The Difference Between Loyal Fans and Fair-wer Friends

21 June 2016 The Difference Between Loyal Fans and Fair-weather Friends Share

Personalisation and Recommendations - The Difference Between Loyal Fans and Fair-weather Friends Today, operators have a very narrow, 90-day window of opportunity to cultivate loyalty among their customers. Therefore, it is important to consider the ease by which subscribers can discover and consume content that they have paid for within their pay-TV service, across all of their devices. At Paywizard, we call this the Consume' Decision Moment - part of the 8 key Decision Moments across the pay-TV subscriber lifecycle.

According to our latest consumer focus group research, conducted by Decipher, consumers felt that recommendation and search functionality was lacking, and that operators had a long way to go to really get them'. Consequently, operators need to up their game in order to put the right content in front of the customer, providing a personalised experience for every user.

Loyalty is a two-way street

It would stand to reason that those who seek loyalty, should also give loyalty. Yet, operators often shy away from engaging with current subscribers. Instead, they focus all of their attention on marketing to new customers and trying to win back the old ones. However, operators shouldn't be scared of interacting with their current customers, as it can ultimately lead to increased consumption, satisfaction and loyalty longterm.

One of the easiest ways to market to current pay-TV subscribers is through active content promotion, offering them personalised recommendations of content that they may like, based on their past viewing behaviors and the viewing trends of others like them. The more content they consume within those crucial first 90 days, the more likely they are to stick with you.

Better content recommendations = more content consumption

Recommendation technology must evolve; operators must become experts at figuring out what their subscribers want to watch. By getting a better grip on data, operators are able to truly understand the needs of the customer.This is done through the constant collection of data in an effort to learn more about your subscriber base and using those insights to give them more of what they desire. It's also important to get better at content tagging, which makes search functionality more efficient and makes it easier for customers to find the content they want.

Personalisation is the missing link

Recommendations also need to be within reach to the user and easy to navigate. One way to achieve this is by giving users their own profiles that are tailored to their interests and watching habits, as well as recognising different user groups within a household. For instance, allowing parents to create a separate profile for their kids that is limited to age appropriate content.

Additionally, a key component of customer subscriber management is personalising the types of communication a user wants to receive - whether it is via email or mobile messaging - can also help put the right content in front of the user.

After leading more than 100 pay-TV projects around the world, we've learned a thing or two; one being that insight and personalisation are critically important. Hand crafting sets of recommendations, offers and promotions to encourage more consumption are essential skills that can offer significant returns for pay-TV operators.

You must turn fair-weather friends - those who cancel their subscriptions as soon as the free trial period ends - to loyal, raving fans - in 90 days flat. Learn how by checking out our new white paper.

LINK:	https://www.paywizard.com/blog/personalisation-recommendations-differe...
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