I am my Cart

Great article in the New York Times Sunday magazine My Cart, My Self about what the personalization features of Amazon, Netflix, Pandora and the like say about knowing one's self. The author laments that some of the recommendations are uncanny and some are crazy. He states "The only thing worse than being misperceived by a machine is being expertly perceived by one." 

As product recommendation engines become better and power more content, they are every-hungry for the slightest behavior or inclination that could indicate a preference, bias, or proclivity to like something. That may work great in a vacuum when it is action and response but most people's lives are a little more complicated than that. As the author explains, he shares the account with his girlfriend and manages the Netflix family account which further muddies his eclectic taste in film 

What annoys me about the recommendation “engines” that drive e-commerce nowadays is their denial that I possess free will, or at least their denial that I often exercise it. I’m told that the programs rely on algorithms that mimic the workings of my cultural intellect, which must mean that I’m an algorithm, too. I’m not, though. I’m a complicated oddball, eccentric, eclectic and erratic — prized traits now reduced to irritable rejection of ubiquitous recommendations on my e-commerce sites.

As consumers move beyond the delight of relevant recommendations and start to notice the near and far misses, how will recommendation product engines react? Amazon has a nice treatment in its account management portal to allow consumers to review past purchases and declare whether a previous item was a gift (and therefore not relevant to personal tastes) or simply not to consider the purchase in future recommendations. This is a great feature I've used to view my 13+ years of purchases (like a time capsule of retailing!) but Amazon does nothing to promote this capability to the masses. Maybe because they don't want people to try to battle the algorithm. It will be interesting to watch Amazon's decision to communicate this capability to the public and decide that consumers are ready to guide their own recommendations or continue to be a victim of it. And of course it only works on purchases and not browsed items. You'll still get the recommendations on site and through email on that item you looked at once passively or researched but had no intent on buying.

Salesmen emulating salesmen

One of the cliches about online personalization is that the customer experience on your website should emulate your best salesman. This is a salesman who has met you, gotten to know you, and can, through explicit questions and inferences, tailor his or her message to you.  It is this promise that some personalization companies give to prospective clients.

As anyone who has attended a conference will attest, you talk to a lot of vendors who are eager to do business with you. I work for a Fortune 100 company so I was prime meat. So we talked--some short and some longer conversations; exchanges business cards; and I assumed there were be a follow up.

Lots of types of followup ensued. Some were quick, others taking 2 to 3 weeks. Some were personal emails; others were generic emails which were quickly trashed.  Some requests to talk or meet were so dogged, I felt like was being stalked. If this were an online relationship, I'm leaving the site and never coming back.

Here's my quick guidelines for after conference follow up. These work well for any online relationship too:

1) Get to know me. The best opportunity is the initial conversation. Ask the right quesitons and remember it.
2) Follow up. Not too fast and not too slow. And don't stalk me or we are through.
3) Offer me something of value. Why should I talk to you again? What do you have that is relevant to me?
4) Come prepared. OK, I will meet with you. When I do, let's not rehash what I already told you or someone else from your company.
5) Ask permission to nurture the relationship. Unlike a typical transactional relationship online, getting your solutiono inside my company will take time. Let's discuss how our relationship will go. I'm open and honest. If there isn't a future, it's only honest of me to say so. Let's not waste each other's time.

If you followed these guidelines while talking to me offline or online, we might have a long term relationship.

Help us personalize!

Today I received an email from Groupon--the phenomenally successful coupon service that relies on mass distribution and volume acceptance to generate business for its 'partners.' The email stated:

New: Personalize Your Groupon Deals

Now you can customize your Groupon experience. Complete your profile in 15 seconds, and we'll start sending deals that better suit you.

Sounds appealing. I like Groupon and it's ilk and I like personalization of any service to make it more relevant to me. (Let's not get stuck one the semantics of personalization vs. customization for a moment and why they offer both.) And I like that it only takes 15 seconds!  When I clicked through on the email, I got the box above asking for my gender, zip code and date of birth. 

First, gender--OK but I often look for deals for my wife (manicures, hair styling, clothing, etc.) and would this exclude them. Second, zip code--I've already self segmented stating I like in Austin, Texas. That piece of info is tagged to my user account. If Groupon is offering a compelling coupon, I'll  drive across town for a deal. That's my choice. Finally, date of birth. I've now passed into the age range where I don't proudly state my age. That seems a little personal to me. How about asking for a date range instead? And would my tastes differ from someone of a different age? All of the Groupon deals that I've seen are pretty age neutral.

My point is that it seems that Groupon is limiting the range of deals for me by 'personalizing' the offers presented to me. Sure, they may be more "relevant " to me (as determined by Groupon) but for a service that relies in part on people sharing the bounty of a good deal either through social media, gift giving, or mass quantity coupon redemption. Don't they want more people rather than higher-quality people redeeming their coupons? Does a business who offers a coupon on Groupon care about whether their coupon is dead center relevant to me or just sort-of interesting to me? As long as I buy, they are happy. (Although there are tales of too much of a good thing. Check this story on one business's challenge after offering a Groupon.) Perhaps this is brand extension so that partners get higher quality first-time customers rather than coupon redeemers who never look back after the first visit?

Which makes me wonder what their objective is. Is Groupon trying to tailor it's coupons or collect user data? Probably some of both but maybe a different tactic would have worked better. Perhaps a 'I like this deal' or 'it doesn't appeal to me' or thumbs up /down type of rating could have sufficed. Or a user survey to gather market attitudes and aptitudes. 

In any case, if you volunteer to personalize or offer the ability to customize, tell the customer the value and benefit of doing so. It may not necessarily be in their best interest-- just yours.