Cracking the Customer Code: Get to Know Your Customer Day and Beyond

Picture it- you’re on a heist. A heist where the most valuable bits of information for your business lay just beyond a big vault. But, how do you get in? What intel do you need to crack the code, and how valuable is all this information once you get inside? What do you have in your arsenal that can help you crack the code? And, what do cracking customer codes and Get to Know Your Customer Day have to do with anything?

Well, all great questions. 

If you are a business struggling to see those conversions that you know you can achieve, you might start to feel like creating a high-stakes heist (although ViviScape does not endorse or condone that). So, what stops the conversions dead in its tracks?

Your customers! It might seem obvious, but there’s actually a couple of nuances to this that can take you from a couple sales here and there to currently out-of-stock. There’s a key difference (literally the key to the vault) between understanding the purpose of your customer and finding the deep connection between your customer and your brand. Don’t think there is? Let’s put that to the test.

Difference Between “I Assume This is My Customer” and the Get to Know Your Customer Options

Granted, we understand that to even create a product or service, you need to understand a few things about your customer:

• What are your customer’s pain points?
• What problems are you trying to solve for your customer?
• Why would your customer pick your service/product over competitors?
• What is your customer’s budget?

Although these are great questions to ask, are they delving deep into your customer psyche or just scratching the surface of that vault? When you have a great product or service, what keeps customers inside a locked vault that many businesses fail to get into? 

For example, let’s break down the question, “What are your customer’s pain points?” The intent of the question is clear, but now how well do we know your customer?

Does the question, “What are your customer’s pain points?” tell us the following:

• What industry your customer is in?
• How do they like to receive information?
• What do they research when looking to solve their problem?
• What position in the company are they in?
• Are they making the decision to purchase or someone else?
• What information are they gathering from you?
• What is going to sell them on your brand vs. others?
• Where do they spend the majority of time when online?

The answer to all of these is probably no. Because what happens is we are not asking the question FOR our customers, we are asking the question FOR our product. Which means, you end up with an excellent product….. And no customers.

As we’ve mentioned before in our article, Customer Experience (CX) in Marketing: Customer Acquisition & Customer Advocacy, we explore the customer experience by detailing that we need our customers to “feel” when it comes to connecting to our brand. The same tactics apply here, but now we are getting more intentional. We want our customers to feel, we know we have a great product, we can create great copy and experiences; but, who is our customer and how do I get them to care? How do I even find them? Thus, the locked vault.

Cracking the Valuable Vault Information and How to Tell if You Already Have the Code

So, although we can’t get into the vault just yet. ViviScape has an extra special tool that will showcase what type of valuables are kept hidden within your vault. The goods? All the info you could ever want and need about your customer or client.

All of this is fine and dandy, but how do I know what I don’t know? How can I know for sure if I know my customer or not? What if I have had the key to vault the whole time and I’m wasting my time trying to break into a vault that’s already open to me?

Lucky for you, ViviScape is always one step ahead (always a great move during a heist). If you are struggling to find out if you know your customer or don’t, take our helpful quiz and learn just what level of connection you have with your customer-base.

If you have taken our quiz and answered “unsure” to many of your questions, chances are you could use some help in deciphering your customer’s psyche. What questions left you feeling uneasy or scratching your head, and why do any of these questions matter in the great scheme of things?

The primary objectives “Get to Know Your Customer” are:

• • Strengthening customer relationships: Businesses need to foster stronger connections with their customers by showing genuine interest in their lives, interests, and experiences.
  • Gathering customer insights: Companies need to gather feedback and valuable data that can be used to improve products, services, and overall customer experience.
  • Personalizing customer interactions: Understanding customers’ preferences and habits helps businesses tailor their marketing and communication strategies, making interactions more relevant and meaningful.
  • Enhancing customer loyalty: By showing appreciation and understanding, businesses can build trust and loyalty with their customers, increasing the likelihood of repeat business and positive word-of-mouth referrals.
  • Targeting the right clients: By knowing and answering these questions, businesses can better target the right clients and customers vs the wrong ones. Don’t spend ad money on the wrong target audience and waste the campaign. Learn to grab more intentional data to create more intentional targets.

Get to Know Your Customer Day and Other Code-Cracking Tools

So, what does all of this have to do with Get to Know Your Customer Day and what even is that? 

