Consumers today want individualised experiences, and brands require customer intelligence to provide them with the same. Here’s how to get your hands on it and what you can do with it.
Consumers want to buy from firms that understand them and provide personalised experiences, according to market research. 66 percent of shoppers expect brands to personalise their experiences. Thankfully, because of the power of customer information, generating those individualised experiences has become increasingly possible—and necessary.
Putting customer intelligence technologies to work can make the difference between success and failure in an increasingly competitive landscape, as this avalanche of consumer feedback demonstrates. What is customer intelligence, exactly? Continue reading to learn more about what it is, why it’s vital, and how to establish it.
What exactly is consumer intelligence, and why is it so crucial?
The practice of gathering consumer data and extracting insights from it is known as customer intelligence (CI). Companies can use CI (also known as consumer intelligence) to learn more about their customers, such as where they live, what products they enjoy, and what problems they’re trying to solve. The idea is to use the data to personalise each connection with clients and improve their overall experience.
Excellent support teams, on the other hand, don’t just accept any client data that comes their way. Instead, they take efforts to get the relevant consumer data to evaluate, and then apply what they learn to improve the customer experience. Support agents that have a thorough grasp of their clients can communicate with them in a way that makes them feel understood and valued, resulting in greater customer engagement, retention, and loyalty.
How do you gather information about your customers?
There are many different sorts of data to collect, as well as many methods for gathering and organising it. To help you plan your customer intelligence strategy, below are some best practices in customer intelligence.
1. Invest in a solid customer relationship management system (CRM).
Consumers today interact with companies through a variety of channels, including social media, chat, phone, in-store, and more. Keeping track of all of these exchanges by hand can lead to major mistakes. It’s simply too much to keep track of, and important information can slip through the cracks.
Support teams should instead employ a customer intelligence platform to collect, store, and analyse client data automatically. One sort of CI platform is CRM software, which can:
- Keep an eye on consumer interactions. Look for a customer relationship management (CRM) technology (like RisePath CRM) that tracks client interactions at every touchpoint, whether it’s a one-hour phone session with the support team or a social media remark.
- Produce useful reports. What good is data if you can’t make sense of it? Data-driven reports, like annual profitability reports or quarterly sales cycle reports, are generated by a strong CRM to round out the analysis.
- Connect to other apps in your tech stack. It will be difficult to manage and retrieve your consumer data if it is spread across numerous disconnected systems. It’s much easier to see information at a glance and form actionable insights when client data is all in one place.
- Support processes should be automated. Look for a CRM that enables self-service with artificial intelligence technology, such as chatbots. Customers can handle issues at their own pace, which helps agents resolve issues faster. Some CRMs even allow support personnel to build up automated workflows so they may focus on supporting customers instead of doing tiresome duties.
One of your most valuable business assets is your CRM. The programme not only saves priceless customer data but also prepares your support crew for success and keeps your company on track.
2. Gather information from a variety of sources
Customers engage with businesses in a variety of ways, so collecting data about them from a single source isn’t practical. Instead, gather data from a variety of sources to create a comprehensive consumer profile.
- Lead capture forms: Include sign-up forms on landing pages to collect leads’ contact information, such as their name, phone number, and email address, as well as other relevant information like their occupation.
- Social media: Track brand mentions on social media to get a sense of customer sentiment and trends. You may, for example, check social media to see what people are saying about your new product launch. We recommend using social media monitoring tools to track brand mentions, competition mentions, and keywords associated with your brand on social media.
- Calls and messages: Your CRM can keep track of the discussions your customers have with your support personnel. This allows you to keep track of what consumers are frequently asking or contacting you about, so your customer service team understands what information to pass on to other departments.
- Google Analytics/Snowplow Analytics: These services tell you what your site visitors are clicking on and how often they return. You may find out which sites are the most popular and what demographics your visitors belong to, for example, giving you the information you need to optimise acquisition and retention.
- Product analytics: If your company’s product team uses an analytics platform, try using the platform’s data in your support outreach. For example, you may send an email to a customer who has been experiencing application freezes or crashes on a regular basis.
- Customer surveys: This is a tried-and-true technique: simply ask your consumers what they care about and how their customer journey has gone. Each response will reveal what customers want and what motivates them to be satisfied.
The data sources you select should work with a CRM to consolidate all of your data into one location, making it easier to manage and analyse.
3. Put your ideas into action.
What happens now that you’ve acquired a lot of customer data in your CRM? It’s time to analyse your data and look for patterns so you can figure out which aspects of your support experience need to be improved.
Assume that 30% of your consumers contact to express their dissatisfaction with your website navigation and 10% with your shipping times. The customer insight you’ll want to concentrate on in this scenario is optimising your website. Of course, if one out of every ten of your customers is dissatisfied with your shipping delays, you’ll want to fix that as well. Customer intelligence is likely to reveal many issues; use this information to prioritise accordingly.
Identify customer ticket data trends with your CRM. The software may sort your tickets by issue to figure out which ones are the most popular.
You can also divide clients into categories based on factors like age, region, or industry to better understand reoccurring difficulties among comparable groups of people who use your product. You may then figure out the best approaches to fix the problems in that area.
You can use your CRM dashboard to view data at a glance in addition to detecting prevalent concerns. This dashboard will show you your most important metrics, such as unopened tickets, tickets per day, and more, so you can connect the dots between different data points and figure out where your support team might need assistance. Remember, while customer intelligence insights can help you provide better service, the data will also supply your company’s marketers with essential advice on how to build more effective campaigns.
RisePath CRM can help you improve your customer intelligence.
The act of safeguarding and learning from client data is vital for every support team, but it doesn’t have to fall solely on the shoulders of your agents. Use software like RisePath CRM to collect client information automatically and access reporting so you can improve your customer knowledge and, as a result, give better customer care.
For more information and a free informational ebook, please add your contact info. Thanks.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.