In today’s hyper-competitive market, it is no longer enough for brands to simply have a great product or service on their hands. While this may give you an advantage in the beginning, customers could quickly switch over once your competitors launch a better option.
To prevent this from happening, you need to give your customers a reason to stay loyal to your brand, and one of the ways to do this is through customer insight. This is why successful companies spend a chunk of their budget on market research in order to gain a better understanding of their customers.
What Is a Customer Insight?
From the term itself, it is evident that customer insight refers to information about the customer that is relevant to the brand. But the key here is that you do not just look for any information – you need to zero in on those pieces of information that could drive your customer’s behavior, motivation, purchase decisions, and user experience.
Simply put, customer insight is a “universal truth” about our customers based on the interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data that research teams collect from market research, survey, customer feedback, and other informational sources. This will give your organization a better understanding of customer psychology, behavior, and preferences and can be used as a guide to help company leaders make informed business decisions.
As such, it can drive the direction of key activities such as product development, marketing, sales, and customer service. The right customer insight, when used properly, can give the company that much-needed edge over competitors.
Importance Of Getting the Right Customer Insight
Customer insights enable businesses to understand the behavior of their customers by highlighting the underlying causes and attitudes of customers as well as their decision-making process. This will benefit the company in terms of its operations and create a loyal customer base that it can depend on over the long term.
Operationally, good customer insight will allow the company to pinpoint both the positive and negative feedback that can affect their sales and profits and focus on key areas for improvement. For one, it can help them identify and predict the factors directly affecting their bottom line before problems arise. Thus, business leaders can already address these possible pitfalls and implement measures to mitigate the damages if it does happen.
When it comes to customer relationships, having the right customer insight will show you what kind of product and service your customers need, along with the specific benefits they expect. This refers not only to functional benefits but also to emotional ones, which refers to how your product or service makes them feel.
If you understand how customers want to be treated, you can train your front liners, company, representatives, and customer service personnel accordingly. A great insight will also help your marketing team to formulate a targeted and compelling message that will resonate with your market. Doing all these will make your customers feel valued, appreciated, and recognized, thus creating a bond with a company that cares about who they are and what they need rather than being focused on getting a sale out of them.
How To Ensure That You Have the Right Customer Insight
There are different ways of getting customer insights, and you don’t have to do all of them to get the information you need. You can choose to do only one or combine the results of multiple research, depending on your available time and resources. However, you have to make sure you get it right. Otherwise, you could end up making the wrong decisions and place your brand in a precarious position.
Start by setting your research goals and list down the set of questions that you need to have answers to. You could focus on your customers’ user experience, purchase behavior, competitor feedback, or perception of your brand. The research method would also depend on your research objectives and focus areas, so you must be clear about these before starting anything.
It is also best to conduct the research in a language your respondents understand well to ensure comfort and ease of communication. For example, if you are conducting research in a Spanish-speaking region, you should use a survey in Spanish translation for your target audience. This will help prevent misunderstandings which can lead to wrong data gathering, results, and analysis.
When analyzing the results of your research, look for common concerns and patterns of behavior that appear among your customers. Make sure to look into relevant local practices or cultural behavior that may influence the results and take these into consideration when doing your analysis.
Lastly, ego should be taken out of the equation when analyzing customer insights. Remember that this is not about you. Instead, it’s about what the customer feels and what they are experiencing in relation to your brand. Thus, whether positive or negative, take each insight with an open mind and make proactive changes to improve the business.
