Today's customer is the king, and if thou cannot understand him at every stage, thou are slayed.
The relationship between brands and customers has completely changed today. The power scale is tipped with great weight on the customer end, and he/she calls the shots. They are finicky, have too much information, incredible choice overload and are more demanding than ever. Loyalty is never permanent and they know EXACTLY what they want. The story revolves solely around the customer and the interactions with brands have changed fundamentally.
Today's customer is empowered, smart, savvy and always on the lookout for the next best "wow' factor.
Add social media to this equation, and this is doubled. Customers have an avenue to broadcast their opinions and impact a brand's standing. Brands that neglect to "listen" to these interactions and address them in real-time - well that's clearly disastrous. Brands have to make every interaction count, even the small-ones.
So how can brands keep up with this empowered customer and still gain a competitive edge in the game? How can they win in the market?
Enter customer intelligence.
Customer Intelligence : Know the "why" to boost the "what"
Gathering data about each stage of the customer journey is not what this article is about. But if you need a primer on tools that can help you build your analytics army, here are some helpful deep dives:
Demolish Your Competition By Marrying Data Science & Digital Marketing
8 Free Google Tools For Digital Marketing Analytics You Should Be Using
How Martech Can Help You Keep Up With Marketing Developments And Trends
Customer intelligence is all about giving CONTEXT to the data. Why do customers do what they do? What do they base their decisions on? Can we predict these behaviours? Can brands influence them in these micro moments? Can brands truly walk a mile in their shoes?
Think of customer intelligence as a guide that not only informs, but also gives enough ammunition to digital marketers to make real-world business decisions that impact the bottom line. Decisions that can drive business impact with measurable results. Brands can run, but definitely cannot hide from embracing customer intelligence at their core - as it enables to sustain relevant marketing programs for their target audiences.
Customer relationships are not built in a day, but with customer intelligence- brands can make every day, every moment count.
For example: Brand X has recently launched a new loyalty program for its customers. These customers proactively sign up for discounted single services- marketers can add customer intelligence to this equation by offering them the loyalty program subscription at a discounted rate for a longer term. This not only retains the customer ( when there are no discounts), but also gives the customer the power to get services at a rate that matches his budget, all the time. This directly and positively impacts revenue and is a win-win situation for all.
Why should brands invest in customer intelligence tech?
We'll let this MASSIVE number drive the point home.
3 reasons why brands cannot live without Customer Intelligence
Loyalty, loyalty, LOYALTY.
While getting new customers is a primary business objective, retaining existing customers must and should take higher precedence. Customers will stay loyal to brands only as long as their needs are taken care of. How can brands anticipate their needs and provide the best experience before the competition swoops in? Customer Intelligence.
Keeping Up With The Cust-ashian ( We love them reality shows)
Your average customer is influential, has access to a community that LISTENS to their recommendations and has the power of social media at their disposal. How can you monitor their constant stream of information, make real-time insightful decisions and get them to pledge their allegiance? Customer Intelligence.
Strategic marketing is good. Surgical strategic marketing is better.
As a digital marketer, you might be deploying a dozen strategic marketing initiatives for your brand's success. But upon closer look in the right data context, you realise that only certain strategies are driving maximum impact and making a sizeable difference. How can you understand how to effectively plan your budgets, allocate resources and strategies for maximum ROI? Customer Intelligence.
Don't look back, look beyond the data.
For actionable business insights, brands/companies need to have customer intelligence in their marketing stack ( and in their company DNA!) to get closer to their customers.
Still unsure, just talk to us and we'll take care of the rest.
More insights