There are lots of factors that influence customer behaviour – personal, psychological, social and societal preferences. Retailers are actively trying to influence their customers buying, however few succeed in rewarding the right behaviours. The most obvious example is a brand constantly marketing sale after sale to their customers, all they end up achieving is training customers to never pay full price.

Analysis Paralysis

Marketing departments produce countless reports which measure customer engagement; what links they clicked on, what they read vs. what they didn’t read, what they liked/didn’t like, comments and number of sales…..I could go on. Reporting on engagement is important, however very little happens with this incredibly valuable insight. By studying how your customers have behaved in the past (descriptive analytics), retailers will be in a stronger position to anticipate and influence future behaviours (predictive analytics). 

Reward the behaviours you want to influence

Why measure if your customers ‘would’ do something, when you can ‘influence’ them to take action instead. We’ve all seen the ‘would you recommend us to your friends and family?’ question. This NPS survey seems to appear in our inbox almost after every purchase we make. Customer feedback is critical, but it can work harder than a report card for the brand.  Leveraging those who would refer to actually refer, perhaps ‘invite a friend and you’ll both receive a 15% discount off your next order with this code’. You can reward your advocates plus earn yourself a new customer for a fraction of your usual acquisition cost. 

When you start recognising your customers purchases, you can really start to influence their behaviour to create customers for life.

Not all customers are equal

Most brands fail to continue the conversation with their customers. They still typically send the same message to everyone on their database. This approach is highly ineffective in actually engaging the bulk of those customers. 

A deep dive into how your customers are behaving allows you to create sophisticated behavioural segments, rather than just demographic based personas. A sports retailer for example may have a group of customers who often purchase running shoes, but don’t purchase sportswear. A sale on running shoes won’t make them spend any more money with you, however, an incentive for sportswear delivered at the right time might. Reverse this for the customers purchasing sportswear and offer an incentive on running shoes. This approach places you in a stronger position to increase cross sell. 

Summary

Retailers are under huge pressure in today’s market. The c-suite and investors are demanding growth. Customers are at the heart of growth. Of course it is important to measure how your customers are engaging, but it’s what you do with these insights that will make all the difference. Use these insights to drive action. Consider how to influence the future behaviour of your customer to keep and grow them. 

Customology are specialists in customer lifecycle management. Contact a Customologist today on 1300 264 549 or hi@customology.com.au to learn how we can help you leverage the customer data you already have to influence what your customers do next.