Learning from Verizon: Humanizing digital with omnichannel personalization

At CX circle North America, Contentsquare and Verizon discussed making the digital world more human through omnichannel personalization, consumer trust and digital transformation.

Verizon’s Diana Zaccardi, SVP of Digital Marketing and Base Management sat down with Lucie Buisson, Chief Product Officer at Contentsquare during CX circle to discuss strategies for making digital experiences more human. Here’s a sneak peek of the first strategy, omnichannel personalization.

Connecting your digital and in-store experiences

Personalization is about understanding intent and proactively providing answers or solutions, not selling a product or service.  By looking at common online triggers and creating customer journeys relevant to that user, you can create empathetic experiences—and what’s more human than empathy?

We personalize the experience so that when a customer comes to the app, mobile web or desktop, we make that experience unique to them. And the more we can do that, the more that we can play off of their emotional triggers and the more it becomes a much more humanized experience to them. And that’s the goal. — Diana Zaccardi, SVP, Digital Marketing & Base Management, Verizon

Personalization can be scaled digitally, but also used in physical environments to create seamless, efficient and relevant experiences for your customers. Connecting your online and in-store experiences, instead of viewing them as competing channels, improves personalization and customer satisfaction.

How Verizon uses omnichannel personalization

Verizon offers multiple ways for customers to purchase and pick up products for increased convenience. With 30% of their customers ordering on their website or app and then picking it up in-store, Verizon ensures they provide the same level of personalization in both environments. To support this, they brought more digital elements into their physical stores—digitized displays, promoted the Verizon app in-store and enabled their brand ambassadors, or customer service team, to provide the same level of relevant content and support customers could find online.

Showing your customers that they’ve been listened to is extremely important, and it’s what a good seller would do in a store. And now we can do that online, and this is how we start building empathy. — Diana Zaccardi, SVP, Digital Marketing & Base Management, Verizon

With this omnichannel approach, Verizon can grow its personalization strategy at scale to offer better customer experiences that build loyalty and in turn, drive revenue.

Ensuring data privacy to build trust and brand loyalty

Customers are increasingly aware and mindful of protecting their personal information, but they still expect unique and relevant experiences.

There is a misconception that privacy and personalization are opposing forces. With cookieless tracking and analytics, your brand can learn everything they need about a consumer to give them a personal, relevant experience without compromising their privacy and security.

We want to be respectful of the trust that consumers give us. And also, be able to come back to them with personalized, unique experiences. — Diana Zaccardi, SVP, Digital Marketing & Base Management, Verizon

It’s not only important to uphold the highest data and privacy standards legally, but it also shows you’re a trustworthy and responsible brand. And consumers want brands they can trust.

How Verizon builds consumer trust

Verizon’s digital and legal teams work together to ensure it always protects its customers while still giving them unique, personalized experiences. By ensuring confidentiality while still providing purposeful and relevant content, Verizon builds trust, and trust builds long-lasting customer relationships and brand loyalty.

Putting trust at the center of how you create experiences is super important. It lends itself to brand love. — Diana Zaccardi, SVP, Digital Marketing & Base Management, Verizon

Maximizing the power of omnichannel personalization

A scalable personalization strategy will help you create an exceptional, empathic and human digital CX. Your organization’s digital transformation enables you to provide better personalization, which provides more relevant content for each customer, creating a more satisfied and successful digital experience, and building loyalty.

Watch the full discussion here for more omnichannel personalization, consumer trust and digital transformation strategies from Verizon.