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Segment your customer databases to improve your user experience

October 19, 2023

End-users increasingly want to feel recognised, privileged and supported by brands. An authentic, personalised relationship is the key to successful loyalty-building between brands and their users. No more email campaigns where your recipient feels like 1 in thousands.

Segmenting your customer base is essential if you are to target your marketing campaigns more effectively and personalise your interactions. By offering more relevant and satisfying experiences, brands can build stronger relationships with their customers.

There are four stages to successful segmentation: collection, segmentation, personalisation and iteration.

What is customer segmentation?

Customer segmentation is an essential strategy for companies wishing to offer a superior customer experience.

It involves dividing customers into distinct groups based on common characteristics, such as demographics, geographical location, behaviour or interests.

Customer segmentation offers a number of advantages:

  • Personalising marketing messages
  • More efficient allocation of resources
  • Improved understanding of customer needs
  • Building customer loyalty

By segmenting your customer base, you can personalise your interactions with your customers and offer them more relevant and satisfying experiences.

How do you implement customer segmentation?

Implementing an effective customer segmentation strategy involves four key steps:

Step 1: Collect relevant data

The first step is to collect relevant customer data. This data can be collected from a variety of sources, such as websites, mobile applications, loyalty programmes and marketing campaigns.

Stage 2: Definition of clear segments

Once the data has been collected, it needs to be analysed to define clear segments and prioritise them. These segments must be based on common characteristics that will enable companies to personalise their interactions with customers.

Stage 3: Personalising experiences

The third step is to personalise customer experiences. Brands need to personalise customer journeys and touch points, including personalised messaging and communication. This can be done by tailoring marketing messages, offers and services to the needs and interests of each segment.

Step 4: Regularly review and update segments

Customer segments need to be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that they reflect changes in customer needs and preferences. Companies need to remain agile, constantly gathering feedback to adapt their segmentation strategies.

How can customer segmentation improve the user experience?

Customer segmentation can improve the user experience in a number of ways:

  • Personalised messages and offers: Customer segmentation enables businesses to send personalised messages and offers to each customer. This allows businesses to address customers in a more relevant way and increase the chances of engagement and conversion.
  • Improved customer satisfaction: Customer segmentation enables companies to better understand the needs and preferences of each customer. This allows companies to offer products, services, and experiences that are more likely to satisfy customers.
  • Increase customer loyalty: Customer segmentation allows companies to create personalised loyalty programmes that reward customers for their loyalty. This allows companies to retain customers and increase recurring revenue.

Concrete examples of companies that have used customer segmentation to improve their customer experience

L'Occitane

Cosmetics brand L'Occitane uses customer segmentation to personalise its offers and communications. The company created several customer segments, including loyal customers, occasional customers and potential customers after covid-19, when it had to reinvent part of its business model.

L'Occitane uses these segments to send relevant messages and offers to each group of customers. For example, loyal customers receive loyalty offers and invitations to exclusive events based on their location. Occasional customers receive re-engagement offers and advice on products and services that might interest them based on their skin type and age. And potential customers receive samples based on their dermatological concerns.

Netflix

Streaming service Netflix uses customer segmentation to recommend personalised films and TV series to each user. The company uses data on users' viewing histories, preferences, and ratings to create individual profiles. It then uses these profiles to recommend content that is likely to be of interest to each user independently.

The streaming platform segments its users according to their level of engagement and behaviour. This enables it to provide them with personalised offers and promotions, which can help to increase subscriptions worldwide.

Which customer segmentation tool?

What if you were to break away from the classic schemes of third-party cookies and RFM scoring (Recency x Frequency x Amount)?

There are many other tools that can help companies implement an effective customer segmentation strategy. Pimster reconnects brands with their users through their products.

Pimster webapps help brands collect customer and product data, segment their customers and improve their customer relations in a number of ways:

  • Connecting brands with their users via their products: Pimster enables brands to connect their products with their users by collecting demographic, usage and traffic data. This data can be used to segment customers based on their buying habits, usage preferences and interests. It allows you to create relevant customer segments and personalise your interactions with your customers in an innovative and gamified way.
  • Personalise messages and offers: by segmenting their customers, businesses can personalise their messages and offers for each group. This allows businesses to address customers in a more relevant way and increase the chances of engagement and conversion.
  • Improve customer satisfaction: By better understanding their customers' needs and preferences, businesses can offer products, services and experiences that are more likely to satisfy customers. Whether it's offers, service reminders or product authentication you can personalise your messages and channels according to your customers. This improves customer satisfaction and builds customer loyalty.

Customer segmentation is an essential strategy for businesses that want to deliver a superior customer experience. By following the steps outlined in this article, businesses can implement an effective segmentation strategy and improve the overall customer experience.

In short, customer segmentation is an essential strategy for companies that want to offer a superior customer experience.