CONSUMER INSIGHTS

Contextualise the consumer to obtain better marketing insights

By our News Team | 2021

Businesses must mandate staff to help ensure a customer experience takes place, rather than simply pushing products.

As an example of how marketing is evolving, the traditional banking landscape, for one, is being forever altered. 

From merely offering deposits, lending, savings and investments – modern banking is now about being able to offer deeper financial insights and tailored services that extend outside of the industry’s traditional offerings

Head of Customer Experience at African banking technology company Yoco, Evelien Griffioen, and senior Investec Bank executive, Devina Maharaj, spoke on this topic at a Working Lunch event recently hosted by Johannesburg-based radio station, 702. 

Griffioen agreed with the philosophy of mandating staff to respectfully help ensure a customer experience takes place, rather than simply pushing products. Systems need to ensure customer decisions are not based on a staff member’s personal biases but on the actual context of the customer,” she said.

Consumer insights

Hybrid: Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

“For us, that involves visiting customers where they live. That can be in their business or even in their home to get their context and connect with them. That’s how one develops empathy for people – by simply listening.”

Democratising the research process

Griffioen continued: “The universal acceptance of tools such as Zoom and WhatsApp Diaries has, if anything, enabled deeper connections during the pandemic. They enable us to meet with people who live in areas our consultants might be unable to visit.

The danger was that consultants might lose some of the context of the individual. However, WhatsApp Diaries enables the individual to take a video of the surroundings and send it [to us].”

According to Griffioen, Yoco doesn’t just want its researchers to do research and talk to customers.

“We want to lower the barrier for everyone to include our customers into our processes, whether it’s (in)validating an assumption, testing usability of a solution, or getting feedback or impressions on a brand refresh. We do this by creating a dedicated research operations function.”

It is not just banking that has had to make this adjustment, but every industry post-Covid. Maharaj noted during the discussion that social distancing has given the power to the consumer in terms of defining what the new service model is going to be like for businesses, as well as new products. 

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