Are Customer Preferences ‘Baked in’?

Have you thought about personalization recently? Perhaps you just recorded and watched only the shows you wanted on your DVR, or you’re reading this blog (thank you!) through an RSS reader that brings you just the right content or you just custom-ordered something online made just the way you like it.

I was going through some email this morning and came across one from Starbucks that got me thinking about personalization. A few years back, I had signed up for the Starbucks custom card program. I put my name, the drink I usually order and a smiley face one the card. I felt good about it and used it often. Then they came out with the Gold Card program, which I happily signed up for…and then had to carry two cards, or put all my money on the gold card…so I shelved the personalized card and went gold… So much for the smiley face and all. Since their rescinding of the 10% discount benefit of the gold card, there’s no reason to have it and just this AM I switched back to my personalized card. Yeah… but so what, right? Who really gives a crap about my Starbucks card. Hold on…this is going somewhere.

Just this morning, I also read an article in the WSJ about Bank of America’s updated policy on overdrafts for their debit card customers. Basically, they are eliminating overdraft fees and will deny your purchase at the register…unless you opt in to a program that allows you to go into a deficit situation on your account.  However, this statement from the article gave me pause.

New federal rules on overdraft fees that take effect later this year will permit banks to charge overdraft fees on such transactions if a customer opts into the program. But some banks are struggling to upgrade their computer systems to adapt to different customer preferences.

Wow!  Struggling to upgrade to adapt to customer preferences.  Now, in the grand scheme of things, so what…but this is real work.  Enterprise systems don’t move on a dime (nor do the enterprises that run them for that matter) and infusing the discipline of customer preference into the inner workings of the enterprise doesn’t come easily either.  That said, aren’t we past that point already?  I mean, Neville Hobson wrote about “The age of media personalization” half a decade ago…and we’ve been advancing ever since, or so we thought.

The point here is this.  What systems, processes, sites, tools, outlets, inlets, portals and protocols are you working on now that could use a bit of ‘customer preference adaptation’? Have you considered it? Have your customers adapted and you haven’t? What if someone else adapts faster?

The Starbucks card example earlier is perhaps a quick and pedestrian example, but it’s a critical touchpoint in that it gives a customer the opportunity to take further ownership of the brand experience. Knowing just that and having that damn card in my wallet every day (which is a small bill clip and only holds a few things…so I’m very choosy about what I carry around) keeps Starbucks top of mind.  In fact, knowing that a local ATM remembers my preferences keeps me coming back to that ATM because it saves me something like 17 seconds every visit.

Take a few minutes today to rethink what you’re working on in terms of the ‘customer preference adaptability’ of it all.  Ask a few customers if you need to. Whatever it takes…but be prepared – the age of nuanced customers preference is alive and well.