Why insights communities are key to customer loyalty.

From political tensions, socioeconomic uncertainty and global distribution challenges through to the explosion of competition and new channels, it cannot be taken for granted that what’s normal one day will remain normal the next. In this context, customer expectations move faster than many brands and businesses can keep up with. This is particularly true inside larger multinationals, whose systems and processes can lag behind customer expectation.

We are also seeing an explosion of new technology — and the global insights that these new technologies produce. Thirty years ago, the idea of uploading a photo to the internet was unheard of. Last year, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were created on average every day. Ninety percent of the world’s data has been produced in the past 24 months. Google processes over 8.5 billion search requests per day. In North America, Amazon ships around 1.6 million packages every 24 hours, and there are 1.6 billion swipes on Tinder — and all of this only scratches the surface of what’s happening online.

Along with broader cultural shifts, the amount of data we have access to as strategic insights professionals and marketers has exploded exponentially; it’s never been more accessible and simultaneously never been more overwhelming. The data lakes where this kind of information is captured and stored, and the algorithms that search and scan for opportunity, have democratized the “customer” across many organizations — speeding up tactical decision-making and, in the process (perhaps unintentionally), reducing the reach and in some instances the role of the insights function. In this context, we should ask, “What’s Next for Customer Insights and Consulting?”  What are the risks, and where are the white space opportunities?

Twenty years ago, shareholder management was the key to business success — but today the role of a broader set of constituent stakeholders is more prevalent in the commercial landscape. Companies can no longer place the customer at the end of a supply and operations chain.

This is a huge shift. Many businesses talk about a desire to be customer-centric, but few have been able to achieve results. Humans are complex, relationships are difficult. And business transformation takes time. But just because change is hard does not mean it is not necessary. The companies unable to build genuinely equitable relationships with their customers and the communities they serve (including, of course, employees) will fail fast.

So, in a world where change is constant, data is everywhere, and customer-centric relationships have never been more important, what is the role of the insights department — and how can online insights communities help brands unlock success and build customer loyalty?

More than ever, we need to be connected to our customers — and our competitors’ customers too. We need to understand, investigate and interrogate the “why” that sits behind the “what”: the reasons our data tells us specific stories and uncovers certain trends. This is where our online communities become vital. Every day, we have the spaces to personalize customer experiences and the skills to invest in building meaningful, reciprocal relationships based on trust and commitment. The conversations we have and the questions we ask help us become more relevant — and in turn help drive better ideas, surface more meaningful and actionable insights and unlock brand loyalty and advocacy.

Understanding the “what” helps us achieve incremental gains. Engaging with the “why” sets us up for success both Now and Next. When we combine the depth of our qualitative research from our online insights communities with the quantitative data collated from other sources, it allows us to be more strategic and more actionable — ultimately meaning that our insights department has more impact overall, across every aspect of our organization.

Of course, having the community at hand has significant advantages, from agility — we can answer some questions in less than 24 hours — to cost efficiencies, to having a detailed relationship with a supplier who understands our business and our needs. By investing in relationships, with the members in our communities and the agency teams that staff them, we can work faster and more effectively — engaging with deeper human truths to transform customer experiences, creating greater impact for our internal stakeholders, and getting to more profound, more actionable answers. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this through multiple, ad hoc, one-off relationships.

Ultimately, this means that our insights function is more strategic, within and across our business. Where a few years ago, we might have been reporting on the benefits of Option A over B, we’re now more fully integrated into the long-term growth strategies, placing customer loyalty and retention at the heart of everything we do. Online communities are allowing our insights function — and indeed, our whole business to be more relevant… and more essential, too. Online communities aren’t the only solution — but we have found them to be a Trojan horse in getting to deeper impact across our business.

Whether you’re an experienced user or a newcomer, this buyer’s guide to online insight communities and how to make the most of them is a must.