Providing the best possible consumer journey is one of the most important ways your company can win new prospects and convert them into customers.

While the best practices for doing so have largely remained the same over the past 20 years, one major change is already taking place: the demand for personalization.

3 Ways to Begin Leveraging Personalization in Your Consumer Journey

According to Frost and Sullivan, consumer journey models that stress customer engagement are becoming more and more important. In fact, by 2020, the firm predicts that customer experience will actually overtake price and products as the primary differentiator between brands.

So, if your company is currently planning for the future by researching new products or how to cut prices on your current offering, it’s time to switch gears and think about your consumer journey instead.

Here are three ways to leverage personalization, ensuring your company is set up to succeed in 2020 and beyond:

1. Provide Your Prospects with Personalized Recommendations

Perhaps because of the term, “consumer journey,” many companies mistakenly assume that their prospects want to embark on them alone.

However, the reality is that they will appreciate and favor any company that is able to reduce their journey’s length by offering relevant product recommendations.

There is perhaps a no better example of a company doing this well than Amazon.

Back in 2012, Amazon introduced their recommendation algorithm, which, at the time, was a revolutionary idea. Fortunately, for the company, it was also a very successful one. The first quarter after its debut, the algorithm led to a 29% increase in sales, worth about $2.93 billion.

Furthermore, this would be the beginning of what has become known as The Amazon Effect. This is a reference to how the company’s investment in personalization has become so successful that even brick-and-mortar retailers have had to do the same.

2. Empower Your Events with Personalization

Does your company throw events? Are you thinking about doing so at some point in the future?

Either way, personalizing your corporate events will make yours far more engaging and memorable. Here are some of the most popular ways events are already offering personalized services:

• Creating Custom Apps is easier than ever before. Many events are utilizing them to stay in constant contact with their attendees, either about changes to schedules or upcoming events they know individuals are interested in attending.
• Customizing Communication with AI is even possible now with artificial intelligence becoming commonplace at events. Many events have begun using it to provide automated responses to common questions attendees submit through their custom app.
• Making Events More Social Than Ever Before is just a matter of offering things like Snapchat geofilters, social media displays, and even smart photobooths that let attendees take photos, GIFs, and looping videos they can post directly from the booth.

3. Take a Holistic View of Your Customers

A study done by Econsultancy reported that 81% of companies say they have either achieved or are close to achieving a holistic view of their customers. In other words, they have an understanding of how the customer wants their experience to go.

Unfortunately, that same study showed that just 37% of consumers felt their favorite retailers had reached this goal.

Customer surveys, A/B testing, and monitoring your website’s analytics are just three ways you can achieve a better sense for what your customers are looking for when they’re looking to buy.

The Personalized Consumer Journey Is No Longer an Option

Even years after Amazon proved personalization was a winning investment, it was still realistic to forego its benefits without expecting major losses.

That’s not the case anymore.

As we touched on earlier, even brick-and-mortar retailers have had to accept the fact that personalization is no longer an option. It’s a necessity.

Leverage the advice above ASAP and you’ll be prepared for your customers’ changing desires. Do it soon enough and you may even enjoy quite the advantage over your slower competitors.