The first and most critical cornerstone to personalizing customer experiences is knowing your customer’s identity. It’s the foundation to creating a lifelong customer relationship. “Customer Identity Resolution” provides the answers and the pathway to greater customer loyalty and retention, according to a recent publication by the Chief Marketing Officers’ Club (CMO).

Brands are rushing to implement the tools required to bring the same level of personalization found in e-commerce to the in-store world. A BRP Consulting survey reveals 70% of retailers put personalization as their top priority in the coming year. Retailers who implement strategies around resolving customer identity are the one who will flourish in this accelerating trend toward increasing personalization.

The CMO report defines customer identity as much more than simply knowing the customer’s name. It means recognizing the customer instantly across many touch points, and knowing what the customer wants and needs. It also means realizing opportunities to improve your relationship by solving problems, anticipating needs or purely delighting. “Simply put,” the CMO report says, “identity is the connecting point between all consumer interactions online and off, past and present.”

Acquisition Vs. Loyalty

It costs 5x – 7x times more to acquire a new customer than to drive an additional visit from an existing customer. It’s estimated that loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones. That’s why the trend to increased customer personalization, and the resulting brand loyalty and retention that follows, has become so paramount to marketers.

The CMO report states that “Customer Identity Data” is the most important component to delivering a tailored customer experience. And, 64% of CMO respondents rank a “Single View of the Customer” as the most critical technology to delivering relevant customer experiences.

Nearly half the CMO’s say they spend 30%-50% of their budgets on retention and loyalty. Yet over 65% say they are unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their customer retention rates. One reason is that many brand loyalty programs require customers to jump through a lot of hoops, aren’t much fun, delay gratification and fail to differentiate between customers.

Three Initial Steps

The CMO study concludes with recommending three steps to implement customer identity resolution.

1. Maintain Control of your Data. Your customer identities and profiles are a valuable and crucial corporate asset.
2. Prioritize Continuity. Your customer profile data should be durable and always available for activation. Your identity solution should be continuously updating.
3. Clarify the Customer Journey. You need a customer identity solution that will give you a clear, comprehensive view of customer activity and empower you to rapidly respond with relevant marketing.

The RewardsCardPlus Solution

Encore Incentive’s RewardsCardPlus program offers the permission-based transparency, simplicity, and immediacy that today’s customers are seeking in rewards or loyalty incentive.  Extensive research shows cash incentives have proven to be the highest motivator for positively influencing customer behavior and increasing brand loyalty. Visit our web page “How It Works” to learn more.

Sources: Why Customer Identify Matters, the CMO Club; 2017 POS/Customer Engagement Survey, BRP Consulting.