4 Ways to Learn More About Your Customer Base

The market’s competitive nature has heightened customer expectations in today’s age and time. Brands now have to go over and beyond to satisfy their customer base. It is not enough to have an excellent product; it must have a resonating story.

The internet has changed the playing field. The earlier you move in line, the better for your business. You can now change your existing business processes to improve customer experience through digital technologies. You can also improve customer loyalty by creating purpose-driven products.

Companies must leverage the internet to stay relevant by using e-commerce, social media, and other digital tools to stay ahead of the competition. You can use the internet to carry out detailed market research that will help you position your business ahead of the competition. Social media affords you a fantastic opportunity to sell your services to clients and resolve complaints. There’s no better time to run a business than now. 

Ways to Learn More About Your Customer Base

Learning more about your customers involves paying attention to details. Customers have a “digital print” that shows you specific behavioral patterns in today’s digital era. Thus, you can predict, plan, and anticipate the future. These insights will help you learn more about your customer base with the right tools and analytics.

1 Customer Feedback

Businesses need data to drive decision-making and not bank on gut feelings. Data helps you understand the rationale behind certain decisions. But to fathom the emotions behind those decisions, you need to reach out to your customers. Numbers and emotions are two key indicators you need to develop for compelling consumer insight.

Sending surveys and questionnaires helps you hear directly from those who use your product or services. And that information will go a long way in shaping your business decisions. Also, customer feedback helps you identify the behavioral changes in customer disposition. Here are effective methods to collect customer feedback.

• Emails– Emails are one of the most powerful feedback tools. You can personalize emails to give your customer a sense of belonging. With over four billion users and the possibility of reaching 4.6 billion by 2025, emails remain a fantastic way to get customer feedback.
• Social Media– Social media, as compared to surveys, helps you know how customers feel about your brand. Many customers find it easy to express themselves in the not-so-formal environment the space offers.
• Website Feedback/Live Chat– Your website offers you one of the best means of receiving feedback. Live chat functionality on websites helps companies improve engagement and quickly respond to clients’ complaints.

2 Study Behavioral Data

Customer feedback isn’t the most effective way to know your customers. Customers might say one thing in a survey and do the other. Behavioral data helps you analyze customers’ intent by their engagement with your business. Sources such as websites, call centers, CRM systems help track these engagements.

For a call center, a unified communications system will give the team better customer insight and help make data-driven decisions. Engagements such as email sign-ups, page views, and studying the customer’s journey through sales funnels help you learn your customer’s preferences. This way, you know what aspects of your business work and what needs improvement.

Through unified communications analytics, businesses can determine their customer’s demographics and aim specific products at clients. Unified communication analytics makes it possible to troubleshoot and identify problems that will have otherwise taken a long time to rectify. Organizations that use this integrated platform can detect cyber security breaches through powerful AI and machine learning features. The system can recognize any previously identified pattern through behavioral analytics and flag it.

3 Review Support Tickets

Support tickets help organizations identify possible shortcomings in their product. It gives them a sneak peek into a customer’s experience with their brand. No one happily writes a support ticket, so their experience wouldn’t have been pleasant. Prompt resolution to customer queries puts you in the client’s good books. 

Organizations can use this avenue to improve customer loyalty. Negative reviews are by far the fastest way to grow your business. Support tickets are valuable data sources that show flaws in an organization’s product, operation, or administration. Companies can become more proactive and embed changes to build products and services that evolve with their customer’s expectations.

4 Create a Customer Journey Map

A customer journey map is a graphical representation of a customers’ experiences at different points with your brand. The diagram shows events, key motivations, and contact points such as websites or social media. A user journey map helps you understand what motivates your customers to take a specific action. 

Businesses can gain a valuable understanding of different buyer’s personas. Markets have become very competitive, and generic messages no longer cut it. A buyer’s journey helps your marketing team improve personalization. Organizations can re-target prospects with more compelling messages by analyzing a customer’s journey.

You lose leverage when you take your eyes off customer relationships that can help build your brand loyalty and increase customer acquisition. The competition in the market leaves no margin for error which is why businesses pay close attention to the consumer journey.