PersonalizationUpandComingTechnology experts consider personalized content and product delivery to be very important, but the technical infrastructure in many companies is not yet equipped for this. At least that’s according to the study by Optimizely, a digital experience service provider, for which 100 technology experts from the around the world were interviewed. It examined the importance of personalization in companies and what challenges this entails for technology.

Personalization drives customer satisfaction

The results show that personalization in the presentation of content and products has long been a "must have" in companies, especially in customer communication: 79% of those surveyed agreed that personalized content delivery is important for customers. Just over a fifth (22%) even see it as a necessity that companies can no longer do without today.

Accordingly, the topic is anchored at company level: all 100 respondents stated that personalization is always prioritized in company decisions; 21% see this as a low priority, but 69% give it a medium weight at the enterprise level, while 10% even give personalization a high priority.

For 56% of respondents, personalization is primarily responsible for higher customer satisfaction; 30% see a significant increase in customer ratings and feedback through personalization, 10% see an increase in positive recommendations, and 4% attribute personalization to sales growth.

Only a minority uses AI and machine learning

According to those surveyed, the potential for personalization is high. The other side of the coin, however, are the technical challenges that need to be mastered. Nine out of ten respondents (91%) still see a "limiting factor for personalization performance" in the technical infrastructure of companies. In addition, companies are not taking full advantage of modern technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Only a third use the automation of personalized recommendations – for example, on their own website – either not at all or only to a small extent. In contrast, 64% "predominantly" use automation, but even these companies are not fully adapting.

Biggest problem of inferior database

Technology experts see the biggest obstacle to successful personalization projects as limited access to usable, reliable data. Inadequate data quality is responsible for more than half (58%); 57% complain about insufficient access to data and 54% see substandard IT infrastructure as the main obstacle, while 41% blame gaps in human resources and skills. All respondents agreed that poor data quality and timeliness has a negative impact on business performance that personalization projects cannot advance; 77% see a partial impact, 17% a moderate impact and 6% a strong impact.

Just recently, Gartner recognized Optimizely again as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for DXP. Optimizely's Digital Experience Platform, which includes content management, personalization, customer data management and analytics, is available on a subscription basis as a hybrid cloud solution and leverages some SaaS components with management user interfaces based on a multi-tenant PaaS solution.

By Daniela La Marca