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Marketing strategies are complex strategies which include a wide range of elements. One of the most important elements that contribute to successful marketing strategies is customer insight. In its essence, this term describes analysis and interpretation of trends in human behaviors. This interpretation is used to boost the effectiveness of services or products, improve marketing techniques and ultimately increase profit. Basically, it represents your ability to read your customers.
With a proper ability to read customer, you should be able to make well-informed business decisions and find out what your customer base finds important in products and/or services. So, there’s no doubt that this activity is useful and that the only dilemma here is how to improve customer insight.
Get familiar with the most popular communication channels
We are living in a world where people are using many different channels for communication. Most of these channels are based on the Internet though. In the past, people were getting information from radios or TVs, but now they are using things like websites, social media platforms, podcasts, search engines and more. It’s crucial to find out which communication channels your clients use. You’ll have to do some research to find an answer to this question.
For instance, even if you have a website, it’s highly recommended to have a social media profile at least on Facebook. In addition, you must be active there because if customers don’t get answers, they will think that your business is unresponsive which will affect your reputation.
Create brainstorming sessions and let a few customers be part of these sessions
This is an unconventional approach that can help you understand your customers in a simple way. There are situations where you should invite customers to your planning sessions or brainstorming meetings. You can also use the help of marketing consultants at these meetings. Their presence can help you understand their needs and modern customers will definitely appreciate the fact that they can have a say at such meetings. It makes them feel more connected to your brand.
Use co-creation and crowdsourcing
The previous point is closely related to this one. Namely, more and more managers are relying on co-creation and crowdsourcing in order to read their customers. We are talking about customer co-creation which allows customers to contribute to the process of development of new products.
Crowdsourcing works in a similar way, but this time, you’ll be hiring professionals that are focused on specific activities that can help you improve your business operation. To get the most from co-creation and crowdsourcing for customer insight, it’s best to use proven design thinking methods and have a mindset like that. The end result is better customer experience and service. Obviously, if you can use the services of a company that has expertise in this field, you can expect great results in no time.
Ask for feedback and read your customers insights
You have to ask in order to get an answer – it makes sense, right? If you want to learn more about your customers and try to figure out what they are thinking about your company and products and what are they looking for, you just have to ask them.
The good thing is that you can use many different methods to get responses to relevant questions. First of all, you can use a follow-up email. Once you deliver the goods, you can send them an email and ask them whether they are satisfied with the product/service, what they like the most, what they dislike, etc. In addition, you can always conduct surveys. This is especially helpful if you are planning on launching a new product.
If you are confident with your offer, you should also allow your customers to leave reviews. Be open to criticism and accept their suggestions. You can learn a lot from these short comments.
Create a database to read your customers
This is another important thing that you should take into account. It might require a financial investment, but believe me, it’s definitely worth it. This database will be used as a centralized place where you will gather information about clients. You can use a wide range of CRM products for this purpose. In fact, there are cases when businesses are using ordinary Excel sheets with basic information about their customers and they are still able to benefit from this database. Of course, you should take advantage of modern technology and get a more sophisticated solution today.
Talk to your employees
As a manager, you should talk to your employees on a regular basis, but in this case, we are talking about talking for customer insight. Every now and then, organize a meeting and let your employees share their experience with the customers. How many of your customers were satisfied? How many of them were dissatisfied? What makes them happy and what makes them upset?– these are some of the questions that you should analyze during these meetings.
