SPOTLIGHT ON: customer insight research
Would you like to better understand the needs, motivations or values of your customers or audience? I can help you with that.
A client recently engaged me to run a consultation project which they want to use to inform their future strategy. Their business is well-established, and hugely successful. They have a broad and diverse offer of products and services. But the environment in which they operate is complex and constantly changing at pace - not to mention the fact that it has been made even more complicated thanks to COVID-19 - so they want to ensure that what they are delivering meets the needs of their customers.
Together, we have designed a two-phase project. During the first phase, I ran a series of interviews with a large, representative sample group of the client’s “recently engaged” customers. These were people who had been using their services over the last 12 months – people we knew would be warm to their brand, and happy to discuss their experiences. Our conversations were honest and open; feedback was constructive and insightful, and their customers felt genuinely heard.
Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to recruit a similar-sized sample of what we’ve called “non-engaged” customers: people who we know have registered with the client’s website, but who have yet to make a purchase or to try out their services. This half of the project is perhaps going to be the more important part - understanding exactly why people are yet to commit or why my client is not currently meeting their needs.
Combining the views of both groups will enable my client to develop a strategy that improves their existing offer, gives them opportunities to broaden their reach, and offers new avenues to explore and test.
Projects like this don’t end up in the public domain, but they are just as important as those that do get published. My research will be used to determine the direction my client’s business takes over the next 12 months - and that’s very satisfying to know.