Friday HighlightJun 21 2019

Tips for putting customers at the forefront of marketing

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Tips for putting customers at the forefront of marketing

At a recent event, delegates were asked how often they undertook customer insight initiatives, whether for new proposition development, customer satisfaction tracking or market trends.

A shocking theme came to light that most had not done any research in more than a year.

If customers are at the heart of your business, then the research team are surely pivotal.

This is particularly the case when it comes to driving and advising the business on customer experience, identifying customer needs, informing new product development, segmentation and understanding consumer behaviour.

A customer-focused approach leads to higher retention and cross sales opportunities - and is something which is tricky for your competitors to replicate.

Too often, money is spent on focus groups and surveys but little action is generated.

A proactive insights team, rather than one that operates as a support service to your business, will drive change and keep it customer centric and innovative. Businesses that have the insights team front and centre deliver value propositions that foster repeat business.

Successful businesses are built on a robust foundation of data (customer, product use, research and contextual), to drive superior decisions, experiences and propositions.  

What are the pitfalls?

Business issues: Not understanding your customers’ needs leads to a lack of loyalty, extended time to resolve complaints and dissatisfaction, as well as high marketing costs to acquire new customers.

Flawed decision making: Propositions designed internally but never tested. The “we know best syndrome” invariably leads to creating a product or service that fails to connect,and costs time and money.

Actionable insight: Insight is about a proactive approach to understanding your markets and customers. Too often, money is spent on focus groups and surveys but little action is generated, or research ignored if it does not give the desired answer.

Some real examples of insights:

● A customer scoring nine or 10 in satisfaction is three times more likely to return. A customer scoring eight, however, behaves very differently and is significantly less likely to buy again.

● Where more time was spent coaching service teams who, in turn, spent more time talking to customers, there was an uplift in sales of more than 25 per cent when customer feedback was played back to the team daily.

● Customers wanting a transparent cash Isa with a clear rate, loyalty bonus and easy one-click transfer application to an investment Isa resulted in rapid uptake of the product in a very commoditised market, with over 2,000 accounts opened in a matter of days.

To set up a customer centric organisation you need the following basics:

  1. Culture - “the customer is king”: Instil the desire to understand and make use of customer insight and market intelligence across the business, making it a natural part of conversations. Consider this as a continuous flow, not occasional ad hoc projects.
  2. Process: A clearly defined process which drives action based on customer insight and timely and effectively collected data. Set up regular meetings with business functions to track insight, interpretation and action.
  3. Access: Business managers need to have access to dynamic dashboards, videos and customer alerts where continuously generated insights are posted. The research manager must set up business meetings with each function to analyse feedback and actionability.

Placing the customer at the heart of the business is not expensive:

  1. Know your business and your customer

Review the insights you have in place, such as satisfaction surveys, feedback forms, desk research, or press and industry statistics. Educate all areas of the business to be curious about customers. For example, IT and operations should support better service, and finance should understand the dynamics of pricing models against profits and customer demand.

Build an attitudinal (survey data) and behavioural (CRM data) segment view of your customers.

Empathise with each segment to understand their needs from the product/service and the customer experience and expectations they have.

2. Clarify the objectives

Be very clear on what you are trying to achieve with the research or analysis of your customer database.

Going in blind or researching the obvious will lead to low quality results. Your insight person should be a key part of the project or executive team, acting as the customer voice and challenging appropriately.

3. Follow a tailored approach

Investing in insight does not have to be expensive. Review existing research or pull elements from reports.

Omnibus surveys to new markets or internally driven surveys to customers can all further reduce cost. If you are investing heavily in a new proposition, then test it early on to ensure features are thoroughly explored before costly development takes place.

4. Take practical actions

Once the data analysis or research has been completed now is the opportunity to understand and challenge their meaning.

Quite often, one insight can be related to other insights from previous research and data analysis to create even stronger indicators of customer need.

Following this sequence will drive superior results.

Importantly, it will set you apart from competitors driving higher recommendation levels and true advocacy.

Think of Amazon, which is continuously reviewing and tweaking its online shopping experience, or First Direct which always creates strong advocacy through customer service.

It will enable you to offer services that are value for money and not driven down by price in what is the commoditised product environment of financial services.

Mark Pearson is a marketing director at The Marketing Centre