Because customers are people too

The goal for forward-thinking retailers is to re-organise their entire businesses around the customer. The tougher challenge is how to make this change whilst continuing to grow, servicing customers and gauging the extent and pace of change necessary to meet employee and customer expectations without damaging the brand.

Multi-channel retailing provides an answer to this dilemma. If implemented effectively it can prove a catalyst for change across your business, moving away from product-centric operations to a more customer-centric organisation, thereby developing a model that meets the expectations of future customers whilst delivering profitability and growth. The opportunity lies in understanding how to win and retain those customers of the future demanding to buy what they want, when they want and where they want.

To achieve this, multi-channel retailers must first understand who their customers really are and then segment them into groups which share common characteristics. Only then can retailers understand the lifestyle touch points, wants, needs and influencing factors that their brand can be associated with. In order to achieve this, insight ‘personas’ are a must.

- What are personas?
Personas are fictional, but realistic, character sketches based on a break-down of the target audience into groups of users that exhibit common characteristics. They are created using knowledge drawn from customer experience research (qualitative), web analytics and survey data (quantitative), as well as interviewing influential stakeholders of the website.

- How are personas used?
Personas are used throughout a site review or re-design project. They help build a shared understanding of who will be affected by any site re-design, the relative importance of different groups to the site, and how different groups are motivated. In detailed design phases, personas can inform design decisions by allowing multi-channel retailers to explore a range of ideas, hypothesise the potential consequences on target audiences and select the best options.

I have worked with the largest and most successful retailers in the UK and globally over the past three years helping them achieve an enhanced online customer experience, and yet I often still take time to ask the question: “Who are your customers?” My clients know the answer to this based on research they have conducted and their perception of who they wish to target, however there is often a deeper requirement to understand more about the characteristics and buying behaviours of these customers.

How exactly does a retailer deliver the right online content for the core persona while satisfying the needs of secondary personas? The internet is the most measurable medium available and most organisations have rich data available to them in the form of web analytics, pre and post purchase online surveys and so on. This is a good starting point but further research must be done to truly develop an accurate persona, such as ethnographic research (this involves observing a customer or acquisition target in their natural environment), focus groups, usability testing and in a multi-channel environment, interviewing customers in-store.

Pulling all this data together is of course a skill in itself, as well as a core competence of Foviance.