Consumers have no shortage of highly personalized, exclusive, and convenient shopping experiences — both in-person and online.
With a click of a button, a consumer sitting in their living room can take a short quiz,virtually try on frames, and order the perfect pair of new glasses to be delivered right to their doorstep. Similarly, many global makeup and clothing brands use technology to match consumers with a personal stylist who’ll handpick items for individual consumers.
While high-quality experiential shopping experiences make for happy consumers, they also result in higher consumer expectations. And if companies want to keep up, they have to understand their customers and cater to their preferences.
Gain a closer look at how brands and retailers can leverage customer experience data to provide top-notch customer experiences that win customers over time and again.
What Is Customer Experience Data, and Why Is It Important?
Customer experience data is any information a company collects about a customer's interactions and perceptions of a company, product, or service.
This data can include the following:
- Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT)
- Net promoter scores (NPS)
- Brand interaction data
- Website usage
- Purchasing history
- Customer feedback
- Online reviews
- Behavioral data
- Customer service interactions
Organizations can capture this data through market research methods (e.g., surveys, online communities, and interviews), third-party data like tracking pixels, and first and zero-party data.
Customer experience data is essential to brands and retailers because it shows exactly what your consumers expect, how they respond to different interactions with your company, and whether or not they like your company.
To quantify this, 74% of consumers (Forbes) are at least somewhat likely to buy based on experiences alone, and 86% of consumers (Emplifi) would abandon a brand after just two poor experiences.
To sum it up, customer experience data gives you the information you need to keep your customers happy and loyal — and that affects your revenue.
How Do Retail Brands Use Customer Experience Data?
Before diving into how retail brands use customer experience data, it’s critical to note that not all data collection methods are created equally.
Gartner reports that poor data quality is responsible for an average of $15 million in yearly losses. This figure highlights why retail brands must invest in data governance, which allows you to keep track of and clean your data and measure its accuracy.
Assuming your data collection methods are top-notch, here are the three ways you can use your data to improve your retail business and provide excellent customer experiences.
1. Use Customer Experience Data for Personalization
According to McKinsey & Company’s “Next in Personalization 2021 Report,” 71% of customers want personalized shopping experiences, and 76% are frustrated when they don’t receive them.
Capturing the right data provides demographic information, location data, and customer preferences that retailers can use to personalize shopping experiences.
For example, through web and app tracking, retailers can monitor what products customers are browsing online and send a promotional email to the customer with deals on those specific items.
2. Use Customer Experience Data for Product Improvement
The truth hurts: If customers don’t like your product, they won’t continue to buy it — no matter how good your marketing strategy and tactics are.
The best retail brands keep tabs on how customers feel about their products and services. And they do this by asking customers directly through surveys. Some common customer survey strategies include a NPS and CSAT.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
An NPS survey is a one-question survey that asks customers how likely they are (on a scale of one to 10) to recommend a retailer based on their interaction with the company. If the company gets a low rating, it can contact the customer directly for more detailed feedback.
Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT)
A CSAT measures how customers feel about a particular product, service, or overall experience. Customer satisfaction surveys also often include open-ended questions that allow customers to provide qualitative feedback. CSATs are a great tool for identifying customer pain points and improving the overall customer experience.
When retail brands understand how customers feel about their products or services, it’s easy to make changes to satisfy their target market.
3. Use Customer Experience Data To Improve Marketing Efforts
Today’s marketers don’t waste marketing spend on guesswork. Instead, they double down on customer experience and attribution data to fine-tune their marketing messages and maximize their ad spend.
Accurate customer experience data tells marketers who their customers are, what they prefer, and what and how they buy. Marketers and advertisers use this information to create more focused marketing campaigns that target the right audience.
Change With Your Customers, Not After They Change
Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. If you’re not tapped into who they are, how they feel about your company and your products, and their preferences, it will be challenging for your retail brand to thrive.
The best way to stay ahead of the curve is to capture and leverage customer experience data to personalize your customer experiences, improve your products, and inform your marketing messages.
.svg)
