• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 5, 2023

Consumers should be easy to please — in theory. They want loyalty rewards and curated experiences. And they’re comfortable sharing data if it will mean a better experience. 

But they are easily frustrated, judging by Personalization Pulse Check 2023, a study by MoEngage.

Of the consumers polled, 58% are frustrated by generic or inconsistent communications. They are most aggravated by: 

• Too frequent or too few communications — 31.9%
• Lack of timely updates from a brand on customer service inquiries, purchases or shipping details — 19.9%
• Communications or products promoted form a brand are generalized and irrelevant — 15.1% 
• When a brand doesn’t understand them or remember their preferences based on their previous encounter or purchase — 13.9%
• Ads on social channels for items browsed on a brand website — 9.9%
• Inconsistent messaging across channels — 9.4% 

These issues can have an impact on brand preferences. Apart from product quality, consumers choose one brand over another based on these factors:

• Communications about discounts or offers based on items in their cart — 32.3% 
• Messages about new sales, products, and promotion — 28.6% 
• Relevant communication based on your purchase history or preferences — 22.2% 
• Company updates and news — 10.4%
• New, educational, trend-related content — 6.5% 

On the positive side, the most pleasing thing to a consumer is to get loyalty rewards and points:

• Loyalty rewards and points — 19.2%
• Discounts and coupons on your favorite categories for future purchases — 18% 
• Having options like curbside pickup, buy now pay later, and more — 14.7% 
• Brand understands my needs, for example, sharing relevant purchases or content — 14.2%
• An apology email or reward voucher after a poor in-store or online experience — 13.3% 
• Overall customer experience: seamless online and in-store shopping — 12.6%

Meanwhile, 38.3% of customers are comfortable with brands using personal data like name, age and location if it means a better experience. Another 28.9% are slightly comfortable and 10.1% not at all. Another 22.7% are neutral.  

Generally, 53.6% of shoppers interact with a brand more than three times before buying from them, and for 34.6% the interact 2-3 times before the purchase.

How do they like to engage with brands? They prefer: 

• Website — 22%
• In-person — 18.8%
• Mobile apps — 15.3% 
• Social media — 13.4%
• Email — 13.2% 
• On the phone — 8.3% 
• SMS — 6%
• Chatbots — 1.8% 
• WhatsApp — 0.8% 

Meanwhile, consumers expect a curated shopping experience from the brands they shop from regularly. This would take the form of: 

• Interactive mobile app — 44.6% 
• Recommendations when they enter the store — 32.1%
• Email look-books/curated list — 21.9% 
• Other — 1.5% 

"Finding the solution to winning customer loyalty can be daunting for brand marketers,” states Raviteja Dodda, CEO of MoEngage. “To do it well, marketers need to leverage customer data based on prior browsing and shopping behaviors to inform their customer engagement strategies,"  

MoEngage surveyed 2,000 North American consumers.