Knowing the customers and understanding their needs are more important than ever for realizing success. Whether the target audiences are individuals or businesses, this knowledge is the stepping stone for businesses to persuade potential customers to willingly interact with their brand.
But the changing consumer behavior is intimidating for brands and agencies. They know that their target consumers are liable to be less loyal and more impulsive. They could lack time in making decisions or be incredibly diligent in their research. Modern customers have evolved to become more complex. However, with adequate data and insights, it is possible to discern and segment the customers’ voices and communicate to them in a manner designed to resonate.
Consumer Behavior Challenges Toward Omnichannel Retail
The advent and access to digital devices like mobiles, tablets, etc., and social channels have led to profound changes in customers’ perceptions and behavior. More customers are using multiple channels to shop. Omni shoppers, as they are commonly known, expect a seamless journey across different touchpoints. They may research a product through a mobile app, visit several websites to compare prices using a laptop, and buy from a brick-and-mortar store.
Today, customers expect a uniform, consistent, and integrated experience or service, irrespective of channel choice. They want to travel seamlessly between multiple channels (online and offline) based on preferences, circumstances, time, and products. They want to use their devices to search, compare products, seek advice, and find cheaper alternatives while shopping.
To meet these expectations, it is crucial to have accurate customer data at your disposal. Investigating customers’ mindsets, performing correct segmentation, and identifying their changing demands can bridge the gap to deliver an impeccable experience.
Creating a seamless journey is difficult but possible. Of late, customer experience and customer service are the principal elements of holding on to the customers. 68% of customers willfully pay more for excellent customer service and experience. Furthermore, 89% of customers are more likely to purchase for the second time after they have had a positive experience.
Diverse Needs of a Diversified Consumer Base
Over the past 50 years, the American marketplace experienced a seismic shift. With an increasingly heterogenous population and 30% population being millennials, US history has never experienced such a diverse generational legion. Increased diversity and the racial and ethnic makeup transformation of America are responsible for such a diversified customer base.
This clarifies the transition from a conventional marketplace into a splintered, varied, and diverse customer base with broader and heterogenous needs and demands. In addition, more diversification is expected due to the Gen Z cohort.
Importance of Understanding Consumer Behavior
Businesses must know their customers to generate more leads and increase their ROI. Understanding customers helps companies deliver personalized services, which fosters long-term relationships and boosts sales through recommendations. However, it is not easy to understand the psyche of customers. It often requires a thorough analysis to detect their purchase patterns and preferences to anticipate their requirements.
As data-driven insights guide businesses, tracking customers’ real-time behavior is a key metric. As explained above, customers today are more demanding, and they expect a smooth experience across conventional as well as digital touchpoints. Therefore, businesses should be initiative-taking and prompt in their approach to succeed. For this, businesses must leverage the latest tools and insights to understand their customers profoundly.
Identifying distinct categories or segments of customers is equally important to cater to their needs. Segregate customers according to diverse groups and tag individuals to avoid cross-selling. Understand various parameters for differentiating your customers. For instance, customers can be segmented based on their purchase frequency, products/services purchased, demography, psychography, age, and ethnicity. This makes it easier to create precise marketing campaigns through targeted messaging.
Another way to understand the customers is through customer service interactions. Prepare a questionnaire and ensure that representatives are equipped to engage with customers to understand their likes and dislikes. It also gives an insight into the products they are using, whether they are satisfied or if there is a scope for improvement and recommendations.
Nurture your customers with knowledge about your products and services and facilitate generic interests to establish a connection with them for a greater purpose.
How Digital Insight Solutions Enhance Consumer Experience
Innovative technology brings digital insights to the forefront. With emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) taking the lead in retail, businesses cannot afford to lag. It is time to understand customers by creating personas based on behavior, demographics, browsing history, and transaction history and enriching each cohort with layers of data.
In addition, it is imperative to unify data sources and create one view of customers to prevent overlaps. Removing data silos declutters the infrastructure and makes way for cleaner and more useful data. With AI & ML models, businesses can now drive targeted campaigns and, deliver personalized offers and messages to customers and remove ambiguities.
To that end, Aroscop’s data-driven marketing solutions are built on a cutting-edge Customer Data Platform to help marketers optimize the buying cycle. Our customer insight tool, ASK1, helps businesses make knowledgeable decisions based on real customer data extracted in near-real-time.
Wrapping Up
Agencies today could equip themselves with some of the finest and most advanced tools to understand modern consumers better. Programmatic platforms with ML make the process simple and more manageable. Automated workflows, dynamic creative optimization, and smart bidding helps in achieving greater ROI on all the campaigns effortlessly. All agencies need is a powerhouse of data to understand their audiences and deliver the right message.
Aroscop provides an optimal platform to direct your business ventures toward the right customer base for accelerated growth. Book a demo today!