You cannot create a Best Next Offer model without first gathering all of your data. Look at the ways in which customers interact with the touchpoints in their journey, and analyse transaction history, website interactions, and email engagement, among many others. You should also engage in thorough customer segmentation, to truly understand your customers’ needs, and what factors influence their decision-making.
While gathering customer data is a broad and never-ending task, you may want to choose specific parameters in order to aid your research. For example, looking at the behaviours of a specific demographic, for a set amount of time after interacting with a touchpoint. If a customer makes a series of purchases during the run up to their birthday, you may not want to apply these preferences to their behaviour during the rest of their year. However, you may want to remember this information and apply it to the same time next year.
Extract valuable insights
Explore data to uncover valuable insights to inform what your offer should be. Look for any correlations or trends you can capitalise on. For example, a book retailer might identify and keep track of customers’ author preferences, and offer any titles by the same author that they have not yet purchased.
Bear in mind that any communications that appear to be exploiting personal data may be frowned upon, e.g. anything relating to private health concerns or money issues. Similarly, making offers that go against already-established customer preferences may not be well-received, even if the objective data suggests otherwise.