Data-driven processes to drive e-commerce campaign success

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Online businesses have access to immense quantities of data provided by their customers; the insights provided by this data can lead to far better targeting when it comes to campaigns. Not only can they narrow down their market’s interest to specific products, they can then showcase those products and related special offers.

Remarkably, retailers appear to lag behind when it comes to these special offers, by limiting their product offerings to outmoded preferences. In a fast-evolving marketplace that has shifted to digital, they’re offering the equivalent of bath salts (to Capetonians!) and body lotion to people as ideal gifts, when the gift recipient is more likely to want something that appeals to their online habits, such as a Netflix subscription or a device enhancement product. Consumers browsing and purchasing habits can reveal this, allowing for more accurate, targeted campaigns.

Reducing customer effort via feedback

According to a 2018 CCW Market Study on Performance and Metrics, over 77% of organisations are making customer feedback surveys their top priority, confirming that reducing customer effort is the number one customer experience objective. Feedback provides an understanding of how customers feel about their experiences.

In the case of mistakes such as non-delivery of time-sensitive gifting products (e.g. Mother’s Day), feedback provided across customer communication channels can be useful – social media and other feedback tools in the customer service department can allow companies to rectify processing problems. This will provide insight as to what stumbling blocks are obstructing a great customer experience. At the heart of enhancing the CX are the processes that take your customer from considering a purchase to purchasing, and then finally reviewing their experience.

A time-sensitive campaign such as Mother’s Day or Black Friday requires that all the processes must be aligned to cope with a surge in interest. These processes include a website that can cope with more traffic, increased staffing in terms of customer service agents or sales staff, more stock and a great delivery solution.

Data-driven feedback, along with well-defined metrics and easily accessible dashboards and reporting can allow you to access information about factors governing the customer journey. This could include information about touchpoints that are taking too long, unnecessary repeat interactions, contact centre agents not working efficiently and taking too few calls or taking longer on those calls, for example.

Ideally, you want customers to have a seamless experience from beginning to end, across however many customer interaction channels you have. Reducing customer effort means saving them time or the need for frequent/repeat interactions. You can automate some of the processes that don’t require human interaction, for example, or have intelligent routing that puts your customers in contact with the agents best suited to assist them according to their requirements or profile data (e.g. home language or product portfolio).

Great promotions rely on functioning processes that ensure that stock is available, agents are on hand to facilitate transactions and slick delivery processes – if you’re promising rapid delivery, you’d better deliver on those delivery promises. Make it easier for your customers to get from A to Z and offer them what they want when they want it.

Ultimately, managing your processes better will give you the chance to provide an excellent customer experience that will lead to great feedback, and that’s an excellent tool for driving campaign success.