Customer experience - Do You Know Your Customers?

Think you’ve got all the answers? If your customers don’t agree, you might be missing out. Customer experience is a critical factor in business success and failing to mine the right data means failing your customers.

Smart businesses get to know their customers and Customer experience from every angle and build customized solutions that deliver products and services that meet all the right needs -- not to mention marketing and sales that hit all the right notes. Take these three tips for getting to know your customers better.

First, read up: You’ll find plenty of valuable intelligence online, from reviews and testimonials to social media and trade publications. What are people saying? What trends do you notice? Do many people point out the same issues -- or are there just a few loud voices? Consider the sources -- maybe there’s a hidden agenda or bias in some cases -- but remember that this is the information your prospects are reviewing before they come to you.

Next, get personal: Depending on your business, this might mean setting up one-on-one interviews, organizing focus groups or user panels, or attending conferences or trade shows. Each of these opportunities lets you hear directly from your customers, enabling you to build compelling user profiles that empower smart decisions. Diving deep with customer case studies can help both your own team and your prospects better understand how your solution helps clients solve real problems.

Finally, drill down on data: Analyze your website traffic, your email marketing stats, and your financial figures. What do you find? Better yet, use all you’ve learned in your research to build informed questions and run a powerful survey with your clients. You’ll build a better understanding of which findings are anecdotal and which are widespread, allowing you to better allocate your resources to tackle the true issues.

Remember: Don’t limit yourself to one source of information. There’s a vast amount of data out there, and it’s foolish to imagine you know it all. Getting to know your customers is an ongoing process -- not a one-time effort. Keep the conversation going and continue to refine your offering and your message. The better you understand your customers, the better your connection. The more you grow the connection to your customers, the more your business itself will grow.

Authored By: Hamid Farooqui, CEO SoGoSurvey