Customer Insight Solutions: Intelligence for Change & Growth

Customer insight solutions utilize information on different trends in customer behavior to help deliver products and services that sell more, better and longer.

We are living in a world of data, with more information at our fingertips today than has ever been before. In a customer-centric culture, the collection of customer data has been given center place in many organizations.

Data by itself though is useless to the holder if it is hoarded and not turned into intelligence. Insight analyzes data intensely to come up with observations that help understand a customer's "why" as well as what motivates them.

With this knowledge, an organization can clearly interpret various trends in their customer's behaviors and enhance their product or service to match up to it. To bind the interests of the brand and the consumer and deliver a win-win situation for both parties, you need to engage robust customer insight solutions.

The non-obvious nature of customer insight

Beneficial customer insight is non-obvious. Paul Graham, the famed tech investor, states the secret behind useful customer insight in one hefty question. "What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don’t get?”

Insight cannot be competitive if it is exposed to your competitors, because they too can use it to their advantage. This will essentially make that knowledge unprofitable to you. Customer insight solutions can be defined as a non-obvious knowledge of a customer that if put in play can change their behavior and cause you profitability.

A good case point is the customer insight the creators of Uber had, that has made them a hit with every cab user worldwide. A reliable ride at a button's push? That's the hidden insight into a traditional market that turned their product into gold!

This, in essence, is what lies at the heart of customer insight solutions; understanding your customers well enough to see a niche that no one else has noticed.

Principles of customer insight solutions

• Data or hypotheses that cannot be put into action is not proper insight.
• Insights, as stated above, must be non-obvious for profitability.
• Customer insights must be powerful enough to change the behavior of the customer and change the direction of the organization if need be.
• For insights to stay profitable when actioned, they must provide mutual benefit to both parties.

Why is it important?

• Lack of good customer insight will result in products with a poor target market. Targeting a product involves knowing your customer's tastes, requirements and desires perfectly.
• It helps improve communication, ensuring directions, messages or instructions are not misconstrued or hard to understand.
• Customer insight will help improve on your products and services through the knowledge of what a customer needs.
• With excellent customer insight, you can direct your energy to initiatives your customers value and love. There is no easier way to lose a customer than to offer them what they dislike continually.
• You can reduce a lot of wastage and overhead costs by acting on intelligence gained from customer insight. You can also address PR issues fast before they blow up on your face and dent the image of your organization.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes