It’d be difficult to find a brand these days that says it doesn’t want to deliver a more personalized experience to its customers, given that it is a widely accepted and essential strategy for many to drive revenue, foster loyalty, and stay ahead of the competition.
However, while many brands think they are doing a great job and have a clear understanding of their customers, many personalization efforts often feel clunky, out of touch, and can leave customers underwhelmed or with a feeling that the brands they are interacting with just don’t understand them.
This is backed up by research. According to Twilio’s State of Customer Engagement Report, while 82% of business leaders say they deeply understand their customers, just 45% of consumers agree.
The problem is that many personalization efforts are based on customer segmentation, static profile data, and past transaction history rather than one that includes a more real-time and dynamic understanding of each customer's current situation and needs.
As a result, they ignore context. However, to truly matter and deliver on its promise, personalization has to be contextual. It has to be able to deliver messages and information that is relevant to who the customers are, where they are, what they are doing, when they are doing it, and why they are doing it in the here and now.
Moving Beyond Static Profiles to Real-Time Understanding
Traditional rules-based systems struggle with this level of sophistication, as they largely rely on static profiles and past purchase history.
To accomplish this requires a system that fuses traditional data sources like customer information and transaction history with transient, situational, and behavioral data—like device used, location, time of day, weather, and even immediate interaction history.
When combined with advanced AI and machine learning models that constantly learn, adapt, and can predict the customer's next most likely need or action, then you have a system that can deliver contextual intelligence.
This was one of the big themes of the recent Twilio SIGNAL event in London, where discussions on the promise of AI-powered personalization when coupled together with communications and contextual data were held.
This represents a significant leap forward in the personalization of customer experiences, moving beyond static profiles and past purchase history to real-time, dynamic understanding of the customer's current situation, needs, and emotional state.
What Chelsea FC Teaches Us About Global-Scale Personalization
Twilio CEO Khozema Shipchandler, in his keynote, brought this to life when he talked about the partnership that they have recently entered into with Chelsea FC to help them improve their fan experience by delivering more contextual and personalized experiences for their global fan base of 615 million.
My ears pricked up at this point. Not because I’m a Chelsea fan. In truth, I have mixed feelings about Chelsea, given that I am a fan of Brighton & Hove Albion, another English Premier League (EPL) team. But I am a football fan, and a fan of personalized experiences delivered well.