Increasingly, organisations are getting stuck in the middle of two opposing forces — the need to make sense of an ever increasing pile of data and the need to have commercially impactful business decisions.

But why does this happen, when there is so much data, and assuming, so much understanding of its consumers?

The answer is that there is no real understanding, but only shallow, confused and a peripheral one. What we do have is a 'data deluge', which simply feeds into this confusion.

Its products still don't get enough traction in the category. It can't strengthen loyalty. There is a continuous leaky bucket of consumers. Its brands never have strong equity. Sounds like a familiar scenario!!!

Abandoning personalisation is not a mistake. More important is what you replace it with.

For example, an Apple customer might expect a higher level of service compared to an Android buyer, for which there are multiple manufacturers.

Consumers know fully well what they are buying into and what they should expect. It is about managing that expectation. Customer service has a brand element. If the category is not a commodity, then customer service expectations will be driven by brand equity (regardless of the level of purchase).

This is critical when you want to have mass adoption and equally so when you want to skim the top of the pyramid. A Ferrari can keep personalisation in its customer service but a VW can’t. That doesn’t mean any of them are worse at customer service.

The dynamics of customer service when you have 10 customers vs 10,000 are completely different. The dynamics of 10,000 vs 100,000 are exactly the same. Scaling customer service requires brands to abandon personalisation and adopt efficiency and consistency.

Handwritten notes will move to email templates. Individual phone calls will become FAQs or chatbots. The founder hob nobbing at a store will transform to one appearing on investor calls.

Hi Nonagon, thanks for asking. I am more of a brand strategy guy, working with brands across quite a few industries. Aspects like brand positioning, architecture, mission, vision, portfolio etc.