It’s time to take 1 to 1, personally

Why more data doesn’t automatically create better communication.

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We’ve all heard the principles before – fewer, better, bigger... or that 90% is good enough. In reality though, do these principles actually apply in direct communications to customers? Getting the right information, at the right time with the propriate level of personalisation continues to be a focus for brands, with the sweet spot sometimes proving challenging to find.

Customers now expect brands to feel like they truly ‘get them’. Streaming services recommend what we might want to watch next, retailers remember what we buy regularly, airlines notify us of gate changes before we’ve reached the airport screen. When personalisation works well, it feels helpful, seamless and genuinely useful. At its best, it reduces friction and makes interactions feel more meaningful.

The challenge is that while companies have never been more data-rich, knowing how and when to use it remains far more complicated. Brands now sit on enormous volumes of behavioural, transactional and preference data, but using all of it simply because it exists can quickly move communications from relevant to uncomfortable.

When personalisation misses the mark

We’ve all experienced that moment where a brand interaction suddenly feels a little too familiar. An item browsed briefly, suddenly follows you across every channel for weeks. A push notification references something so specific it makes you question how much information is actually being collected and how. ‘Are they listening?’ is a common consumer reaction and more often than not, it can feel intrusive rather than helpful.

How about the reminder that arrives for something you’ve already resolved because systems are not synchronised in real time? ‘Please ignore this notice if payment has been made within the last seven days.’

For many brands, this type of communication is still surprisingly common. Yet in a world where payments, purchases and customer interactions can happen instantly, customer expectations around responsiveness have shifted just as quickly. Lagging data, disconnected systems and poorly orchestrated journeys are no longer just operational problems, they shape how competent and trustworthy a brand feels.

“More data doesn’t automatically create better communication. Better judgement does. The brand that will ultimately stand out genuinely add value when others will be simply making noise.” Sean Smith, CEO CX & Data, IVE Group.

Less but smarter personalisation

Teams are under pressure to do more with less, while customer journey programs continue to grow in complexity. Overly engineered 1:1 personalisation models can become resource intensive very quickly, particularly when multiple channels, trigger points and audience rules are layered on top of one another.

This is where many brands lose perspective. Not every interaction needs to be deeply personalised and not every communication benefits from hyper precision. In many cases, broad relevance works far better. Often consumers simply want communications that feel relevant to their situation or interests. Smart segmentation can achieve this effectively without creating thousands of micro variations that become difficult to manage properly. Shared behaviours, life stages and interests can also create a stronger sense of belonging than highly individualised messaging sometimes allows. Sometimes its about what we have in common, not what makes us different.

A fitness brand, for example, does not necessarily need to reference every workout a customer has completed. Creating a sense of community around beginner runners training towards their first event may be far more motivating and far easier to execute consistently well.

The real opportunity for brands is not to personalise more, but to personalise more thoughtfully. Service updates, loyalty communications, replenishment reminders and post-purchase support are all areas where personalisation can strengthen relationships because the communication feels timely, expected and useful.

Where brands tend to cross the line is when personalisation appears to serve the business more than the customer. Simply inserting a first name into a subject line is not meaningful personalisation. Equally, aggressively retargeting customers based on behaviours they do not expect brands to recognise can quickly feel intrusive rather than helpful.

A useful rule of thumb is to ask whether the communication feels expected, surprising or unsettling.

Personalisation should be two-way

There is also an irony in how many brands approach customer communication. Businesses invest heavily in personalised outbound messaging and automated prompts asking customers for Google reviews or NPS scores, yet in many cases make it surprisingly difficult for customers to contact them when they actually need support.

A brand cannot claim to value customer relationships while hiding behind ‘no reply’ email addresses, chatbots with no escalation path or service models designed primarily to deflect enquiries rather than resolve them. In these moments, even the most sophisticated personalisation strategy quickly starts to feel performative.

The strongest customer relationships are rarely built through perfectly targeted messages alone. They are built through responsiveness, accessibility and trust. Sometimes the most valuable communication a brand can provide is not another automated recommendation, but simply making it easy for a customer to speak to a real person when it matters.

Better judgement, not just better technology

The brands getting this balance right are usually the ones showing the greatest restraint. Rather than trying to personalise every touchpoint, they focus on creating communications that feel coordinated, contextual and considered. That distinction matters because customers rarely remember the sophistication behind the technology.

What they remember is how the interaction made them feel.

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• Did the brand make things easier?
• Did the communication arrive at the right moment?
• Did it feel useful?
• Did it feel appropriate?

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....Or did it simply feel like another automated message generated because the system allowed it?

The brands that will ultimately stand out are unlikely to be the ones creating the most personalised communications. They will be the ones exercising the best judgement around when personalisation genuinely adds value and when it simply becomes noise.

Relevance builds connection. Overreach erodes it. And increasingly, customers can tell the difference.

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