One of the toughest challenges your business likely faces is figuring out what makes your customers tick. Each customer can act in unique ways, with different backgrounds, motivations, attitudes, beliefs, wants, and needs. Getting to the bottom of why they make the decisions they do is the key to being a better business. After all, if you know the factors that lead a person to choosing your company over a competitor, you’ll have that much of an advantage in the future. The difficulty is that no single pattern fits every customer. The trick is to gain insights on your customers, and to do so, many methods and techniques have been created. As varied as these methods are, a number of them have risen to the forefront as some of the most effective strategies for discovering more about customer behaviors.
Natural Observance
It almost goes without saying, but it should still be pointed out that to understand your customers better, it’s important to observe how they act as they buy your products or use your services. Something so simple can lead to a lot of interesting discoveries. How quickly do they make their decision? Do they ask questions? How much research do they do beforehand? For brick-and-mortar stores, using surveillance services can provide you with this information. The same can be true for using analytics to track online customer behavior. Clickstream analysis in particular has proven to be quite effective in monitoring customer actions this way.
Conjoint Analysis
Marketers will be familiar with the concept of conjoint analysis since it’s been used for decades. Only recenter, however, has it been put to use for getting inside the mind of the customer. The basic idea is to survey customers by asking them which product they would prefer as a trade-off when compared with two or more other choices. One question like this only gives a little bit of information you can use, but ask enough of them in different combinations and the insights can be eye-opening. All of the data gathered from conjoint analysis can be compiled and analyzed to allow for segmentation of customers, providing you with the information you need to personalize your company’s approach to them.
Empathy Interviews
Surveys are one way to learn more about your customers, but empathy interviews go much deeper than reading out a list of pre-prepared questions. A qualified empathy interviewer instead spends time with the interview subject, using a more casual and conversational approach to break down reluctance and hesitancy and help them open up more about what drives them. It’s not the easiest thing to do, which makes the insights gained from the process all the more valuable. With the right questions and demeanor, interviewers can get customers to open up more freely, thus providing some fascinating answers that can inform your business decisions.
Social Media Analytics
Another great way to find out what customers think of your brand without a filter is by listening to what they say on social media. Thanks to advanced social listening technologies, you can track what people are saying anytime someone mentions your company’s name or the products you make. This helps give you a good view of people’s views on social media, something that has become increasingly valuable since many customers conduct their research on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Social media is also an excellent way to engage with those customers and respond to complaints and concerns.
Gaining insights on your customers should be made a priority at your organization. Only then will you be able to have a firm understanding of what their individual decision making processes are like. The unique nature of each customer makes this a formidable challenge, but the benefits of these insights are enormous in scope. To gain these insights means to get to know exactly who your customers are. This in turn can inform future business strategies, product development, and levels of customer support. If you follow the above methods, you’ll be able to have these insights and see just how much of an advantage they give your business.
All too often I hear “marketers” tell big businesses how and why their customer buy from them. At the end of the day the best method to truly understand your target market is to be there interacting (observing as you have stated) seeing the story behind the customer. Business strategy now is more about connecting with customers and bringing their emotions along for the ride. A great piece of writing here highlighting how you can get an insight into your customers decisions.
Will there ever be a time that marketing has lost it’s purpose due to the saturation of consumers minds?
All too often I hear “marketers” tell big businesses how and why their customer buy from them. At the end of the day the best method to truly understand your target market is to be there interacting (observing as you have stated) seeing the story behind the customer. Business strategy now is more about connecting with customers and bringing their emotions along for the ride. A great piece of writing here highlighting how you can get an insight into your customers decisions.
Will there ever be a time that marketing has lost it’s purpose due to the saturation of consumers minds?