Ownership Experience Best Practices
The article emphasizes that a successful Ownership Experience (OX)—the comprehensive, personalized interaction between product, customer, and brand throughout product ownership—relies on leveraging first-party data to create tailored Owner Journeys in onboarding, care, and commerce, which in turn boosts customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value, with best practices highlighting the need for organizational alignment and personalization as key differentiators in today’s market.
In our last post, we took an in-depth look at Ownership Experience (OX for short) and the many reasons why the OX has become a top priority for brands across all industries. In brief, the Ownership Experience is the sum of interactions between a product, the customer, and the brand across all stages the customer owns the product.
Ownership Experience Best Practices
The quality of the OX is heightened by brands collecting and making use of first-party customer data to offer a myriad of Owner Journeys throughout the Ownership Lifecycle. These journeys can be categorized generally as:
- Onboarding: Initial identification, data gathering, and product registration
- Care: Customer support and product-related interactions
- Commerce: Offers that can enhance revenue and customer lifetime value (LTV)
Together, these Owner Journeys comprise a relevant, expedient, and, most importantly, personalized Ownership Experience that is proven to increase customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and customer lifetime value.
While the benefits of an exceptional OX are well-defined, bringing together all the pieces into an effective and efficient system takes experience, know-how, and organizational alignment. Below are best practices brands should know to optimize the Ownership Experience for their existing customers.
Key Elements of a Successful Ownership Experience
In 2020, McKinsey revealed the importance of personalization as a way for retailers to differentiate themselves. As traditional methods of differentiation, such as pricing and product selection, began to lose effectiveness, retailers that embraced personalization—with the right data foundation and organizational alignment—saw tangible results.
The same is true today for durable product manufacturers. Where traditional forms of differentiation are falling short, customers are responding favorably to a cohesive and personalized Ownership Experience.
The success of a product manufacturer’s OX offering relies on four key elements:
- Actionable first-party data used to better understand who owns their product, their behaviors, and needs
- A “playbook” of relevant Owner Journeys designed with existing customers in mind
- An intelligent technology platform that can deliver personalized Owner Journeys at scale and integrates with the brand’s existing systems
- Cross-functional alignment throughout the organization that enables different areas to leverage customer data and insights
While many companies collect data on customers, few have the systems and processes in place to analyze the data in a meaningful way that contributes to the Ownership Experience. Brands that excel at Ownership Experience not only undertake comprehensive analysis, they make the data available across the organization so that every team can benefit from it. They also optimize both existing and new technology to enable delivery of personalized and relevant Owner Journeys at scale.
Onboarding Best Practices
The foundation for a successful Ownership Experience is data—specifically, first-party data collected during customer onboarding and product registration. This results in highly accurate information about who the customer is and the product they have purchased. The onboarding moment is also an ideal time to ask for additional owner information via a survey or a review request.
All the data collected during onboarding, when properly utilized, can provide tremendous insight into the customer’s behaviors and preferences, which in turn can ensure Owner Journeys are timely and personalized.
Recommended best practices for efficient and engaging onboarding:
- Provide a frictionless mobile onboarding option that is evident and enticing to the product owner via product packaging, inserts, or on the product itself
- Make it easy for owners to share key product information, such as model and serial number, by embedding this information in a scannable Photoregister™ or QR code
- Collect customer name and other personal information without asking them to download an app or choose a password
- Collect opt-in permission for future communications from the brand
- Enable repeat customers to register additional products without having to re-enter their personal information
- Acknowledge the stage of ownership the customer is in by presenting relevant information, such as digital quick start guides, digital manuals, and timely offers, including a care plan or extended warranty
- Demonstrate how owners can initiate communication with the brand about their product when they need support, want to purchase accessories, or require other assistance
- Provide an on-brand onboarding and registration experience that aligns with other brand environments
The benefits of optimized onboarding are clear: more registrations mean the brand identifies more owners. More owners mean more data, and more accurate data, which helps brands derive significant insight about their customers and set the stage for future interactions.
