My Macy's Makes Splash in Personalizing the Customer Experience

It's been said ad nauseam — the customer is always right. Macy's takes that famous saying one step further by trying to provide the best customer experience possible with its My Macy's campaign, which was discussed at the National Retail Federation's BIG Show on Monday.

For Macy's, it takes 12 customers to make up for one loyal customer lost. Therefore the company focuses on keeping its customers loyal with its My Macy's campaign, which creates a highly personalized and omnichannel shopping experience. The campaign has not only seen an increase in sales and earnings, but it's also seen stressed importance on the ability to focus on the customer.

"Seven out of 10 Americans visit a Macy's store or macys.com every year," said Peter Sachse, CMO, chairman and CEO of Macy's and Macys.com. "We don't need any more customers, we need the customers we already have to spend more with us. Therein lies the loyalty. We put the customer at the center of all decisions we make."

Macy's goals were simple. It wanted to create an informed customer strategy by retaining and growing its customer base, developing nonloyals and converting nonpurchasers all while keeping its current customers loyal. To achieve this goal, Macy's realized it required a partnership. Retail personalization company dunnhumby teamed with Macy's to help it collect, gather and analyze data focused on customers and their shopping and purchasing behaviors. These data points come from three places, also known as the MOM method:

1. My Macy's. Macy's gets information from the field — what colors, styles, scents do the consumers want more of? "Our goal is simple, said Sachse. "It's to be the best national local retailer on the face of the earth and we think we have the mechanism to do that in My Macy's."

2. Omnichannel. "If we own it, you should be able to buy it whenever and wherever," Sachse said. "It's not just about marketing or commerce, but about optimizing everything in the customer's journey." However, it was noted that there are new mediums to connect with consumers coming out every day. Don't stay focused on one medium, but constantly optimize all channels for the best experience, Sachse advised.

3. Magic selling. Two years ago, Macy's trained 140,000 selling associates — the largest training program in company history — to get everyone on the same page in regards to customer engagement.

"Listen to the data, listen to the customer and they will tell you what they want," advised dunnhumby CEO Stuart Aitken. "It's the key to getting under the skin and into the minds of customers to understand what makes them tick."

Aitken then likened retailers' attitudes towards customers to a bucket of water. We look at a bucket as half full. Then we think about how to put more water in it (customer acquisition). What we need to focus on is plugging the hole at the bottom of the bucket — i.e., keeping in the loyal customers that haven't jumped ship.

Other Tips

1. Have a unified language. Make sure all departments are on the same page and speaking the language of the customer.

2. Measure segmentation. How much do your customers spend? How often are they in-store? How much spending potential do they have? Are they committed to making a purchase? What's the customer's frequency shopping with you and how much do they buy?

3. Track customer behavior. Measure their attitudes towards shopping, their purchase behavior and their demographics (not who they are, but their behaviors).

4. Segment by engagement. Identify who are your promoters, the passives and your detractors.