Everything You Need to Know About Personalization - Page 1
November 22, 2000
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In this article we'll look in depth at what personalization
means for internet developers, why it's important, and how to
implement a good strategy for personalization on the internet.
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Personalization is a very hot topic in internet development these
days. We all know the basics of personalization, but few know
the topic well enough to suggest strategies for implementing
it in their own businesses, or for clients. Adequate personalization
requires more than color customization of a web site. In this article,
we'll take an in depth look at personalization, what is required
of it, why we need it, and how to build it.
Personalization - What is it?
The push for serious personalization is coming mostly from
e-commerce
companies, and those that seek to foster customer relationships and
build profitable web sites. After all, the best customer is a happy
customer, and if we can tailor our web site to do everything you could
possibly want, and then some, then we'll get more of your dollars.
Right?
The focus of personalization is to give a user a customized experience
when shopping at a web site, i.e., to make online shopping as real
as in-person shopping. The difference is, that with online shopping,
the seller can be much more "in-your-face" than in-person shopping.
The part many people forget about personalization, is that it's
not just allowing customers to alter a web site's appearance (i.e.
color changes, news headlines, etc), but also about reacting to
the user's behaviour. Imagine this real world scenario:
A customer walks into a department store. He or she can move things
around, carry clothes around the store and drop them in other places,
move signs around, etc. A customer can do that at any
store. What really sets apart a good shopping experience is how
well the store workers react to your needs. If a customer complains
to a manager about shoddy service or damaged items, the good manager
would adjust his policy for that customer; perhaps give a slight
discount, or order a new item, etc. This is the essence of online
personalization.
In the online world, though, you don't have physical managers to
help customers out as such - rather, the server and the internet
application are the managers. These two have to
react to the customer's needs.
One thing online personalization can do that humans can't, is
anticipate a customer's needs. For instance, in a real store,
if a store employee notices a customer checking out the home goods
department, he won't approach the customer and say, "How would you
like a coupon with that?" or "Customer who bought that, also bought
..." (That may or may not be a good idea...but that's another
story.) With online personalization, you can do just that. If
a customer is spending some time (RE: clicks) on one portion of
your website, you can prompt them to see if they'd like to
further customize this section (or adjust it without their knowledge).
Personalization is much more than simply allowing a user to choose
their favorite colors for a website - it involves letting the customer
customize the site, and let the site customize itself depending
on what you think the customer wants. Granted, this in-you-face
personalization can sometimes get annoying for customers, but the impacts
of that are also for another article.
Contents:
Part One
Personalization Techniques
Personalization Implementation
Personalization Simulation
A Few More Considerations
Part Two
Introduction
A Situation
Step 1 - Making Customers Happy
Step 2 - Informed Customers
Step 3 - Checkout
Conclusion
Personalization Techniques - Page 2
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