It’s ‘Get to Know Your Customers Day’ – Don’t Alienate Your Best Customers
Brands inadvertently alienate customers. Here are tips on how to use segmentation to avoid customer alienation, maximize loyalty, and put customers first
Celebrated on the third Thursday of each quarter, “Get to Know Your Customers Day” emphasizes the importance of understanding customers deeply and catering to their wants and needs.
Marketers should be mindful of their most valuable customers and their offerings. Using customer segmentation and these tips can help abate alienating best customers.
Key takeaways:
Brands can inadvertently alienate their VIP customers through various actions or oversights.
Segmentation allows brands to truly know who their most valuable customers are and tailor their messaging, bonuses, and promotions effectively, ensuring a personalized experience.
Brands should start with the customer to gain their loyalty for life.
Ways Brands Inadvertently Alienate Their Best Customers
Consider the impact of sending a brand-new discount offer for a product that a valuable customer had recently purchased at full price, ignoring the fact that they made the purchase. A surefire way to make them angry and alienated.
Conversely, consider the impact of sending that same discount offer for a product that a valuable customer has recently purchased at full price – and tell the customer that they can apply the discount on their next order. A surefire way to make them feel special.
Brands may unknowingly distance themselves from their most loyal customers due to several factors. One issue is inconsistent treatment, where VIP customers feel undervalued if they receive the same treatment as regular customers, as in the example above. The lack of exclusive perks can lead to dissatisfaction among VIP customers who anticipate special treatment, such as early access to sales, exclusive discounts, or unique product offerings.
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Poor Communication: Additionally, poor communication and irrelevant messaging further impair this disconnect when brands fail to inform VIP customers FIRST about new product launches or upcoming promotions, making them feel out of touch with the brand. For example, a homepage banner offering a bonus on a game to all players instead of sending it first to VIP players who are regular players of that game.
Inconsistent Pricing: Another challenge arises from inconsistent pricing strategies, where offering discounts or promotions exclusively to new customers creates a sense of unfairness and resentment among VIPs. It is important to deliver a personalized experience from the first moment a visitor interacts with a brand. But it’s even more essential to continue providing VIPs with the best experience and offers throughout their customer journey. Whether it’s through personalized thank-you notes, higher discounts/bonus offers, or birthday gifts – failing to recognize the loyalty of VIP customers can leave them feeling unappreciated and less inclined to maintain their relationship with the brand.
Disregarding Valuable Feedback: Disregarding the valuable feedback VIP customers provide can convey a lack of appreciation for their opinions, ultimately signaling their loyalty is not valued. The key to the best customer relationship is to have just that: a relationship. It means that the brand listens to and responds to customers.
How To Avoid Alienating Best Customers? It Lies Within Customer Segmentation
When connecting with customers, brands must ensure their most valuable customers receive the best treatment. But without a deep understanding of every customer, it’s easy to miss the mark. By implementing customer segmentation and carefully orchestrating the customer journey, brands can effectively tailor their messaging, bonuses, incentives, and promotions and provide each group of customers with a personalized experience that suits them best and puts them first.
Customer segmentation is a crucial output of Customer-Led Marketing. It is the practice of continuously tracking and analyzing customer behavior over time to create highly accurate and evolving customer segments.
With data at the heart of effective Customer-Led Marketing, the goal of segmenting customers is to tailor communication with each customer in each segment based on demographics, behavior, predicted future behavior, and other vital indicators, going from tens to hundreds of micro-segments.
Brands must use data wisely to customize campaigns to their customers’ needs. With customer data and insights they collect, brands can enhance relevancy and personalization, ensuring each client receives their optimal offer every single time. Once a brand smartly uses insight-driven customer segments in its marketing campaigns, it will land a winning approach and ensure its best customers are never overlooked.
The Guide to Advance Customer Segmentation
Go in depth on advanced segmentation with this guide which was written based on analyzing tens of thousands of segments across Optimove’s customer base.
In short, brands that truly know their customers never alienate them. Data and segmentation are the guide to avoid inadvertent mishaps – especially on “Get to Know Your Customers Day.”
To learn more about customer segmentation, contact us to request a demo.
Rony Vexelman is Optimove’s VP of Marketing. Rony leads Optimove’s marketing strategy across regions and industries. Previously, Rony was Optimove's Director of Product Marketing leading product releases, customer marketing efforts and analyst relations. Rony holds a BA in Business Administration and Sociology from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
