MOST BRANDS COLLECT CUSTOMER DATA. FEW TURN IT INTO LOYALTY.
How CRM data builds (or breaks) the feeling of being recognised – and where the real commercial opportunity lies.
There is a feeling that every brand is chasing, and few consistently deliver. You probably recognise it yourself. The app that surfaces something you didn’t know you needed. The email that arrives so well-timed it feels less like marketing and more like a friend who pays attention. The associate in-store who knows your size, your preferences, your last visit – and makes you feel like a person, not a transaction.
That feeling is not built in a single moment. It accumulates over time, through repeated micro-interactions where the experience feels tailored rather than templated. And the bar for what “knowing me” means keeps rising.
Customers no longer benchmark that feeling within your category. Spotify’s recommendations, Uber’s frictionless payments, and Amazon’s anticipatory logistics shape expectations across industries. Loyalty forms less through rational evaluation and more through emotions, habits and exceeded experience.
Using CRM and loyalty data to understand customer needs and pain points enable us to create services that make both physical and digital experiences as smooth, enjoyable, and premium as possible.
A MARKET THAT CAPTURES, BUT DOESN’T ACTIVATE
CRM is no longer an emerging capability. Average adoption across countries and industries sits at 37%, and data collection is widespread. 77% of brands capture customer data at checkout, and 59% support in-store sign-up. But collection without activation is not relationship-building. It is data storage.
The activation numbers expose the gap plainly. Only 27% of brands use behaviour-based automated communication. Behaviour-based search appears in just 9% of cases, and personalised product recommendations in 13%. This is the activation gap. And it represents one of the most significant commercial opportunities in CRM today.
CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE IS LEFT ON THE TABLE
Discount-driven engagement doesn’t build loyalty, it rents it. The customer returns for the next offer, not because of a relationship. The issue isn’t incentives themselves – it’s when they lack relevance or meaning. When rewards are shaped around individual context, intent, and preferences, they start to build something deeper. BCG found that highly personalised experiences drive 110% more purchases and 40% higher spending (BCG, 2019).
At Søstrene Grene, contextual AI now turns abandoned searches into personalised emails in the brand’s own voice, re-engaging shoppers at the right time across 15+ markets. Despite the clear value, behavioural triggers are used by just 27% of brands and retailers in the index – only a marginal increase from 2024.
What makes this particularly frustrating is that customers are willing to meet brands halfway. 56% of consumers say they are open to sharing more personal data in exchange for a better experience (Oliver Wyman, 2024). The willingness is there – what’s missing is the value exchange that unlocks it.
If you give customers a genuine reason to share their data, through recognition, access, and experiences that feel worth it, the rest follows. From the customer’s perspective, the logic is simple: “I shared something, the experience improved, so I shared more, and it improved again.”
For brands and retailers, the impact is just as clear. More data enables sharper personalisation, which makes every interaction more relevant and valuable, with AI helping scale that relevance without losing the human touch. The result is deeper relationships that grow CLV in a way no discount programme ever could.
WHERE THE JOURNEY BREAKS DOWN
The structural problem isn’t just that data is under-activated. It’s that the gaps show up exactly where they hurt most – and the customer experiences the journey as a whole, not phase by phase.
Evaluation, at 34%, is the weakest phase in the entire journey. Just 9% use behaviour-based search and only 13% show personalised recommendations. The moment where CRM data could prove the brand already understands the customer is instead the most generic.
Service, at 37%, tells the same story from the other side. A first-time buyer and a ten-year loyalty member receive the same response. That doesn’t just miss a personalisation opportunity – it actively erodes the “brand knows me” feeling that CRM is supposed to build.
Now consider what the customer actually experiences. They may get a personalised loyalty email and a well-executed checkout, but the moment they browse for something new, the brand forgets them. The moment they need help, it forgets them again.
This is where the psychology matters. Loyalty doesn’t form from the average of all interactions. It forms from the highs and the resolution – the peak-end rule. And the variation between peaks and valleys matters as much as the lows themselves. A beautifully personalised email followed by a generic evaluation experience doesn’t just fail to impress. The contrast undermines the very feeling the email created.
For the “brand knows me” feeling to hold, the experience needs a coherent thread of recognition. When Evaluation and Service sit 20 points below Purchase and Loyalty, that thread is severed. The journey doesn’t just have gaps. It has contradictions.
FOUR MOVES THAT CLOSE THE GAP
Move customer data out of the ‘loyalty silo’. Enrich ad platforms, personalise product discovery, recognise customers at purchase, and differentiate service. The technology exists, but the connection is missing.
88% of Belgian brands nudge sign-up in-store, which challenges the assumption that CRM is a digital-first discipline. Store staff, receipts, fitting rooms, events, loyalty card scans, and in-store interactions are rich capture points that many brands have underinvested in.
Most CRM spend goes into the ‘join’ loop: sign-up forms, checkout nudges, welcome offers. But CLV compounds in the middle, in the ‘stay and share’ loops where continuous relevance makes the relationship worth maintaining and worth talking about. Use the data you already have to trigger the next action: follow up with relevant products, re-engage at the right moment, and recognise high-value customers in ways that reflect what you know. Consumers who receive personalised experiences spend up to 50% more (Deloitte, 2024). And with media costs rising and CAC increasing, growth comes from getting more value out of the customers you already have, not just acquiring new ones.
The gap between monetary and emotional value (77% vs. 20%) shows that most brands are operating with a one-dimensional exchange. Discounts are effective at driving sign-ups, but they rarely build relationships. If you want customers to share data and stay engaged, the exchange has to feel worth it. Recognition, early access, personalised service, and better experiences give customers a reason to come back – not just a reason to buy once.
Explore the full Omnichannel Index 2026, based on insights from 373 brands and retailers across Europe. Discover where customer experiences are improving – and where the biggest opportunities still lie.
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Kenni can help you assess whether your communication lives up to your brand promise – and explore how CRM and customer data can create more relevant, connected customer journeys across channels.
