Consumer insights are discoveries about consumer behaviour or intent that you have not previously discovered. Market research has traditionally been used to uncover insights because they give businesses clearer understandings of complex situations and solutions. Often, insights revolutionise, allowing new thoughts on old topics by giving teams deeper understanding of complex consumer – i.e. human – behaviour. How is insight changing?
A Shift Away From Reactive Insight Gathering
The first stage of gathering consumer insights for most businesses is reactive. Research projects arising out of stakeholder requests are often used to address specific consumer issues (such as abandoning an online shopping cart, for example). At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have ‘proactive’ gathering of consumer insights. In this scenario, your customer experience team are proactive and strategic about customer insights. Rather than merely reacting to consumer behaviour, they actively and strategically shape it through asking the right questions.
More Businesses Prioritising Consumer Insights
In the past, only a few businesses really invested in developing proactive rather than reactive insight gathering. Yet businesses that have adopted a more proactive, innovative and focused approach have found faster short and long-term growth. This has led more businesses seeking ways to revolutionalise how they gather insights (such as using advanced AI chat bots that record insightful customer conversations).
Businesses Must Adapt To Disruptive, Current Technological Advances
Because of advancements in AI, responsive design and other elements that impact on customer experience, more and more businesses are dealing in a highly transient consumer space. Micro-moments and transactions have become more important as many consumers live in the moment, making snap decisions and purchases across multiple devices (such as mobile and desktop).
The shift towards a more short-term focus in consumer behaviour across multiple industries means businesses need to be able to gather relevant, useful insights quickly, using all the tools available to them. This ensures that everything from communication to ecommerce design and in-store marketing is fed with accurate, in-the-moment (as near as possible to real-time) insights.
Although businesses and marketers are working in transient times where technological disruption is constant, developing a faster, contemporary approach to gathering customer insights will help savvy business owners keep ahead of the curve.
Do you need help updating your customer insight gathering process? Contact Interact today.