The phrase “customer insight” is frequently used in sales and marketing. And it sounds like something important because surely, we want to understand our customers. But what does it mean?
To examine customer insight, you need to understand what happens to businesses lacking in that area. They will typically get poor results from marketing campaigns, have few incoming requests from potential customers, experience low engagement in social media, and find it difficult to book meetings and close new deals. With lacking customer insights, relevant communication is next to impossible.
What happens if you on the other hand have good customer insight? Relevant communication lead to a high response rate and many interactions, incoming requests, increased meeting frequency, and more closed deals.
5 tips on how to get better insight on your customers:
1. Work with facts – not assumptions or old ideas
A solid foundation for good insights is high-quality information, and an excellent start is to work on your customer register. Get rid of old and obsolete information – if you haven’t already you need to consider the requirements of GDPR. Make sure that the remaining information is updated, add information where it is incomplete and enrich it with any new information that would be of use in a later analysis. Make use of external data when needed. Also consider the possibility to compile information from several sources and channels, for example using what insight you have from customers visiting your company web page.
2. Quality information enables good analysis
With your customer register in order, you can now do your analysis gaining important insights. A first step could be a profile analysis, which will tell you what special characteristics your customers share with some well-chosen average. Of equally high interest could analysis be that single out important characteristics of the most profitable customers, recipients that respond to your marketing campaigns, or your churn customers. Through analysis, it is also possible to divide, or group, your customers into segments with similar characteristics.
3. In-depth understanding of your customer segments
Once you have several well-defined customer segments, it is time to go more in-depth. You are primarily after a better understanding of customer needs in the different segments, and how well you are helping out in fulfilling those needs. One method is desk research – simply read all you can find about customers in different segments to get a more thorough understanding. Then reach out and ask, using surveys and interviews. Many customers love to get involved and will appreciate that you are taking the time to listen.
4. Ask for help
Understanding customer needs is not an easy task. It requires you to ask the right questions to the right people, at the right time and in the right way. There are many methods to use, but they may also be difficult to fully grasp without previous experience. Therefore, it can make a lot of sense to get some help. Doing that, it is important to find a partner that truly understands your needs. While many companies may be overly confident in their understanding of their customers, very few have a total lack thereof. Therefore, a good partner should not just confirm things that you are already aware of, but contribute to new insights.
5. Don’t do everything at once
In-depth customer insight does not come for free, and the road to get there can be littered with obstacles. But don’t let that stop you from initiating the process. You can start reaping benefits as soon as you get your customer register in order. With insight, some actions become obvious and there are often plenty of low-hanging fruits. Other mitigations may require more work. The experience of your company depends on all external contacts, which means that necessary improvements can span multiple departments – from sales and marketing to billing and customer service.
6. Everyone contributes
To make the most of customer insights, they must be spread across and guide the entire organization. That in itself is a small journey. Select an area or two to get you started. When you start seeing results, it will be easier to continue extending your efforts to other areas. Few equally powerful forces contribute to good customer relationships, and success, to the same degree as continuous work in creating and maintaining genuine customer insights.
Did you know that Enento Group provides high-quality information that you can use to improve and enrich your customer registers? We can also help you with analyzing your customer relationships and create insights that lead to more profitable businesses.
Feel free to contact us for help!
