#maropost

Yes, holiday sales are still important (and customers still expect them), but they aren’t everything. 

More and more, companies compete on experience and it’s changing the way people buy. And this isn’t just true for first-time buyers. Every time you interact with customers it’s make or break for your relationship — 25% of customers even say they’ll leave a brand after just one bad experience.

So much of what makes a good customer experience comes down to data. It sounds simple, but the more customers you have, the more places you’re reaching them, the more data available, the more platforms handling that data — the harder it gets.

If you really want to know what customers want for the holidays, you need to know how they’re shopping now — online and offline. But there’s a lot of data — in a lot of places — that goes into answering that question.

So, how are you supposed to combine all this data on who customers are and what they’re doing? And how is that data supposed to deliver a winning holiday experience?

Well, there are a few steps you can take right off the bat:

Who Are Your Customers, Really?

Knowing who customers are online is key to knowing who they are on the whole. Web tracking lets you see who’s buying what, how long it’s taking them to buy, and even push them to their next purchase. Yes, web is only one part of customer experience, but it’s a big one, because of just how detailed the data is. When you start with web, you can see trends — before they even become trends — and that's going to help you improve that overall experience.

Clean Up Your Data’s Act

There’s a lot of customer data out there — too much for your team to ever go through. If you want to know what your customers want from an experience, you need to completely change how you handle their data. Using AI to sort through all that info — and find what really matters (and what doesn’t) — is your best bet for better experiences. Whether that’s finding what products they’ll want, or when they like to buy, or when they want to be reached, AI is a boost for building better experiences for the holidays — and beyond.

Take An Active Role In Automation

A lot of brands have a set strategy for the holidays that they don’t really change much year to year. Big mistake. Just because you can re-use a holiday journey doesn’t mean you should. Marketing automation — despite the name — isn’t a hands-off tool. More than just changing campaigns based on how they did last year, you also need to make campaigns that change as your customers go through them. And that means using triggers that can actually respond to actions — so customers can shape their own experience.

Really knowing your customers — this is how you beat out the competition over the holidays. When you’re ready with the right data and the right experiences to use it, your CX won’t just win for the holidays — it'll win on the whole.