“Get to Know Your Customer Day” is actually not just one day. Another valuable nugget of information, we know. On the third Thursday of January, April, July, and October each year, businesses around the U.S. participate in ways to encourage and learn more about their customers and clientele. This is great news! Because, regardless if you do know your customer today, it could change. It could change in years, months, or even weeks. So, it’s always good to participate and actively be seeking that deeper connection with your customer.

So, you know you want what’s inside the vault. You know you are locked out of the vault. So now, you want to know just how to get into this thing. Of course, ViviScape has you covered there too! We have a complete tool list of everything you need to get that treasure you seek!

The ViviScape Vault Decoded Checklist:

1. Use the codes you already have: If you run a business, have a website, are active on social media, or converse with your customers, chances are you have been missing out on some codes that you already have! We absolutely recommend scouring the information that is currently at your disposal before working to dive deeper. You don’t want to waste resources and time and your customers don’t want to answer the same questions they have probably already been asked. So, be sure you are looking at your analytics either via website or social media to learn more about your customer and your customer demographics. Of course, we also recommend that you have the correct cookies and privacy policy in place before you try to research and gain your analytics. To learn more about compliance, privacy, cookies, and ethical analytics, check out our other article: Is Your Business’s Website GDPR Website Compliant, ADA Website Compliant, or None of the Above?
2. Test and decode as you go: If you have looked into your customer analytics and records and still find a couple of key info missing, you need to do some reconnaissance and start implementing a plan on how to gain it. The easier methods to learn some info you may not already have is to engage with customers on social media, make some inferences and reasonable guesses and test your theories, create a way to talk with your customer without forcing their hand to do so. You will get the information you need and they will be much more appreciative of the measure.
3. Get direct codes: Lastly, if you are wanting the most accurate information, the key is to ask, ask, ask. Within reason, be more direct. Ask customers when they purchase or come to visit your business the vital questions you need. Send forms to learn about ways to improve, what customers are looking for, and how your customers learned about you. Have a conversation and make the connection, instead of just hoping for it. If you are going to break into a vault, hope and guesswork will not work out.
4. Build your personality decoder: Chances are if you don’t have the answers you seek, you may have never used one of the best tools at your marketing disposal. 2 words- customer personas. Building a customer persona can help you understand exactly who your customer is, empathize with them and fully understand their needs, and can help you make targeted ads with a punch (a good, happy one). Never built a customer persona before? Need to build several at a time and don’t have the resources? ViviScape can help with that too!

If this is starting to feel a bit overwhelming, don’t sweat it right before a big break! We recommend slow steps, taking it one decoding step at a time. When thinking about your head heist and unlocking that vault, you have to take it one code at a time before you can move on to the next one. And, if you mess up? Retrace your steps and do it again! This is definitely a rinse and repeat measure that all businesses should take, and it’s not a one-and-done method. Your product may change, your customer may change, or just the landscape of how we conduct business can change. Or, if it’s 2020 again, all of the above.

Get Inside the Customer Vault

So, where are we now? Are we outside or inside the vault? Or maybe somewhere in between?

Understanding and getting to know your customers is the key to unlocking business success- your valuable vault. To crack the customer code and connect deeply with your audience, businesses need to go beyond surface-level knowledge and delve into customers’ preferences, behavior, and needs. By strengthening customer relationships, gathering valuable insights, personalizing interactions, and enhancing customer loyalty, businesses can create meaningful and targeted marketing strategies.

“Get to Know Your Customer Day” serves as a reminder to continuously seek a deeper connection with customers, as their preferences and needs may evolve over time. And, our ViviScape Vault Decoded Checklist provides practical steps, including using existing data, testing assumptions, and directly engaging with customers, to gain valuable customer insights. Building customer personas further aids in understanding customer needs and creating targeted advertisements.

While the process may seem overwhelming, taking slow and deliberate steps in decoding customer information is crucial for long-term business success, ensuring that businesses stay ahead and connected with their ever-changing customers. 

And, of course, if you get stuck at the vault and feel like there’s no way in, be sure to contact the experts, your ViviScape friends. Let us be the 11th member of your Ocean’s Eleven team. We will get you into the vault, get the valuable info, and make a run for the sale! Conversions are here to thrive, so don’t stay locked out!