Care Best Practices
Today’s product owners desire personalized support on demand and, increasingly, via mobile devices. Many brands have invested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, such as chatbots, to meet these expectations. However, these efforts can fall short if the interaction isn’t personalized or doesn’t provide the resources the customer needs at that moment. Chatbots and other customer-facing AI may seem cutting edge, but when they don’t operate based on known data, the experience can be frustrating.
Imagine an AI-driven experience that recognizes the product owner and the product(s) they own, and with a relevant query or two, directs the customer to the resource they are seeking. This scenario is possible and scalable with the right technology platform. It’s the heart of Care-related Owner Journeys.
Care Owner Journeys can include product resources, customer support, claims management, proactive maintenance, and rating or review requests.
Best practices for providing the best Care to product owners:
- Maintain a centralized data repository that equips customer support teams with the owner and product information collected during onboarding
- Utilize owner and product data collected during onboarding to infuse AI technology with intelligent automation
- Provide easily accessible self-serve digital resources for owners, such as manuals and how-to videos, available on demand, 24/7
- Integrate Care plan information with AI so owners can quickly find the status of their current warranty coverage, easily submit a claim, and track the progress of claims
- Auto-populate known product and owner information in self-service support and warranty claim submissions
- Maintain an open channel of communication with product owners for important transactions such as service or maintenance alerts and product maintenance requests
- Make it easy for owners to write product reviews and ensure peace of mind for future customers by consistently providing new verified reviews during the shopping experience
An intelligent AI driven by a data-based rules engine results in better customer support, reduced average customer handling time (ACHT), and more self-serve options for owners who prefer them. Additionally, optimizing the Care experience can result in fewer product complaints and returns, more positive ratings and reviews, and increased brand loyalty overall.
Commerce Best Practices
A comprehensive Ownership Experience offers Owner Journeys that span the product ownership lifecycle. Along with Onboarding and Care, this lifecycle includes many opportunities for the brand to realize additional revenue from existing product owners and enhance customer LTV. These Commerce journeys may include offers for care plans, accessories, consumables, loyalty programs, and upgrades, as well as upsell and cross-sell opportunities, affiliate offers, and more.
The key to success is both the personalization and timeliness of the offer. Some offers, such as extended warranties and care plans, perform well during onboarding, while other offers are more relevant after the product has been owned for a time. Both personalization and timeliness rely on owner and product data, which underscores the need for a centralized data source and cross-functional alignment.
Best practices for Commerce Owner Journeys:
- Ensure offers are relevant to the product owned and the stage of ownership. Present the right offer to the customer at the right moment in the channel they prefer
- Use design best practices to present offers in a clear, concise manner and guide the owner through the purchase
- Capture accurate phone numbers and opt-ins during onboarding to enable SMS/text messaging offers at a later time
- Provide smooth transitions between channels, such as between a mobile offer delivered via SMS and the brand’s e-Commerce site
- Enable alerts that notify owners when a product is due for maintenance, to increase service revenue and extend the life of the product
- Stand out in the inbox with post-purchase campaigns that are personalized to the owner and the product(s) they own
- Legitimize affiliate and third-party offers with personalized data and cohesive branding
By implementing Commerce Owner Journeys, brands can realize revenue from existing customers, which is traditionally less expensive than acquiring new customers. In addition to this new revenue stream, Commerce Journeys help brands increase customer LTV and brand loyalty.
The Comprehensive OX Journey
These best practices, and many more, are the result of trying different approaches and adjusting as needed to achieve optimal results. They have been honed through partnerships with durable product brands that understand that prioritizing the OX contributes to differentiation. The goal is to make every product Ownership Experience smart, personalized, and valuable for both owners and brands.
Every Ownership Experience starts with an Owner Journey. Every journey starts with a first step.
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