Consumers are expecting more from their interactions with communications service providers (CSPs) and services they availed from them to be personalized like what they get from digital apps and services. CSPs, on the other hand, need to give what consumers demand to satisfy them.
According to a survey conducted by Coleman Parkes Research on behalf of Amdocs, a software provider for communications and media companies, 87% of consumers in the Philippines are likely to spend more if they have an enriched personalized experience. Consumers are prepared to pay for personalized products or services. On the other hand, 74% said they would likely switch to a different CSP if it offered a better or more advanced personalized experience. This chunk of consumers must be protected for not leaving their provider by the fact that they don’t have the services personalized. These results highlighted the growth in the demand for personalization.
The study, which involves interviewing 3,600 customers and 550 chief marketing officers (CMOs), was conducted in six countries including the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia.
Most of the consumers in the Philippines indicate a higher probability of sharing data if they would receive more personalized experience. The survey found that 75% of consumers in the Philippines would be happy to share more personal information in return for a more personalized customer experiences, however, they would be unforgiving about poorly designed personalized experiences. If the experiences do not match consumers’ expectations, they can lead to frustration negatively impacting the brand and perhaps even attrition. In the survey, about 74% of consumers want their CSPs to be clearer and more honest with the personal data they are collecting and how they are using it.
According to Gil Rosen, chief marketing officer at Amdocs, in order to personalize, you need data. “We’re not looking to invade the privacy of our customers. Most of the data that is used for personalization is completely anonymized and using artificial intelligence (AI), it actually allows to understand a lot of our customers without actually them providing us with personal information.”
When it comes to delivering holistic personalized experiences, CMOs find internal silos within their companies the greatest challenge to overcome – rather than access to emerging technologies or money to invest in marketing activities. The survey shows that nearly 75% of CMOs in the Philippines believe a lack of senior stakeholder buy-in, resistance to change, and a belief that there is no need to further invest in advanced personalization efforts and impeding overall marketing objective of delivering compelling brand experience across all touchpoints.
For Amdocs, the solution is for CMOs to work towards the unified goal of leveraging data more effectively and holistically for better product and service design, seamlessly collaborating with multiple stakeholders – CIO, CTO, Customer Service, Operations and creating a cross functional team to quickly deploy, test, and run applications across all customer interfaces with the brand.
The study also showed there is a big gap when it comes to CMOs concerns and consumers view on personalized intentions. While 70% of CMOs assume that consumers feel digital interactions are just a way to get more data about them, only 48% of consumers are concerned about it. This impedes CMOs ability to leverage the right amount and depth of consumer data required to deliver a holistic experience that a digital-age consumer wants.
CMO-respondents from the Philippines have realized the importance of technology when 77% of them disclosed that technology is the main barrier which hinders CMOs’ ability to design and offer personalized and seamless experience, while only 40% of CMOs mentioned budget as the main barrier.
