Transform Customer Experiences: Adobe Experience Manager and Personalization

If communication is key to a successful relationship — whether that be romantically, professionally, personally or commercially — then it’s good practice not to say the same thing to multiple people. “I bet you say that to all your customers,” says a frustrated online shopper in response to a late-night email.

Customers are increasingly expecting (as opposed to wanting or desiring) organisations to understand their own situation; to speak to them on a personal level rather than via mass produced content.

Approximately 80% of consumers who were surveyed declared that they would be more likely to give their business to a company that provided them with a personalized experience.

Or if you’re inclined to stats that are twisted into negative connotations, approximately 71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal.

This growing expectation doesn’t stop at emails. We now expect personal experiences in each and every interaction that we have with a brand, regardless of whether we are on the homepage or browsing on social media. And this extends to each section of the customer journey stage.

With the focus on experiences, marketing departments have been keen to optimize and reimagine their digital content in order to strengthen loyalty. Even within the more regulated industries and sectors of the economy that are more limited in their communication reach are finding ways to promote one-on-one relations with their customers — such as in government, healthcare, and financial services.

A best-in-class communications solution such as Adobe Experience Manager knows that cookie-cutter content simply isn’t good enough any longer; that communicating with customers on a personal level is the best strategy to build stronger relations.

Centralized content

It’s common to create content templates from scratch, as multiple teams of authors, content writers, and approvers all use unapproved language, formats, sizes, and logos. Can you imagine the chaotic collage of templates that this results in? And how long would it take to actually manage and synchronize?

You would prevent such content chaos by using a platform that is highly centralized and uses content blocks via a content assembly that results in a small number of templates. A platform that allows the creation of templates for one channel and then using that to design content for another channel, which radically eliminates the time it takes to roll out a multi-channel content strategy. All the characteristics of a platform like Adobe Experience Manager.

Personal automation 

Companies have so much data and information but it can be very difficult to translate that and channel that into valuable digital, personal communications. That’s because it involves integrating customer-specific data with back-end systems like ERP and CRM.

With Adobe Experience Manager you’re able to deliver messages wherever the preferred channel of the customer may be. Perhaps one customer is a typical Facebook user; another is always on their Playstation; a third is a keen user of Instagram; and so on and so on.

But that’s not all. What about a customer who wants the security of receiving physical payment statements in the mail, but when it comes to tax forms or account updates, having them emailed is good enough. And so with AEM you are able to tailor the service towards the specific preferences of each and every customer.

And you can also want to separate your old customers from your new ones — because after all, you don’t talk to your best friend who you’ve known for 30 years in the same way as you talk to a friendly stranger. Storing online forms (the newbies) and communications (the oldies) is important so that you can transition from the former to the latter, while ensuring they’re separate from each other so that they don’t mix lines.

Along the digital road

We recommend that you build a three-year roadmap for digital personalization. Racing out of the gate is ideal but we know that despite the need to digitize personal experiences throughout the entire customer cycle, and despite the opportunities of AEM, the biggest hurdle is likely to be the structure of your team: business processes, training and/or retraining, shifts in worker roles and assignments.

To limit the risks of technical disjoints and staff reassignment and restructuring, working with an AEM tech consultancy that not only knows how to implement the CMS — and do it at high speed if necessary — but has worked with some of the most famous brands in the world. Brands that you’re probably wearing right now; brands whose small screens you are probably tapping and swiping on; brands that you’re probably driving in.

PS: UV is one of the world’s leading AEM consultancies. Contact us to see how we can work together.