Customer Intimacy - Creating Strong, Long-Lasting Relationships with Customers

The concept of Customer Intimacy - where organisations create strong, lasting relationships based around closeness and trust - has become a marketing imperative. But it requires a deeper level of information and insight. Collection and use of transactional data is a starting point, coupled with demographic and lifestyle variables and channel preferences. However, in these volatile economic times, it is no longer enough to identify the demographic ‘who’ and the behavioural ’what’; it’s vital to have multi-dimensional insights in order to understand ‘why’ consumers act in the way they do and ‘how’ they may behave in the future.

Accelerated change in consumer behaviour due to economic pressures has increased demand for this type of data, as organisations try to optimise effectiveness of marketing strategies and manage costs. For example, knowing that I pay my satellite television provider £53 per month by direct debit and have been a customer since 2005 will allow the broadcaster to put me into a positive segment. Adding usage patterns and household demographics may help predict broadband or HD take-up. But would the satellite company still view me as a top prospect if they knew I was spending above my means, and that my discretionary income and outgoings indicated I might be financially unstable?

The economic pressures facing consumers are not all bad, yet the landscape is still unstable. We’re faced with fuel and food prices driving increased cost of living, although for many households this is offset by lower mortgage rates. For retired households dependent on savings, however, these cost of living increases are compounded by reduced interest rates. There is less available credit from banks, but according to one senior economist who spoke at a recent event the definition of a recession is ‘when all the people who were not going to pay you anyway… stopped buying’.

Consumers have become savvier but more conservative. Brands therefore need to understand and provide deeper insight into consumer behaviour, mitigate the risk from defaulters and improve the lifetime value of their best consumers. Just as companies are still looking for customers, those individuals are seeking products and services. The trick for both parties is finding a mutually affordable way to connect.

It’s important to identify consumers’ levels of committed outgoings, to find out who spends more than they earn, and who will continue to struggle as the economy changes. We can identify customers and prospects unaffected by fluctuations in the economy. With the right data you can understand customers’ behaviour in a changing economy, measuring people’s asset holdings, credit behaviour, levels of outgoings, financial cushion, economic stability, indulgence levels and income. Ultimately, today’s marketers need to be able to take a multi-dimensional view of their customers.

Adam Cairn writes on several related subjects including call centre services.