So, now you’ve collected data, what can you do with it? Well, all sorts! There are lots of different ways you can interpret and act on this data, and your initial consumer feedback might suggest some obvious quick-fix changes you can make to improve the way you currently do things.

But, ultimately, it should help you to understand your audience better, and that’s what consumer centricity comes down to. One way you can go about doing this is through a process called segmentation...

Segmentation is the process of categorizing your audience into various groups to help you deliver a more relevant and personalized service to each and every one of them, and it can be done by observing and combining different demographic information with other data, like psychographic and behavioral data.

Your audience’s demographic information includes their age and gender, where they live, what they do for a living, their income and their life stage. It also covers the education they’ve received, their marital status, and how many children they have.

Demographic data is useful, but most people would agree that there's more to them than their demographic. It doesn't entirely define them, and that’s why effective segmentation should explore the psychographic data of your audiences too, to discern what their motivations are. What drives them, and what do they value? They must have problems that need to be solved, or needs that must be met, so how does your business fit in?

From this, you can gather an understanding of how your business could appeal to your different audiences, but you still need to account for their different behaviors. People approach things in very different ways, so when you’re segmenting audiences, take a look at the behavioral data you've gathered. Which products do they buy, and how frequently? When and where do they shop? Do they typically shop at a certain time or on a specific day? By answering these kinds of questions, you’ll really begin to understand your audience.

Alongside a detailed understanding of your consumers, you also need to gather a clear picture of the journeys they take with your business. Of course, each individual consumer will take their own journey with your brand, so you should aim to get a good grasp of what different people are trying to do at each stage and what you can do to accommodate them. This is where customer journey mapping can come in handy.

To create a customer journey map, plot down all of the touchpoints that allow consumers to connect with your business from the initial awareness stage, all the way through to consideration, decision and finally, retention. Just to be clear, a touchpoint could be anything from receiving a referral or recommendation from a friend, receiving emails or text messages from your business directly, interacting with your brand on its website or on social media, or calling your support center.

When putting together a customer journey map, there’s a simple mistake that needs to be avoided. Many companies base their maps on in-house assumptions about consumer behaviors, but this process shouldn’t be guesswork. Use the data you’ve gathered from tracking real consumers across these journeys, and don't be afraid to take your different audience segments into account here either.

Acting on Consumer Insights