Knowing customers is without a doubt the key to a company’s success. And that is why the different techniques that help carry out an appropriate management and in-depth researches of customers are being generalized in the business World. CRM has been a first step, but customer intelligence can go much further and convert into a sure success an investigation which, otherwise, would be excessively poor.

While the majority of companies are obsessed today with finding the true key to the indicators of their customer’s behavior and their marketing projects, the truth is there is no correct path to measure the health of relationships with customers. Some companies opt for relying on a handful of ratios to measure it, for example, the degree of satisfaction the clientele attains and its market share. Others prefer other behavior that is also frequent, such as carrying out an in-depth analysis of the details that indicate how a customer became a loyal buyer.

In this tireless search, CRM has become one of the tools most generally used. But whatever type of measurement and whatever level of detail is applied, customer intelligence, or, in other words, establishing clear scales and an easy-to-understand measurement of the initiatives and the way customers behave, is essential to CRM’s success. After all, if you can’t define where you’re going, it’s incredibly difficult to know whether or not you have reached the sought after objectives. The following questions can help companies to define the appropriate path to achieve this complex objective.

Who are my customers?

The first thing for companies is to understand the customer segments and the proper keys to design appropriate products and services for each segment and for the emerging trends. The most sophisticated level of research in this sense allows us to know: the percentage of customers per geographical space, their business characteristics (size of the company, benefits, industry), or individual customer characteristics (age, income, lifestyle, type and size of family); that customer’s business volume; potential new customers; repeat customers; annual business; and the type and number of the contracted products.

Having this type of detailed information not only facilitates our sales task but also allows us to identify any change in those ratios in order to constantly signal new risks as well as business opportunities.

Are my customers loyal?

Once each customer’s characteristics are clear, it is necessary to identify which ones remain loyal to our brand and which ones are leaving or on the verge of leaving. Measuring loyalty in terms of the number of customers retained and the amount of business generated in order to see patterns that would otherwise be lost, such as the fact that a small number of large customers doesn’t allow us to see that we’re losing the small ones, is essential in this sense.

Who are my most valuable customers?

Prioritizing customer retention efforts by determining who the best ones are (which are not always the largest or most habitual) is always a winning strategy. Although it is difficult to calculate precisely, the value of customers can usually be determined by means of discount ratios, successful products, customer acquisition costs, as much the cost of service (for example, the number of telephone calls they generate) as management costs (number of resources dedicated or shared). A relative weight as a customer must be assigned to each one according to all of these scales.

Are my customers satisfied?

Loyal customers and a company’s services can help to determine the clientele’s level of satisfaction and problem areas. Loyal customers must be used as the key to understanding customer expectations in general and trying to have alarms in the areas where problems may arise, with special attention to the points out of our reach, which are usually the principal source of conflicts. The typical measurement includes call response time, product availability, attention and acceptance of complaints, product quality, service time, etc.

How do I understand and respond to my customers’ criticisms?

The majority of customers don’t decide to stay with or remain with our company overnight. In fact, the customer progresses through a series of phases by which he or she decides based on the interaction with our company. Only a good experience makes a company become a buyer, and new customers often need to buy several times before becoming habitual customers.

On the other hand, the customers that aren’t satisfied usually display behaviors that can serve as an alarm in this sense: for example, slowing down their purchases always precedes a cancellation of relations. The variations in quantity, installments, duration, payment methods and other purchase indicators usually display a greater or lesser customer satisfaction.

Is my new customer acquisition process effective?

It is necessary to follow each step of the sales and marketing process. All the costs produced when trying to obtain a customer and carry out a sale are important in analyzing the return we obtain. The amplitude of the sales cycle and the safety of predictions and their possible failures both help to optimize resources, especially in those companies with high direct-sales costs.

How do I support my partners?

Every company depends on a series of partners that help carry out promotions or sales, or that offer some other type of consulting service. Analyzing the product information that we give them, the proposals, product availability, etc., helps achieve a good customer satisfaction, as well as to identify which partners are the most adequate and valuable.

Where are my competitive threats?

Gaining market share from competitors. This is every company’s fundamental goal. In some industries it is essential to compare sales with competitors in services such as distribution or transport, or the geographical location of its offices, or an endless array of ratios that will help carry out a much more effective sales strategy.

Customer intelligence is a basic tool for achieving all of this and making the costly CRM tools effective. First, the ratios must be calculated, the company must be known as well as possible, we must know what costs we’re working with. Next, we must concentrate on designing a good segmentation, knowing who the most profitable customers are, in which areas we run the most risk. And finally, we must determine what actions to adopt in order to improve. In this sense, customer intelligence not only helps to improve customer relations, but also, in the end, our business.