Personalization Done Right with David Edelman

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Dec 5, 2024

David Edelman, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and co-author of the bestselling book "Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI," shares his expertise on effective personalization. He delves into the Five Promises of Personalization and how AI can transform customer experiences. Edelman highlights challenges companies face, such as measuring ROI and aligning executive compensation with performance metrics. He emphasizes the need for collective responsibility in customer experience and provides actionable insights for organizations of all sizes.

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INSIGHT

CX Challenges

Customer experience is crucial for business success, but true personalization is challenging.
Companies often overspend on technology without addressing core operational issues.

ANECDOTE

Customer Bombardment

Companies often bombard customers with various offers due to internal competition among different product categories.
This leads to customer disengagement and diminishes the effectiveness of marketing efforts.

ANECDOTE

Small Business Data Gap

Small businesses often lack proper customer data management, relying on informal knowledge.
This hinders personalized outreach and can lead to lost opportunities during disruptions.

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Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.

I have the pleasure of welcoming David Edelman to the show today. He is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, an executive advisor and board member to brands and technology providers, and an advisor to BCG. Previously, David was chief marketing officer at Aetna and has worked with dozens of companies on personalization, AI, and agile marketing at BCG and Digitas. Forbes has repeatedly named him one of the Top 20 Most Influential Voices in Marketing and Ad Age has named him a Top 20 Chief Marketing and Technology Officer. David is also the co-author of a new book called Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI, which has recently become a USA bestseller.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… anyone who wants to learn how to deliver true personalization at scale.

TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE… customer experience is imperative to business success, but personalization remains elusive for many organizations. In this conversation, David offers his playbook on making personalization a core business strategy for organizations of any size. He also shares a detailed walkthrough of the Five Promises of Personalization.

Key Takeaways:

If you consider personalization a strategic goal, you need to be able to measure it. Compensation is often too abstract of a metric. Instead, David recommends using measures of business performance.

If you can’t make your product simpler, you need to educate your customers.
The customer experience should be getting better and better over time.

WHAT I LOVE MOST… David’s points about thinking about the flow of company interaction. Remember that when customers get bombarded, they tend to tune out. David says, “Less is more, but less that’s smarter is even more.”

Running Time: 32:37

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David’s Book:

Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI