Mastering personalisation: How to scale CX for every customer

Imagine checking your email and finding a tailored offer from your favourite online retailer, recommending a product that perfectly matches your style—before you even start browsing. It’s the kind of thoughtful, personalised touch that makes you feel understood and valued, ensuring you return time and again. Customers today crave this level of connection from brands, expecting interactions that reflect their unique preferences and needs.

Delivering that “made for me” experience to thousands, or even millions, of customers is a complex challenge. Yet, with the right strategies, tools, and mindset, it’s entirely within reach. Let’s explore how you can make every customer feel like a VIP.

Why personalisation drives customer loyalty

Today’s customers don’t just want personalisation—they demand it. Whether it’s a tailored recommendation from their favourite retailer or a proactive alert from their bank, they expect experiences that feel designed for them. A 2024 KPMG report found that personalisation is the biggest driver of customer loyalty, contributing to 23% of loyalty metrics. Similarly, PwC’s research reveals that 73% of customers view customer experience (CX)—heavily influenced by personalisation—as a key factor in their purchasing decisions.

What does personalisation look like in practice? It’s about delivering tailored:

• Messaging: Relevant, timely communications that resonate.
• Offers and promotions: Discounts or rewards aligned with customer habits.
• Recommendations: Product or service suggestions based on past behaviour.
• Support: Proactive solutions that address issues before they arise.

PwC’s customer loyalty survey highlights what customers value most in personalised experiences:

• Discounts/rebates on frequently used products: 48%
• Flexible loyalty programmes: 43%
• Quick access to products/services: 22% 

Personalisation isn’t just a bonus—it’s critical for loyalty. While only 8% of consumers said personalisation alone drives repeat purchases, poor or inconsistent experiences can quickly erode trust. A striking 55% of consumers would abandon a brand after several negative experiences, and 32% would leave due to inconsistency. Proactive personalisation—such as a telecom provider offering a tailored data plan before a customer incurs overage charges—can prevent these pain points and keep customers delighted.

The roadblocks to personalised CX at scale

Personalisation at scale involves analysing reliable customer data—such as purchase histories, online interactions, and customer service touchpoints—to deliver highly relevant, individualised experiences across multiple channels. However, several obstacles can make this difficult:

• Data silos: Many businesses store customer data in disconnected systems (e.g., CRM, billing, or contact centre platforms) across departments. Siloed data prevents the creation of unified customer profiles, which are essential for understanding behaviour and delivering consistent, personalised experiences.
• Balancing expectations and privacy: Customers want personalised experiences but are cautious about sharing personal information. 61% are willing to share their email address and 48% their birthday, but only 22% are comfortable sharing product usage data, and just 15% would share location data. Brands must deliver personalisation while respecting privacy, adhering to regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and maintaining transparent, secure data practices.
• Technical complexity: Effective personalisation requires robust systems to collect, analyse, and activate customer data. Integrating legacy systems with modern personalisation platforms can be a significant hurdle.

4 steps to deliver personalisation at scale

It’s important to keep these three best practice steps in mind when looking to scale your personalisation goals.

1. Centralise customer data

Implement a customer engagement platform that unifies data from multiple sources—CRM, contact centre systems, billing records, browsing history, and more—into a single, comprehensive customer profile. Unlike traditional customer data platforms (CDPs), which often focus on segmenting data and struggle with offline channels like voice interactions, a robust platform ensures a holistic view of each customer.

For example, if a customer tweets about a billing issue, visits the FAQ page, and then calls the contact centre, a unified profile allows the agent to understand the full context and resolve the issue quickly, without the customer repeating their story.

2. Activate data with a customer journey management system

Data alone isn’t enough—you need a system to make it actionable. A customer journey management (CJM) system uses real-time data to personalise every touchpoint at an individual level. It orchestrates communications across channels and departments, delivering the right message at the right time. For instance, a CJM can trigger appointment reminders, fraud alerts, or service outage notifications tailored to the customer’s preferred channel, ensuring a seamless experience.

3. Prioritise high-impact personalisation

Use journey analytics to identify key moments in the customer journey—both those that delight and those that lead to churn. Focus on personalisation efforts that drive measurable results, such as:

• Tailored recommendations to boost sales.
• Proactive support to improve retention.
• Customised discounts to enhance loyalty and lifetime value.
  Predictive analytics can help pinpoint opportunities with the highest return on investment, ensuring your efforts deliver real business value.

4. Empower your team with AI-driven insights

Equip your customer-facing teams with AI tools that provide real-time, actionable insights to enhance personalisation. AI can analyse customer interactions on the fly, offering agents or marketers suggestions for next-best actions, such as recommending a specific offer or resolving an issue proactively. For example, during a support call, AI might prompt an agent to offer a loyalty discount to a long-term customer showing signs of frustration, turning a negative experience into a positive one. This not only improves efficiency but also ensures every interaction feels tailored and meaningful.

Real-world examples of personalised CX done right

When done right, personalisation at scale uses data and analytics to create meaningful, individualised experiences. Here are some examples:

• Tailored recommendations: A retailer uses predictive analytics to suggest products based on a customer’s purchase history, such as recommending a specific skincare range for someone who frequently buys eco-friendly beauty products.
• Healthcare reminders: A clinic sends personalised appointment reminders with specific instructions, e.g., “Please avoid caffeine 12 hours before your 10 a.m. blood test.”
• Proactive fraud alerts: A bank instantly notifies a customer of suspicious activity, e.g., “We detected a $1,500 transaction at an electronics store. Was this you?” with a one-click verification option.
• Service outage notifications: A utility provider sends real-time updates about a power outage via the customer’s preferred channel (e.g., SMS or email), keeping them informed until service is restored.
• Intent-based call routing: An interactive voice response (IVR) system uses natural language processing to understand a caller’s intent, routing them to the right agent or self-service option, reducing transfers and frustration.

Track, tweak, and expand your CX strategy

To ensure your personalisation efforts hit the mark, track, refine, and expand your strategies.

• Measure success: Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess impact on business goals:
  
  
  • Customer retention rate
  • Conversion rates
  • Average order value
  • Customer lifetime value
  • Customer satisfaction (CSAT)
  • Contact centre metrics (e.g., call handle time, first-call resolution, upsell rate)
• Refine strategies: Use KPIs, journey analytics, and customer feedback to identify areas for improvement. Personalisation requires ongoing optimisation—it’s not a set-and-forget process.
• Scale further: Identify additional touchpoints across the business that could benefit from personalisation, leveraging similar datasets to replicate success.

Why Pendula is your personalisation partner

Delivering personalised customer experiences at scale doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Pendula’s customer engagement platform makes it simple to unify data, activate insights, and orchestrate seamless, individualised journeys across every channel.

With Pendula, you can:

• Break down data silos: Integrate data from CRM, billing, contact centres, and more to create a single, real-time view of each customer.
• Orchestrate personalised journeys: Use real-time triggers to deliver tailored messages, offers, and support at the right moment, via the right channel.
• Drive measurable results: Leverage analytics to prioritise high-impact personalisation efforts that boost retention, loyalty, and revenue.

Whether it’s sending proactive outage alerts, personalised loyalty offers, or streamlined support, Pendula empowers brands to make every customer feel like a VIP. Ready to transform your CX? Discover how Pendula can help.