What are the best methods for collecting customer data for benchmarking?

Quantitative surveys make it possible to quickly gain a broader perspective of a given problem and create summaries and generalizations. They make it possible to detect trends if implemented with a large enough, statistically significant sample. However, I would never use them as a stand-alone solution without juxtaposing them with qualitative data - unless the results are to be used for PR purposes, for example, as a talking point for a publication.

It can be really tempting to ask a lot of questions on a form but this can cause people to lose interest and give up. Then you won't get any data. Consider carefully what you want to find out about and use the least amount of questions you can to achieve that. If you can use software that has branching, skip logic or answer piping this may be helpful.

Nothing can replace an individual conversation, that is, an in-depth interview. Although expensive, it allows you to pull out the most realistic insights if you complete the right amount of them and put them in the context of other data. Focus groups are a good option for generating ideas for a brand, but they run the risk of being contaminated by group processes that influence the reporting of false information and mask true motivations. Focus groups generate great synergy - as long as the group is well-matched, and this is not always the case. Therefore, as in other cases, we must contrast their results with data from different research fields.

I think this is crucial to understand why you or your product is viewed in a certain way. You may think you know what the issues are but you won't ever really know until you fix them. Focus groups can also help you see what will work, as well as what doesn't so they can essentially be a test group for you.

Direct customer reviews and ratings might be a helpful parameter to understand the needs to your consumer better, but one practice I do in order to go deeper into the lives of my target audience is to look at other products they have purchased and reviewed. That helps me understand their family structure, their likes and dislikes, their psychological needs and more than anything, their behavioural pattern.

If you don't have a product or your engagement is internal, you can look at views, reactions and comments on your posts. You should engage with comments whether positive or negative.

'Figures and numbers are essential and allow for objective evaluation', they say - not necessarily. In times of dark society, different measurement methods, data losses, problems with cookies, and complex decision paths, numbers can fail us. Therefore, as always, they must be combined with broader context and qualitative data.

Customer journey mapping is one of the essential tools that help to detect the key pain points and needs. Mapping has additional benefits such as integrating the teams working on it, improving communication, and encouraging collaboration and joint solutions to customer problems.

This is one of the critical pieces of the puzzle. We need to know that we are not operating in a marketing vacuum. Mapping our position against our competitors is essential for a balanced picture. We must adequately select the entities to analyze and compare ourselves to viable competitors and category leaders (if we are not one of them). Ready-made external leaderboards are only sometimes adequate for us. We should juxtapose such data with the conclusions of our analysis, taking into account the critical criteria for us.

It is worth considering here, of course, the impact of artificial intelligence on customer data collection. AI bots carrying out conversations and conducting in-depth interviews will be helpful here. AI analytics platforms gathering information on user behavior and trends based on various sources will also be beneficial. Not to mention, for example, GPT Chat itself or Perplexity, which can help with analysis, summaries and statements. It is clear that AI is already revolutionising the way information about customers is gathered and processed.

The most valuable benchmarks are a combination of both publicly available data and individually gathered responses to consistent questions and themes. I would always value 1st hand gathered individual responses to direct, consistent questioning, but this can be difficult to gather at scale or to the level of detail that is required. Having an industry expert or practitioner create the benchmark helps ensure that questions are relevant to the topic, results are interpreted realistically and insight is actionable.