Customer analysis is the process of determining who is most likely to buy or utilize a company’s product or services. With the technology growth of recent years, businesses have more access to tools to understand their customers better than ever, especially because of online shopping. The process of analyzing a customer base can usually be broken down into three stages:
- Identify current customers. The first stage is to fully identify who the current customers are and why they utilize the service or buy the product. Analysts compile data from websites, social media, surveys, and other sources of data to determine who these customers are, including demographics and psychographics. Understanding current customers can help with retention as well as determining why people choose a product.
- Segment the customers by needs. The next stage is to determine what different groups of customers there are. These groups should be segmented based on needs because that will help organize customers by what drives them to a product. From there, it’s easier to determine need patterns within the industry and among competitors.
- Determine how to help the needs. The final stage is to determine what connects the first and second stages. How does the product meet the needs? The analysts then need to determine what other pain points and needs the product meets and how they can communicate that to the consumer base.
These steps are just an overview of what can go into the process of customer analysis. However the analysis is done, one key factor is the analysts gather a lot of data that needs to be handled smoothly.