Customers want an individualized or personalized experience.
Joel Bines is the author of a newly released book, The Metail Economy: 6 Strategies for Transforming Your Business to Thrive in the Me-Centric Consumer Revolution. I had the chance to interview Bines on Amazing Business Radio. He shared some important insights about consumers and their changing expectations. He also agreed that many customers—from any type of business, both B2B and B2C—had adapted the new “it’s all about me” attitude. While the book appears to be focused on retail, almost all of the content crosses into all types of industries.
First and foremost, consumers don’t want to be treated en masse. In other words, they want an individualized or personalized experience. In our interview, Bines shared how Netflix does an amazing job of serving you what you want. Its system does an amazing job of understanding the types of movies and TV shows you like to watch and makes appropriate suggestions. And, just like any good business, the more business you do with them—which means watching more content—the better they get at knowing what you want.
Amazon provides a similar experience. If it wasn’t the first company to use this technology, it was one of the early adopters and it proved to be very successful. I’m referring to the digital experience that resembles the in-store experience. When you log onto the Amazon site, you’re welcomed. It makes suggestions based on what you’ve looked at or bought in the past. The AI that supports this function is serving as an incredible salesperson who has notes on every purchase you’ve ever made. This is using data to power an amazing, customized Metail experience.
In the book, Bines shares six ingredients to deliver the best experience. I’ll share each of the six along with some of my comments.
1. Curation: Bines describes this as the art of curating experiences and products that make the customer feel like this is “just for me.” This is difficult to scale. It’s an experience designed for a particular customer—or groups of like-minded customers. In other words, you can’t be everything to everyone.
2. Customization: We covered this with the Netflix and Amazon examples. As Bines shared his wisdom, it was evident that while this is one of the six ingredients, it may be the most important, and it’s actually one of the easiest to create. Customers really want to feel as if you know them and are giving them the attention they expect. This isn’t always a truly individualized experience. When Nike sends a member of its program a marketing piece on running shoes, it’s because they know what the customer is interested in based on past purchases. What they don’t do is send the customer information on other types of shoes.
3. Category Expertise: Knowledge creates confidence. Customers want to know they are talking to informed people. When they do, they are accepting of suggestions, direction and advice. When you demonstrate your knowledge to a customer, you actually make them a smarter customer. That makes it easier for them to make educated choices. The confused buyer won’t buy. The educated buyer will, and often buys more.
4. Cost: Price is important, at least to a point. The best deal isn’t the lowest price. Bines quotes Warren Buffet, who said, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” Our customer experience research indicates that price is competing with service. Over half of American consumers are willing to pay more if the service is better. So, cost is more than price. It’s the total value proposition that your customers want and expect when they do business with you.
5. Convenience: Prior to the pandemic, convenience was a competitive differentiator. The company that was easiest to do business would win. It’s still that way, but instead of it being the perk that customers love, it’s now what customers expect. The pandemic accelerated customers’ obsession with convenience. The opposite of convenience is friction. Any friction that is part of your process is a reason the customer will use to justify doing business elsewhere. It’s more than just the service and customer experience. It’s also the products you sell. Every area of business should be considered when you are developing a convenience strategy.
6. Community: Find a way to attract a base of customers who have a common belief. That’s a community. They could be interested in what you sell or what you stand for. Once you get traction and are building your community, you must relentlessly stay in alignment with what is important to that community. Today’s “me-focused” customers are willing, faster than ever, to start looking for somewhere else to do business if you erode what they think you are all about.
Bines emphasizes that you don’t need to use all six of these ingredients in your Metail strategy. He suggests picking and choosing the ones that apply to your business. However, I’ll argue that customization, cost (value) and convenience are important to any type of business. Those are staple ingredients that today’s customers want and expect. If the other three fit, then include them. In short, finding ways to make the customer feel it is “all about them” is a powerful strategy that will build repeat business and even customer loyalty.
