Understanding Customer Needs

Importance of Knowing Your Customers

• Industry-leading brands vs average brands: Leading brands know their customers well.
• Example: Netflix uses data to identify users into 2,000 taste communities and conducts over 250 A/B tests yearly.
• 73% of consumers expect businesses to understand their needs and expectations.

Benefits of Identifying Customer Needs

• Triggers that drive clients to seek solutions.
• Why customers purchase: Understand motivations to improve marketing.
• Benefits include:
  • Boosting brand loyalty
  • Customized marketing campaigns
  • Improved sales

Tools and Tactics

1. Review Recurring Customer Questions

• Use existing data from customer communication tools (live chat, CRM, emails).
• Involve customer support team to identify common issues.
• Include both product feedback and website-related issues.

2. Customer Satisfaction Surveys

• Three key metrics:
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): Assesses customer loyalty.
  • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Measures satisfaction levels.
  • Customer Effort Score (CES): Checks ease of process completion, e.g., payment.
• Can be conducted through live chat software.

3. Conduct Social Listening

• Not all customers participate in surveys.
• Social listening to understand online brand perception.
• Two approaches:
  • Quick dive into social media comments.
  • Use tools like Google Alerts for detailed analysis across the web.

4. Competition Research

• Analyze competitor product reviews on sites like G2 Crowd, Capterra.
• Identify common complaints and improve your offerings accordingly.
• Emphasize areas where your brand excels vs competition.

Analyzing and Categorizing Data

• Categorize findings thematically (e.g., pricing, features, quality, customer experience).
• Collect insights across all stages of the sales cycle.

Means-End Analysis

• Determine why customers buy your product using three points:
  • Features: What triggers purchases.
  • Benefits: Consequences of features, personal or functional.
  • Value: End result of purchase.

Visualizing Findings

• Share data with relevant teams to discuss improvements.
• Use visualization tools like Miro for clarity.

Creating an Action Plan

• Include key performance indicators (KPIs), objectives, ideas for improvement, and responsibilities.
• Regularly review and update the action plan.

Conclusion

• Identifying and understanding customer needs is crucial and manageable with the right tools and tactics.
• Benefits of this approach can significantly enhance brand reputation and revenue.

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End of Lecture