In a world where consumers are more informed, demanding and volatile than ever before, it is complex for businesses to understand their customers' behavior.
Yet, understanding consumer expectations and behaviors is a key factor in a company's success.
That's why establishing a customer insight strategy is crucial for any business aspiring to long-term success and prosperity. This strategy is the foundation on which customer loyalty and satisfaction are built.
A customer insight strategy is the sum total of the steps taken to collect, process and exploit customer data. The aim is to gain a better understanding of their behavior, expectations and preferences.
Numerous tools are available to facilitate the implementation of a customer insight strategy, whether the information is available on websites or at physical points of sales.
From customer journey analysis to customer relationship management, satisfaction assessment and loyalty building, this strategy aims to offer a tailor-made experience to each consumer.
There are many advantages to adopting such a strategy for a company.
By gathering and exploiting a wealth of qualitative data, a company can carry out anticipatory analysis. This type of analysis enables a company to align itself with customer expectations (values, transparency, etc.).
By collecting and processing data, a brand is able to define the needs, expectations and preferences of its customers. Blocking points for consumers can also be identified. A brand can then adapt its message and its product as a result of all this information.
The information gathered about customers can be used to enrich the customer loyalty strategy and generate upsells. You improve the customer experience thanks to the personalized relationship you build with each people.
Without precise, well-defined objectives, a strategy is difficult to achieve and then put into action. That's why it's important to take the time to define the reasons why a customer insight strategy will be useful to you.
These objectives must be concrete and measurable. It makes sense to set up monitoring KPIs to evaluate and track the performance of your strategy.
To develop clear objectives, here is a non-exhaustive list of questions to help you draw up your strategy:
Improving a customer's experience and satisfaction thanks to their information must be done throughout the sales process (pre- and post-sales). That's why it's essential for all the company's team to be involved in developing and monitoring the customer insight strategy.
It makes more sense to bring together the views and analyses of all the teams: from marketing, sales, customer service, product teams and management. In fact, implementing a customer insight strategy cross-functionally is more effective.
If you're a small business, it may make sense to delegate it to a single person. This person will then be responsible for involving all the company's teams in the strategy.
The customer journey represents the entire path taken by the consumer to make a purchase. Identifying your customers' journey enables you to identify the different points of contact during this process.
By evaluating the customer journey using consumer behavior data, a company is able to identify its strong points (through which channel does it communicate best with its customers? Where do they go to make a purchase?).
Based on the data collected, it will be able to put in place action plans for the various areas for improvement identified.
Here are a few points to help you integrate customer journey mapping into your customer knowledge strategy.
When you implement your customer knowledge strategy, you need to evaluate its effectiveness. How do your customers react to the various changes? Is your strategy effective and does it have a positive impact on your business?
To find out, it's essential to collect information about your customers and collect feedbacks to see whether or not these changes are positive. This can take the form of a customer satisfaction form, comments on your website, or behavioral data collected about your new customer journey.
A know-your-customer strategy is an evolving one: as mentioned above, consumers' needs and expectations are constantly changing. So it's important to monitor your KPIs and customer data regularly, so that you can update your customer insight strategy on a regular basis. That way, your company will always be up-to-date!
A successful strategy improves the customer experience and, as a result, the customer satisfaction rate rises. Once satisfied, loyal customers make repeat purchases, which increases your sales! What's more, by creating a solid relationship with your customers, they will become real ambassadors for your product.
In conclusion, creating a know-your-customer strategy enables companies to tailor their product and service offerings to market expectations and establish personalized, lasting relationships with their customers. A significant advantage in a constantly changing competitive environment.