The phrase “know your customer gets bandied around quite a bit in loyalty circles, and with AI increasingly used for data analysis, many are claiming an advanced level of knowledge.
But are we really sure we understand who our customers are, rather than just what they bought last week?
Take towels. A most revolting release landed on Loyalty Magazine’s desk recently that reports 1.5 million UK citizens only wash their bathroom towels once a year. In addition 33% of UK citizens admit their towels are washed once every three months, equating to 17.5 million people.
This is despite the fact that freshly washed towels already contain around 190,000 bacteria, which can surge to 17 million after a single day of use — and a staggering 94 million after a week.
Through a survey of 2,200 UK residents, Showers to You’s research found that 3% of respondents wash their gym towels once a year, equating to 1,595,646 people based on the latest adult population estimates from the Office of National Statistics.
Men were five times more likely to clean their gym towels just once a year, with 5% of male respondents admitting to giving them an annual wash, compared to 1% of women.
So knowing this information can you really be sure you know the person sitting next to you in the office let alone those around you on a crowded tube. Forget really “knowing” your customers from a supermarket shop, hotel loyalty program or a fast food chain database.
The most we can achieve is to understand their buying behaviour, and we need to be honest about this. Loyalty is about trying to persuade customers to spend more of their available cash with a particular brand rather than with the opposition or on something entirely different. Done well, loyalty is staggeringly effective, but let’s not kid ourselves we will get to know our customers. That is never going to happen.