How to Gain Customer Insights Beyond Demographics

Last yr, I went to Joshua Tree and saw a 70-year-old grandma driving a Harley-Davidson. Why does this matter to DTC?   Most DTC brands blindly focus on the demographics and lifestyle profiles of their customers.   (Grandmas, young, male, household income.)   . . . When what is more predictive is their behavior.   "Who are our customers?" Think actions: ➝ Acquired through Google. ➝ Visited our site 3 times before purchasing. ➝ Haven’t been back in 4 days. The more you focus on behavioral segments first, the easier it will be to grow your business. Three reasons why behavioral profiling gives you an edge:   1️⃣ More predictive. Who is more likely to buy from you in the future: The person who last visited your website yesterday or the person who last visited two years ago?   Recency matters.   Who is more likely to buy from you in the future, the customer who bought from you once before or the customer who bought from you ten times before?   Frequency matters. This is why at PostPilot, we build most retention campaigns on a Recency Frequency (RF) basis.   2️⃣ More helpful in selling to your existing customers. Two guys: Steve (household income of 20K) and Joe (household income of 200K).    Poor Steve’s bought from you before. Rich Joe hasn’t.   In Steve’s case, he bought a jump rope from you before. You want to sell more stuff to your customers. Based on what you’ve seen from your customer base, people who buy jump ropes ultimately buy kettlebells.   So your next offer to Steve is a kettlebell. And maybe a warm-up band.    Like many of your customers before, Steve buys the kettlebell as the natural second purchase.   And Joe still hasn’t made a purchase yet.   The behavioral record will help us increase our CLV from Steve, where demographic information won’t do that. 3️⃣ Behavioral segmentation is WAY more actionable. It doesn’t help me to know that the typical customers on my website might read Time magazine or live in New Jersey or are an average age of 51.   But if I know... ➝ Products they’ve purchased before ➝ Last time they opened an email ➝ How they were acquired . . . And all kinds of behavioral factors, I can act.   I can set up rules in tools like Klaviyo and PostPilot, and I can market to them differently and sell to them differently. It’s much more actionable. And automate-able.   BTW. . .    I’m not arguing that demographic segmentation is useless.    Certainly, it’s helpful.    (Really, the Holy Grail is when you can combine behavioral with demographic segmentation.)   But RF(M) behavior should be your first and consistent focus.    And direct mail can help there. We build all the following campaign types around RF: ➝ Winbacks/VIP winbacks ➝ Second-purchase campaigns ➝ Cross-sells & upsells ➝ Subscriber reactivation ➝ Replenishment reminders   Set yourself up and drive repurchases from your own Harley Grannies. 

If your CX Program simply consists of surveys, it's like trying to understand the whole movie by watching a single frame. You have to integrate data, insights, and actions if you want to understand how the movie ends, and ultimately be able to write the sequel. But integrating multiple customer signals isn't easy. In fact, it can be overwhelming. I know because I successfully did this in the past, and counsel clients on it today. So, here's a 5-step plan on how to ensure that the integration of diverse customer signals remains insightful and not overwhelming: 1. Set Clear Objectives: Define specific goals for what you want to achieve. Having clear objectives helps in filtering relevant data from the noise. While your goals may be as simple as understanding behavior, think about these objectives in an outcome-based way. For example, 'Reduce Call Volume' or some other business metric is important to consider here. 2. Segment Data Thoughtfully: Break down data into manageable categories based on customer demographics, behavior, or interaction type. This helps in analyzing specific aspects of the customer journey without getting lost in the vastness of data. 3. Prioritize Data Based on Relevance: Not all data is equally important. Based on Step 1, prioritize based on what’s most relevant to your business goals. For example, this might involve focusing more on behavioral data vs demographic data, depending on objectives. 4. Use Smart Data Aggregation Tools: Invest in advanced data aggregation platforms that can collect, sort, and analyze data from various sources. These tools use AI and machine learning to identify patterns and key insights, reducing the noise and complexity. 5. Regular Reviews and Adjustments: Continuously monitor and review the data integration process. Be ready to adjust strategies, tools, or objectives as needed to keep the data manageable and insightful. This isn't a "set-it-and-forget-it" strategy! How are you thinking about integrating data and insights in order to drive meaningful change in your business? Hit me up if you want to chat about it. #customerexperience #data #insights #surveys #ceo #coo #ai

I prided myself on customer research when I was a CSM. When I felt informed, it helped me to become better at providing strategy. You see strategy is informed by the context with what you know. Too often we can't deliver on strategy, because we don't know what levers will impact their business. Here are 7 ways that I made sure to stay on top of what was happening: -- Google Alerts: Set up alerts for your key accounts. Stay updated on company news, product launches, or any significant events. -- Org Chart: Keep a rough sketch of the org as you learn people and roles across the company. It helps you understand leverage points and where power may exist. -- LinkedIn Connections: Explore 2nd & 3rd-degree connections tied to your account. A warm introduction can open new doors. -- Annual Reports & Investor Relations: For public companies, sift through these gold mines to understand their goals, challenges, and performance metrics. -- Webinars & Virtual Conferences: Attend sessions hosted by your accounts. It's a direct insight into their current focuses and future plans. -- Competitor Analysis: Recognize the competition. Understand what alternatives your accounts might be considering or using. -- Engage on Social Media: Not just LinkedIn. Twitter, industry forums, or even niche platforms can offer direct insights from the stakeholders. -- Internal Knowledge Sharing: Schedule monthly sync-ups with your sales and marketing teams. Exchange insights, challenges, and success stories. --- (I think that was 8) These are tried and true strategies that mix using tools and good old-fashioned Googling. What else am I missing in terms of customer research? --- #customersuccess #saas #software

"I'm the only one of me Baby, that's the fun of me" 🎤 "ME!" by Taylor Swift #CustomerSuccess might have been a misnomer 🤷🏼♀️ - or at least an incomplete descriptor for the way to drive Net Retention efficiently in a company. I'm thinking today of the word "Customer." Nominally, a highly circular and useless definition of CS is "make your customers successful." A more nuanced view might be "help your customers achieve their desired outcome with a delightful experience." But who are these "customers?" With trends like decentralized decision making, bottoms-up purchasing, "try before you buy," free trials, land and expand and Product-Led Growth, we need to remember that HUMANS buy and renew software - not companies. Has this ever happened to you?... 🤦🏽♀️ You took over a new customer relationship - or you're an exec meeting a client - and jump on a meeting with a HUMAN at said customer. And you didn't realize the human recently had a poor support experience or gave bad NPS feedback. 🙈 You're an AE or CSM and the HUMAN at your client meets with someone else at your company who doesn't recognize that this human is a big advocate, active community member, certified user, etc. 😒 You're a CSM and a new stakeholder joins your client. But you don't realize this HUMAN used your product in a previous job - and had a bad experience! We need to move from Customer Success to driving success for the HUMANS at our customers. If we do that, outcomes, experiences, retention and expansion naturally follow. For us at Gainsight, we recently released our "Person360" (screenshot below) - a complement to the idea of a Customer360 - to show any employee in a company everything about the HUMAN at their client - recent meetings, email engagement, notes, survey feedback, product usage, training certifications, community activity and more. What is important for you to know about the HUMAN at your client in order to better serve, retain and expand them?