• “We’re losing lots of customers… and are having to acquire lots of new ones.”
• “We need to know which marketing messages work best.”
• “We’re not sure what features are most valuable to our target market.”
• “We have no idea what customers want or what they think of our products/services.”
• “Our share of the market is shrinking.”

There are many situations where customer insight can be helpful in daily business decisions. Some examples:

• Monitoring customer loyalty
  • Monitoring loyalty metrics such as Net Promoter Score
  • Gathering detailed input on what your customers’ perceptions are and what improvements they suggest
• New product development
  • Identifying what products to invest in
  • Prioritizing product features
• Product marketing
  • Testing positioning, product names, pricing, target market
• Portfolio/product management
  • Determining priorities for product revisions/enhancements
• Professional services
  • Identifying what services to provide
  • Getting detailed input on customer satisfaction
• Technical support/customer support
  • Getting detailed input on quality of service
• Sales support
  • Getting input from salespeople on what tools/support they need
• Human resources
  • Getting feedback from employees(internal customers) re: what benefits, services are most important to them and an evaluation of how well their needs are being met
  • Collecting employee satisfaction data

See the following issues papers for more information about how customer insight can help your organization:

In Search of Product Success (PDF file)

In Search of Customer Loyalty (PDF file)