According to Gartner and Forrester analysts (*) there is a battle raging across the categories – a battle for the hearts and minds of the consumer through customer experience … Before we charge blindly toward harnessing big data driven by technological innovation, we should pause and consider some of the more traditional methodologies that allow companies to optimize satisfaction on existing or new products with accuracy, speed and cost efficiencies, even providing the Holy Grail in ROI.
While big data measures what happened in the past, conjoint analysis and trade-off methodologies help companies build an accurate understanding of the future commercial appeal of a new product or package. New dashboard technologies can be a fast and easy way for marketers to judge satisfaction vs. investment before execution – research that gives foresight and not big data-based hindsight. These methods can also provide insights into how to adjust packages and communications to maximize the uplift for specific demographics.
It can be easy to look to big data-driven, tech-based innovations as a panacea for a brand’s customer experience woes. By using a more traditional methodology marketing researchers can learn more about the customer, even before a purchase. While big data shouldn’t be overlooked as a tool for collecting real-time data for satisfaction levels, customer experience really begins before the purchase is made. By relying completely on big data, brands can’t dig into how a new product will appeal or perform prior to launching. It’s through well-tested and reliable traditional methodology that businesses and marketers will gain the foresight needed to make the right decisions on how to optimize customer satisfaction.
(*) Quirk’s Marketing Research
Article ID: 20160526-1 Published: May 2016 Author: Tim Glowa
Duct Tape for Data 