RFM model: Platonic Friends

In the previous chapter of our CVO guide, we focused on another RFM group, Potential Lovers, who can become really valuable to your eCommerce store with the proper attention and tactics.

In this chapter, we shed light on Platonic Friends, an intriguing RFM segment, but worthy of your attention as there are ways to nurture them into more valuable customers.

Platonic Friends do just fine in terms of Recency (score is 3-5), but their Monetary Value won’t rise above 4, and their Frequency varies from 1 to 5. The total RFM score can be improved if you increase the Average Order Value (AOV) and create a healthy buying habit in this segment.

Many love stories might start (… or end) as platonic friendships, so let’s see what you should do to nurture this segment. It might be more than meets the eye of an eCommerce specialist that does not use the RFM analysis model to find what really hides behind a platonic relationship.

How to transform Platonic Friends into more loyal, valuable customers?

Platonic Friends are customers that are buying from your store fairly regularly but their orders are below the average most of the time. They are not very consistent, either. Your goal is to generate more repeat orders and to get them to spend more when placing a new order.

Loyalty program

Don’t let the competition win their heart with tempting discounts. Let your Platonic Friends know that you’re offering more than a fair price and a pretty package. Tell the story of your brand and let them know that you share the same values (an email is perfect for a personalized message). Show them that they are important to you and that you are prepared to offer the finest customer experience in the long term. Reward them for their loyalty in a way that brings more value for both parties: you increase their lifetime value and they receive more quality items for sticking with you. This program is meant to bring you better scores for all three factors: Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value.

How to do this?

Go to Reveal and search in customer behavior reports such as Retention, Customer Voice, Buying Habits, and Cohort Analysis to discover insights about what generates repeat purchases and happy customers. Connect with your Klaviyo or Sendgrid account so you can send your Platonic Friends the right messages in personalized emails.

Cross-selling and upselling

Cross-selling and upselling strategies help you show them that you really care about their needs and know their tastes. Help them discover the benefits of adding a complementary product to the item they already have in their cart or the extra benefits they could get by choosing the higher-priced alternative. If they abandon their carts, you might want to send them content materials that remind them of the benefits of pairing complementary items or choosing the latest, more pricey version of an item.

How to do this?

Use Reveal to discover the products, brands, and categories that are more popular among Platonic Friends and transform this knowledge into action with Explore, which helps you include the products you want to up-sell or cross-sell in the add-to-cart page, during the checkout process, or as a pop-up.

Free shipping threshold

You can increase the Average Order Value of your Platonic Friends by offering them free delivery if their carts have reached a certain threshold. This valuable option for your customers remains profitable for your store if you increase the threshold above the AOV of your Platonic Friends segment. Make this advantage as visible as possible throughout your site.

How to do this?

Go to Reveal and find the average value per acquisition of Platonic Friends compared to the ones of more engaged customers. To help you set the threshold, you can use Explore‘s variables by adding a minimum cart value and showing the customer the benefit from adding more items so they get free shipping. 

Bulk orders

Are there any products that your customers are usually buying in bulk? Good! You can encourage the same behavior in your Platonic Friends by clearly displaying the savings they make with each extra item added to their cart. This will help you improve the score for Monetary Value in this RFM segment.

How to do this?

Go to the Buying Habits report in Reveal to see the products, brands, and categories your customers love the most and push the top items that can be bought in bulk.

Gift cards

Platonic Friends are already familiar with your products and more likely to purchase a gift card for their friends and family. Let them know that you’re offering this alternative idea of a present. This can help you increase the frequency and also spread the word about your business to people that aren’t under your radar at the moment.

How to do this?

Let them know about this alternative and even send them a gift on a special occasion. You can connect Reveal with your Klaviyo or Sendgrid account so your list of Platonic Friends is synced and you can use email as a channel to spread the word.

Personalized offers

Let Platonic Friends know that they mean more to you with offers tailored to their needs. Impress them with the level of knowledge you hold about them and use all the channels you have to let them know about your unique offer. Prove that you can create the perfect experiences and offers, and make them fall in love with your brand.

How to do this?

Reveal helps you discover what this segment likes and what makes it run away. Find what causes poor experiences by looking in the Product Returns section. Look for its favorite products, brands, and categories in the Catalog section. 

Limited edition products and time-sensitive deals

Add an extra purchase by offering your Platonic Friends time-sensitive deals when you’re passing through a slower season or when their recency score is lower. Make them feel special with exclusive or limited edition products and they might as well tell their friends about you.

How to do this?

Try to push products, brands, and categories that performed well during the full season across more engaged customer segments. You can identify these items in the Top Brands/ Products/ Categories reports in Reveal. Then, to signal your urgency campaigns, you can use features in Explore such as website overlays and personalization.

Customer surveys

Individual customer surveys help you find why and if there could be more than a platonic friendship for this segment. Customer experience surveys help you evaluate their journey on your website to the point of order placement, while customer satisfaction helps you measure their experience with your products. Both are extremely valuable for figuring out how you should approach this relationship. 

How to do this?

Connect Reveal with Explore to automatically match your RFM segments and trigger a survey using the dedicated builder. You can also measure NPS score pre and post-delivery by connecting Reveal with Klaviyo or Sendgrid. The NPS survey can be created from templates and you can embed the survey in an email that will be sent automatically.

How to shrink the Platonic Friends segment?

• Create lookalike audiences based on more valuable groups: Soulmates, Lovers, New Passions, Potential Lovers. Use the insights from Reveal when setting the target audience in advertising platforms to attract the right people and generate maximum ROI from the invested paid media budget.

• Create RFM marketing campaigns by reiterating what worked best for the Soulmates and Lovers groups. Use insights generated by the different tools you’re using for your store and design data-driven campaigns to generate offers your customers want and to get the most out of your efforts.

• Nurture customers in other groups that were defined by the RFM model. Look at the segments with higher RFM scores to make an informed decision about the tactics that are more likely to work for nurturing purposes.

Reveal will give you valuable insights about how to nurture Platonic Friends into Lovers or even Soulmates and increase their Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) score.

Our Customer Value Optimization platform will generate insights for informed decisions when it comes to focusing your new acquisition campaigns on audiences that would be more valuable to your business.