It’s well-known that happy customers are loyal customers.
That’s why savvy brands spend so much time obsessing about customer satisfaction. Everything you do – from your customer service to your product quality – must keep the customer’s ultimate happiness in mind.
Offering product customization is one strategy that many brands employ to improve customer satisfaction. Our research has shown that 65 percent of customers report high satisfaction with past product customization experiences.
Additionally, 59 percent of customers report being happy with the final product they receive.
Product customization benefits customer satisfaction in many different ways. Here are six reasons why your brand should embrace it in 2021 and beyond.
A 2018 study on the benefits of mass-customized products found that product customization increases customer satisfaction because it meets three primary needs: to satisfy curiosity, to provide entertainment, and the desire for novelty.
The study found that customized products were positively correlated with both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Here’s why that occurs.
By offering product customization, you…
You claim to “put your customers first.” Did you know that only 12 percent of your customers are going to believe that claim?
It’s more important than ever to walk your talk and to truly embrace the customer-centric approach you claim to have. (Some 86 percent of customers believe that authenticity is very important for brands.)
Offering product customization is one way to accomplish that.
With product customization, everything becomes about the customer’s unique desires. From the product configurator on your site to your business processes and production lines, you’ll orient your business to produce exactly what your customers want.
The result? True customer-centricity can boost sales by as much as 25 percent.
Customized or personalized anything stands out to a buyer because people love having their individuality recognized. That’s why personalization is so powerful in marketing.
In the sea of messages, we respond best to the one that speaks directly to us.
It’s the same with products, too. Product customization is a way to differentiate our products from the other mass-produced goods out there – done in a way that literally cannot be replicated by your competitors.
One of our favorite examples of product personalization is from Louis Vuitton. In their personalization shop, you can personalize classic bags and accessories by choosing from a wide range of patches or adding your initials.
Via Louis Vuitton
The customer experience (CX) is an important part of ecommerce. Get it wrong, and it won’t matter how amazing your products are.
Get it right, and your customers will pay upwards of 16 percent more just to shop with you because they know they’ll have an amazing experience.
Product customization is a powerful way to elevate the shopping experience and fundamentally change the way people interact with your brand. You’ll need to do a few things to implement product customization fully:
What do 3D products look like online? Check out this example from Franklin Sports.
Via Franklin Sports
Every brand knows its products must deliver value to the customers. What smart brands understand is that they must also deliver a perceived value.
In marketing, perceived value is the assessment of the value that your product holds based on its ability to meet needs or preferences. Crucially, perceived value exists independently of actual value.
In other words, just because something costs a certain dollar amount it doesn’t mean that your customers will think it’s worth it.
One way to improve the perceived value of a product is to allow customers to customize or personalize it.
The 2018 study above noted that customization increases the perceived value of products, which has a direct and positive impact on overall customer satisfaction. Likewise, this study in 2016 reported similar findings. It noted that the greater the perceived value, the more likely that a customer would not just be satisfied but also stay loyal.
What’s more, in our 2020 survey of over 500 U.S. shoppers, 49 percent of respondents said they’re willing to pay 10-25 percent more for customized products.
Brand affinity refers to a customer’s preference toward a brand when given a set of comparable choices. Fostering it is a powerful way to create loyal customers who keep coming back.
If you want people to develop a natural affinity for your brand, let them customize your products.
Research shows that offering product customization benefits brand affinity and brand loyalty because it inspires an emotional attachment with the product. This happens for several reasons:
Brand affinity is usually the result of customer satisfaction, but it tends to generate even more satisfied customers. When that happens, your happy customers will go forth and tell everyone about you.
Try it out for yourself by playing with Ray-Ban’s sunglasses customization experience.
Via Ray-Ban
The surge in online shopping created by the pandemic is giving rise to new ways of thinking about ecommerce. One of those ways is the creation of omnichannel shopping experiences which bridge the digital and physical stores.
Product customization is a powerful tool for brands that operate online and offline. By leveraging it on mobile devices in-store, brands can elevate the physical shopping experience.
And shoppers are no longer limited to what a brand has in stock on location.
In today’s hypercompetitive ecommerce landscape, having a great product and a great site isn’t enough. You must elevate the overall experience you deliver through creative new ways.
Chief among strategies that leading brands deploy is product customization. By giving customers control over the final product, you increase the chances that your customers will not only love what they get but also come back again and again in the future.
We’ve covered six ways that product customization benefits customer satisfaction.
However, to get started with product customization, you’ll need to integrate the right platform with your ecommerce site. We’ve got you covered.
Go forth and customize…
Schedule a demo now to discover what ConfigureID can do for your brand.
