The Future of Customer Experience: Memory Is the New Personalisation

Offering high-quality products prompt effective customer service and a personalised shopping experience. However, with the growing market competition, brands develop new strategies to attract potential buyers, like memory-driven customer experience. Reports suggest that brands that offer an excellent customer experience can expect 4-8% growth in their revenue. And memory-driven customer experience is proving to be a resourceful tool for businesses trying to increase their revenue.

Do you know what memory-led customer experience is about? Why does it matter? How to achieve it? Is it truly effective? Let’s find out all this and more about the future of customer experience.

Why Does Memory Matter in Customer Experience?

Creating a feeling of nostalgia always works, whether it is strengthening a personal relationship or establishing a bond with customers. Feeling nostalgic increases dopamine levels, thereby creating a feel-good factor. Brands that leverage customers’ buying history to create nostalgia stand a better chance of making them stick around and encourage repeat purchases. As per a recent survey, 72% of customers connect better with brands that value their previous interactions and suggest products/services based on the same. This is a unique way to personalise the interaction without enforcing it. It works for businesses across various industries, including fitness, clothing, food, and electronics.

Beyond Personalisation – The Rise of Nostalgic CX!

Personalisation has been a key instrument in creating an engaging user experience for a long time. However, brands are now tapping into something deeper–nostalgia. They have been collecting customer information such as their buying behaviour, purchase history, and shopping preferences from various sources. This data is no longer used merely for suggesting relevant products and services, but to reconnect the customers with meaningful shopping memories. This can be done by referring to a customer’s first purchase on their store or showing an old campaign they loved. Such shared history with the brands helps strengthen the bond by bringing in warmth and familiarity. This type of feeling cannot be created by personalisation alone.

 Memory-driven customer experience makes the customer feel remembered and valued. What is likely to be more impactful and engaging? A “Welcome Back” sign when you log on to an online store or a memory that mentions something you bought two years ago, and seeks your experience of using it. The latter, of course! It hits the right chord and encourages browsing through similar products, which often translates to purchase. Reports suggest that 42% of businesses invest in enhancing customer experience to promote up-selling and cross-selling.

How B2C and B2B Brands Are Tapping into Memory-Driven CX?

B2C and B2B brands are using historical data to create memory-driven customer experiences. Many B2C businesses celebrate their customers’ first orders, creating a sense of nostalgia. Asking how they enjoyed using it can elevate the experience further. Likewise, a travel company can create a nostalgic experience by helping the client revisit a past travel destination on their phone.

B2B businesses, on the other hand, share memories of the day a client signed up with them. They send thoughtful anniversary emails or messages to create a nostalgic feeling and better bond with their clients. Many of them share their journey with their clients, the milestones they have achieved together, and their experiences. Sharing how they helped overcome a challenge or crisis can evoke more emotions. It emphasises that choosing that particular brand was the right decision. Likewise, congratulating the clients on completing their certifications year after year can bring back fond memories. Brands can send virtual badges or words of praise to increase the effect.

Many brands, including Starbucks, FedEx, Spotify, and Nike, are using this novel strategy and benefiting from it.

Technology That Makes It Possible

Now, the question is how to achieve memory-led engagements. How to tap into the customers’ memories with the brand? AI is the answer. Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems store customer interactions, buying history, and other essential details. Advanced AI-tools can browse through this historical data in addition to customers’ social media likes and biometric feedback to analyse which moments hold special importance for the customers. Sentiment analysis and prescriptive analytics are tools used for this purpose. Using this information, brands can create a feeling of nostalgia for their customers. The key is to discover which customer interactions and memories were pleasant and which weren’t.

Best Practices for Designing Memorable Experiences

Now that you understand the importance of creating memorable experiences and leveraging nostalgia to boost customer engagement, let’s take a look at some best practices to develop these experiences:

1. Personalised Service

One of the best ways to create a memorable experience is by providing personalised services to clients. It makes them feel valued and helps establish a connection that can lead to repeat business.

2. Attractive Graphics

Tap into your customers’ photographic memory and connect better with them using attractive images and infographics. Human memory retains these elements better.

3. Sensory Experiences

Create an environment that evokes different sensory experiences for your customers. This can be achieved by offering a 360-degree view of products, adding sound effects, and offering an immersive user experience. While this works for online buyers, in-store visitors can be provided multiple sensory experiences to make their brand interaction memorable. This can be done with comfortable seating, pleasant scents, calming music, and attractive lighting.

4. Storytelling

One of the most effective techniques to create memorable experiences is through storytelling. Stories help establish a strong emotional bond with the customer. Your story’s theme and characters should resonate with your target audience to create a deep impact.

5. Consistent Branding

Offering a consistent experience across all touchpoints helps customers remember your brand better. The uniformity also builds trust and creates a positive memory.

6. Social Sharing

Encourage your customers to share their experience of using your products and services on social media. This helps reinforce their memory of engaging with your brand, enabling social commerce and spreading the word about your brand.

7. Exceptional Customer Service

Brands can create a memorable customer experience by offering exceptional support services. It helps create a positive impression about the brand, encouraging customers to return for more.

8. Build a Community

Creating online forums, social media groups, and hosting events is the first step towards building an online community. Encouraging more users to join them and ensuring regular interaction helps in this direction. This is effective in creating shared memories about the brand.

What Does This Mean for the Future of Customer Experience?

Memory-driven engagement is expected to be a key ingredient for enhancing customer experience in the future. Just like a number of businesses have adopted personalisation techniques to establish a connection with their customers, creating a feeling of nostalgia will become prevalent in the future. It would be an essential strategy for businesses looking to create a loyal customer base.

With the availability of advanced AI tools in the future, surfing through customers’ historical data will become easier, and so will identifying their pleasant brand interactions. By showing customers’ past memories with the brand and making them nostalgic, companies can bring in repeat business.

How Shiprocket’s Solutions Enhance Customer Experience?

Shiprocket Checkout enhances the customer experience by streamlining the buying process. By offering a one-step checkout solution and multiple payment gateways, we help businesses lower their cart abandonment rate significantly. This increases the number of sales and generates greater revenue. Customers do not require filling out extensive personal details and payment information to place the order and complete the transaction. Our checkout process has led to a 70% faster checkout experience and a 60% increase in the conversion rate. We help create a positive impression about your brand and encourage repeat purchases.

Moreover, our advanced platform lowers the scope of errors and contributes to a 30% reduction in RTO cases. Our services are available at a cost-effective price to benefit businesses of all sizes.

Conclusion

The future of customer experience is shifting from adopting traditional personalisation strategies to implementing memory-based interactions. Instead of merely addressing customers by name or suggesting products based on their past purchases, businesses are now creating memorable experiences. These experiences help establish a better connection with the brand as they resonate on a deeper emotional level.​ This approach involves understanding the customer’s preferences and behaviours to create the feeling of nostalgia. Data analytics and AI tools help assess the customers’ past interactions that can be used to develop memory-driven experiences.​ This helps in building a lasting impression and establishing a loyal base.