challenge.
That’s why Amplifi and Redpoint Global have partnered to deliver an end-to-end approach.
Amplifi’s data management consultants help you establish your data strategy, elevate your data quality,
As a fully integrated platform, rgOne uses a combination of customer data management, automated machine learning, and intelligent orchestration across touchpoints to deliver hyper-personalized experiences at scale.
To learn more about what’s possible with Amplifi and Redpoint, download our booklet.
