26 Mar Top 10 Tips for Customer Insights that are More Human
Getting to the heart of the customer is not just about the data. Uncovering customer insights is just as much about understanding WHO the customer is, and HOW they live their life. It’s the WHO and the HOW that gives us the all-important WHY, which is such a critical part of equation.
So, how do you get to the “person” behind the data? We’ve put together a TOP 10 LIST of customer insights that are more human.
10. WE HUMANS ARE SO FICKLE. But we are also easily influenced. Don’t trivialize it. Embrace it. (Fun Fact: did you know that people in a blue room can bench press more than in other color room? Blue enables them to focus more on the task. That’s the influence of color theory at work.)
9. DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. Your customer base isn’t an entity. It is a constellation of people—each with unique behaviors and needs. Always remember a modal behavior still means there are a lot of people, possibly even the majority, that don’t follow that modal behavior.
8. MAKE IT MEANINGFUL. It is not super meaningful to say, “Customers LIKE this.” It is more meaningful to say, “Customers do this.” That’s a place you can work from.
7. IT’S ABOUT THE WHY. Traditional research may tell you the WHAT, but the why is the actionable part. Unearthing the WHY requires pairing quantitative and qualitative insights. Start by leveraging in-the-moment feedback mechanisms such as dial testing, eye-tracking, and other biometric measures. These tools will highlight where you should dive deeper in qualitative research to uncover the “why.”
6. DATA CAN’T MANAGE RELATIONSHIPS. Data in the aggregate is great for heuristics, and pretty ineffective at managing relationships! Engagement requires the nuance of personalization. Otherwise you deliver a cookie-cutter experience that inspires no one.
5. CONSUMERS ARE BAD AT BEING INTROSPECTIVE. They are great at identifying the type of people they’d LIKE to be. That is great for aspirational marketing, but not so useful for predicting outcomes.
4. CONSUMERS ARE BAD AT PREDICTING THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR. Common sense says that if you want to know what someone will do or choose, you should ask them. Truth is, they will tell you what they would LIKE to do, not what they will actually do in reality. Observing or recording behavior in real-world environments is a much better predictor than asking.
3. VALUES ARE PREDICTABLE. Worldwide, there is little variation in what we all place priority on: taking care of ourselves, taking care of our families, feeling good about ourselves, getting small indulgences from time to time. Even though how this manifests itself is culturally different, the foundation is the same. Level-up your value proposition to one of the universal core needs. That’s where you’ll find success.
2. LEARN, TEST, DRIVE. No one pushes a button and gets all the answers—it is never that easy. Learn what you can, test what you think, and drive the point home.
1. RESEARCH HAS ITS LIMITS. Know that some things you do will make so much sense on paper but will prove to be patently wrong. That is because research has its limits. Behavioral economists (Daniel Kahnemann, Dan Ariely, etc.) will tell you that we are all irrational, but there is an amount of predictability in our behavior. Learn to harness the tenets of our predictable irrationality, and you will be patently wrong less often!
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