1. Get smart about your customers
Abundant customer data can be found in marketing, sales and customer service
databases at most sizable companies. However, many companies’ past efforts to
extract, integrate and use customer information as a competitive asset have been
underwhelming. Lack of common data formats, tools and differences in timing
and completeness of datasets have proved to be formidable obstacles, leading
many to reduce investments or abandon strategic customer initiatives. Conversely,
impressive strides have been made by innovative companies exploring new areas of
customer trust and advocacy to understand the drivers of customer purchases and
loyalty and increase the value of key relationships.
Decisive action in this economy, however, requires a clear, concise and workable
understanding of who key customers are and what they want. Readily available
customer visualization and communication techniques, such as developing
customer personas, can help a small team of decision-makers quickly understand
key customer attributes and cut to the chase. Personas are descriptions
of common customer segments that succinctly characterize their needs,
demographics, purchase trends, channel interactions and a few other defining
attributes (see Figure 1).