Frost & Sullivan Urges Retailers to Build Loyalty with Customer Data

With the world pivoting to digital, retilers have seen large-scale disruptions in the role of digital media, customer behavior, payment methods, and data management, Frost & Sullivan noted in a new report, urging them to leverage the wealth of customer-generated data to keep pace with constantly changing customer requirements and remain a step ahead of the demand curve.

Forward-looking retailers are already establishing a complete ecosystem to collect, process, and transform data into actionable insight, the firm concluded.

"Retailers need to target customers with hyper-relevant content to foster meaningful, long-lasting connections with the brand," said Alpa Shah, global vice president of customer experience at Frost & Sullivan, in a statement.. "With the right technology, they can gain insights into what works and what does not in their internal and customer-facing operations. The first step is to ensure that customers have an easy way to provide that input. An investment in voice of the customer analytics enables retailers to immediately hear positive and negative experiences, understand behaviors, and predict actions in each channel of interaction."

The report outlines the following ways that retailers can leverage voice of the customer analytics:

• Obtain actionable insights into customer behavior to improve sales opportunities and customer loyalty;
• Immediately boost customer satisfaction ratings;
• Turn instant satisfaction ratings into a longer-term strategy for emotional engagement;
• Create a fundamental shift from transactional to transformative interactions to build brand connections; and
• Personalize content, offers, and experiences to match the preferences of each customer.