In the digital age, consumers are informed and empowered like never before – with immediate access to millions of opinions and reviews, countless ways to source product details, and a virtual loudspeaker to broadcast their experiences with a brand across the world instantaneously. All of this places increasing pressure on brands to understand and enhance consumer journeys, making sure every interaction at every touchpoint is perfect. From developing crucial new roles within their organizations to turning to mobile research to pinpoint valuable truths, companies are employing a variety of methods to shed light on this all-important area, and increasingly they are realizing the value of gathering insights from engaged communities.
New roles for new approaches
At the beginning of the year, the Altimeter Group noted the appearance of a new brand of executive – the Chief Experience Officer (CXO). In the firm's analysis of trends for the year to come, this development was highlighted as one of the signals that the consumer journey was becoming the jurisdiction of multiple departments, underlining how the growing importance of the consumer experience will draw disparate departments together in a collaborative effort to understand and improve consumer journeys at all levels.
As the consumer journey is diverted along a growing number of channels, it becomes increasingly more difficult for brands to capture attention and foster engagement. Fortunately, the opportunities represented by mobile research, social media and online market research communities are developing rapidly to offer more options for gathering insight at more touchpoints along the journey. Across the board, social media research is coming of age and the ability to tap into the vast data presented by social interactions is coming into fruition. Meanwhile, new ways of reaching survey respondents via online panels are allowing brands to gather insights needed to improve their interactions with consumers and target their communications more effectively.
Harnessing the power of consumer collaboration
In a recent GreenBook blog post discussing four potential directions research will take moving forward, Kristof De Wulf, the CEO of InSites Consulting, highlighted the potential of collaborating with consumers to generate valuable insights, writing: "With consumers having increasing access to powerful online, social and mobile technologies, clever organizations can lift upon consumers’ desire, enthusiasm and ability to collaborate with brands if they create the required conditions for it." Open market research panels driven by engaged communities form the ideal circumstances to encourage consumer collaboration, appealing to their desire to access, share, and provide opinions. Run by a range of reputable organizations, these affinity-driven panels consist of individuals who feel an interest and connection to the brand and topics at hand.
While offering open access, these groups, typically media owners, retailers and associations, also use their panels for their own research, which means that they work to maintain quality by fostering a positive experience for their panelists, ensuring they are approached with applicable, interesting, and non-intrusive surveys. When these panels are opened to the wider research community via panel platforms and marketplaces, further collaboration is encouraged through rewards for both the panel owners and the participants. For researchers, this means easier access to engaged, relevant respondents who most likely have had positive experiences previously when responding to surveys, and thus tend to participate more frequently and enthusiastically to provide more valuable intelligence.
The benefits of automation and mobile insights
By streamlining processes through API integration and DIY solutions, accessing the opinions of online panelists becomes more seamless, efficient, and cost effective – all of which gives researchers more time to focus on the finer points of survey development, targeting, sampling, and more. Additionally, these solutions offer greater control, transparency, and flexibility, as well as real-time results, when tapping into open panel marketplaces.
Pairing a committed and interested group of research participants with the reach of mobile access gives researchers the ability to offer brands deeper and more honest insights into the consumer journey as consumers report at the moment they are engaging with a brand. Through location data, geo-fencing, or opt-in programs, surveys can be deployed to gather insights from real-time interactions to obtain fresh, authentic, and immediate perceptions from participants.
By Bo Mattsson, chief executive of Cint.
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