Why customer insights are critical to business growth

The retail landscape is changing rapidly, and retailers must harness the power of data to stay abreast of changing customer needs. Analyzing all available data points to determine how best to serve customers is one of the keys to securing the future of business.

“The key to being a good businessperson is to truly understand the customer and put the customer at the center of all business decisions. This means that customer insights are critical to the success and growth of your business. If you ignore what the customer is telling you and blindly follow what you think is best, you will surely be headed in the wrong direction.” Customer feedback should be the north star that drives your business forward,” said Hilary Kulm, founder of HSC Consultants.

Customer acquisition

A study by Forrester Consulting titled “Powerful, Flexible, and Balanced Customer Insights to Secure Your Business Future” reviewed the state of customer analytics and surveyed leaders in a variety of industries, including retail, media, technology, and more. According to survey respondents, effective customer analytics programs can improve customer trust, streamline decision-making, improve data processes and management, provide better customer experiences, accelerate digital transformation initiatives, and more.

Building trust with consumers is the first step in acquiring a customer. The main goal of all content marketing is to gain trust and credibility with current and potential customers – something that brands are constantly working on. With trust comes increased sales and future customer loyalty.

“If you’re concerned with efficiency, like most businesses, adopting a customer-centric mindset creates customer value as well as business value. A great strategy is to constantly incorporate discovery into your process, find unique ways to connect with your customers, and conduct informational interviews. This ensures the ability to get quick answers down the road, allowing for rapid iteration and optimization. The most successful brands stay lean until they have product-market fit, and customer insights are a key tool for making better decisions about which customer needs are most important to your team right now,” advises GT Founder Gabriel Thomas. Consultant, a consulting firm for health and wellness providers.

According to Forrester Consulting Research, “Analytics leaders are turning to AaaS (Analytics-as-a-Service) platforms. AaaS solutions help businesses by providing end-to-end capabilities that help turn insights into action quickly and accurately. Additionally, more than 90% of leaders surveyed agreed that their overall success depends on timely, accurate, complete and accessible information.

Customer loyalty

Data obviously has great intel, but it needs to be analyzed and turned into action to effectively help gain customer loyalty and increase revenue. Insights from the data, combined with a clear target market is a recipe for success.

“You need to know and define who your customer is. Your business can’t serve everyone, so having a clear customer profile allows you to sift through general feedback and valuable feedback from your real customer. A real customer perspective allows you to capture issues, identify opportunities and validate ideas. The most successful brands know about their core customers. They have a deep understanding and a deep connection to create a clear relationship with the customer.

The importance of customer analysis

In the same study, 34% of respondents said that ineffective customer analytics is one of the reasons behind digital transformation initiatives. In an era where technology and customer behavior are changing rapidly, falling behind in digital transformation can hurt a business. And 32% found that less effective customer analytics hurt customer retention, loyalty and lifetime value.

Rosie Mangiarotti, founder and CEO of Perkis, an innovative underwear brand, concluded, “Initial bottom-up research is essential to determine if a business is truly solving a customer’s pain point. Let the customers tell you what they want. From this, growth and iteration are two things that entrepreneurs should be comfortable with; We do this by listening to our customers. At the end of the day, companies live and die by their customers, and customer perceptions are critical to business success.