Although Wendy’s is still on its personalization journey, Mancuso shared a handful of lessons learned thus far with the audience at Engage.
“Start small,” he said. If someone asks, “Do we turn it on or not?,” his suggestion was to “Just do it” because the reward outweighs the risk. After all, if a user clicks your Investor Relations link, there’s a good chance they may be an analyst – so give them relevant info front and center. On your personalization journey, focus initially on executing small things that are quick, tangible and measurable.
Additionally, Mancuso said when it comes to personalization, marketing teams should:
Move fast: “If you’re not pushing the envelope forward and failing, you’re not moving fast enough,” he said. In other words, turn it on, let it sit for a couple of days, gather the data, turn it off, iterate, and improve.
Share often: Make this a process that involves all of the members of your company by regularly communicating your successes and failures so they know what’s happening. This isn’t going to have a crazy impact on day one, but Mancuso said, “You are likely to get people to buy in, understanding what you’re doing and how."
Keep focused: There’s no denying how easy it is to go down a rabbit hole of good ideas that don’t actually contribute to the core mission. To avoid becoming fragmented, he suggests a simple litmus test – in the case of Wendy’s, it is “What does 'good' look like for our company?”
At Wendy’s, the answer is customer satisfaction, franchisee profitability, and improving in-store sales – and if the personalization idea doesn’t impact one of those areas, it is set aside.