An exceptional customer experience (CX)—in the eyes of the customer—is one where you engage with them at the right time, with a relevant message, while having the utmost respect for their privacy. Consider that 67% of consumers feel it’s important for brands to adjust content based on their current context, and 42% said they get “annoyed” when their content isn’t personalized.

Strong security increases customer satisfaction by almost 30%, and 87% of customers will take their business elsewhere if they don’t trust a company is handling their data responsibly.

 Marketers, who have historically been at the helm of CX, often struggle with delivering relevant offers and personalized experiences. In fact, only 36% feel their brands have a well-defined CX vision, which is likely why only 15% of consumers rate customer experience as “good” and none as “excellent.”

Now throw in the challenges of marketing goods and services that are big purchases, what we at Jornaya call major-life purchases (MLPs), and the cards are stacked against the marketer. The shopping journeys for MLPs, such as homes, cars, insurance, or education, are lengthy. Our data shows a six-month cycle for insurance and mortgage shoppers, and similar research indicates up to three months for car shoppers. The decision-making process is complex.

Read more: Get Creative With Native Throughout the Customer Journey

Creating a sustained Marketing relationship across this long evaluation journey requires leveraging intelligence effectively. MLP marketers need to stay in tune with customer decision stages and individual preferences to create exceptional CX.

It may seem like a steep hill to make MLP consumer journeys exceptional, but due to advancements in technology, it is happening across these markets. At Jornaya, we work with hundreds of MLP marketers who are learning how good data and solid experimentation can make a great impact on their consumer engagement decisions, ultimately improving the customer experience and their outcomes, in fact, the same technology that makes it so easy for consumers to comparison shop, also makes it much easier for these marketers to deliver the right message at the right time.

Evolving From “Lead” Generation to “Customer” Generation

The consumer-marketer connection often starts with lead generation, an area of struggle for many organizations. According to a survey on growth-related challenges, 58% of decision-makers indicate that lead generation is a key challenge business leaders face.

For companies in the MLP sector, lead gen can present even more challenges. For starters, MLP customers are far and few between—the likelihood of one person buying multiple homes or cars in a short span of time is improbable. With this in mind, to make these scarce journeys exceptional, marketers need to have data and technology to engage at the right time with the right message.

A customer gen mentality focuses on personalizing Marketing efforts from the beginning, and throughout the journey, concentrating on providing what the customer needs when they need it to make the experience exceptional.

A Wider, More Complete View

Creating great CX relies on a wider view gained through the right data. The ability to use both demographic and behavioral data to better gauge your customers and their journeys is imperative—and data-as-a-service (DaaS) companies are enabling brands to utilize consumer data to learn how to make CX better.

With in-market signals that DaaS companies provide, MLP marketers are able to engage with people exactly when they are receptive, and with messages that are relevant to each consumer. These signals help marketers understand consumer behavior, desires, and make the right offer at the right time, in real time.

The technology required includes an effective identity graph, which links together the behaviors with the correct consumers who are on a journey. Additionally, the marketer needs to ensure they can rely on the data partner to provide the required data at the time it is needed and in a format that can be actioned upon.

Isn’t it time to use this knowledge and intelligence to drive better CX and produce higher acquisition, retention and growth rates of your customer base?

Read more: 4 Tried-and-True Methods for Fixing the Customer Experience