What are the best sources of data and insights for creating customer personas?

*Client Segmentation* is a really important step that most companies miss out, it is extremely vital that we build client personas starting from identifying their personal interests, hobbies and goals. Of course, demographics, personal and professional strengths come into play. Keep a close eye on the work flow and client behaviour. It is always good to probe in on certain topics in order to dig deep on insights. The business solutions that you present should eventually alleviate their challenges.

In my experience as Head of CS, creating effective customer personas relies on diverse data sources. Begin with existing customer interactions, analysing demographics, behaviours, and feedback. Utilise website analytics to understand online behavior and preferences. Leverage social media insights for a deeper understanding of customer interests and engagement patterns. Customer surveys and interviews offer firsthand insights, while CRM data provides transactional details. Industry reports and market research contribute broader trends. A holistic approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data from various touch-points, ensures well-rounded customer personas, enhancing targeted marketing and personalised experiences.

In my recent experience while creating customer personas we learnt that one source is not enough. We started data collection through interviews and then deep dived into customer journeys. This helped us gain insights of the current customer personas, their behaviour, pain points, likes, frustrations etc. Design thinking workshops helped us empathise with the persona and get a deeper understanding of their frustrations, feelings, motivations and goals. We are now moving on to online surveys and other social media listening tools for more unbiased data collection. Observing customers in their own environment also helps capturing customer insights.

?? Dive deep into the customer psyche with surveys and interviews. 1. Craft targeted questions to uncover specific needs and preferences. 2. Analyze responses for patterns and unique customer insights. 3. Use direct feedback to build rich, detailed personas. Conclusion: The voices of your customers bring personas to life, grounding them in reality.

If resources are tight, interview a handful of real customers and survey at scale for additional insights. When resources are limited, conducting in-depth interviews with a small number of real customers allows for rich qualitative insights that can uncover nuanced perspectives. Supplementing this with a broader survey at scale provides quantitative data, offering a more comprehensive understanding of customer experiences. This hybrid approach maximizes the value of limited resources by combining the depth of qualitative interviews with the breadth of quantitative survey data.

I would suggest to first identify the information that you need and the impact you want: - Are you only selling in your region / country or can go international ? = Look for demographics around location = servicing in different languages - Is your market very competitive or emerging ? = get stats around common competitors / most common goals to achieve = teach your team about competitors and goals - What are customers most interested in ? = Check open rate on marketing emails / Page visits / Webinar attendance rate = provide a customised approach - What your customer are saying about your product ? = Gather customer feedback = understand better who the customer is by analysing what they need

You might already have a massive amount of data available on your previous customer contacts which could be easily used as base data when analyzing what kind of customer personas you have already provided customer service for.

?? Unearth golden insights with analytics and CRM data. 1. Segment data for behavioral and transactional patterns. 2. Identify customer trends and preferences. 3. Tailor personas based on quantitative data insights. Conclusion: Data-driven personas offer a laser-focused lens on your customer base.

data sources internal and external to an organization are valuable sources of customer and persona data. examples of internal enterprise data include shopper behavior / clickstream data and transaction data. examples of external sources include buying data from third party consumer and market data providers such as Nielsen, IRI, Kantar.

Unearth golden insights with analytics and CRM data. 1 Segment data for behavioral and transactional patterns. 2 Identify customer trends and preferences. 3 Tailor personas based on quantitative data insights. Conclusion: Data-driven personas offer a laser-focused lens on your customer base.

Utilize social media listening, what and who are discussing about you and your company in social media in other than your own company's posts and page.

?? Tap into the unfiltered customer perspective with social media and online reviews. 1. Gauge sentiment and common themes in feedback. 2. Monitor brand mentions for unsolicited insights. 3. Adapt personas to reflect real-time customer attitudes. Conclusion: Social listening paints a vivid picture of customer satisfaction and desires.

To support marketing and customer acquisition initiatives, social media is an effective source to identify look-alike / similar audiences based on target customer segments of an organization.

?? Embrace the power of observation and ethnography for nuanced understanding. 1. Conduct field studies to observe customer behaviors. 2. Analyze non-verbal cues for deeper emotional insights. 3. Integrate findings for holistic personas. Conclusion: Immersive research methods reveal the human side of your customers.

Look into Luma Institute's "Fly on the Wall" recipe for tangible help on how to do observations and ethnography right. The Luma Institute's "Fly on the Wall" exercise is a design thinking technique aimed at gaining deeper insights into user experiences and needs. In this exercise, participants metaphorically become "flies on the wall" to observe and document user behavior and interactions without direct interference. By immersing themselves in the user's environment, designers can uncover valuable insights, patterns, and pain points, ultimately informing the design process and enabling the creation of solutions that truly address user needs and experiences.

Embrace the power of observation and ethnography for nuanced understanding. 1. Conduct field studies to observe customer behaviors. 2. Analyze non-verbal cues for deeper emotional insights. 3. Integrate findings for holistic personas. Conclusion: Immersive research methods reveal the human side of your customers.

Use Journey mapping to identify moments that matter for your personas. Using journey mapping to identify moments that matter for personas involves a systematic analysis of the customer experience at each touchpoint. By mapping out the customer journey, organizations can pinpoint critical moments where customer interactions have significant impact or emotional weight. These identified moments that matter serve as focal points for understanding and addressing the unique needs, preferences, and pain points of specific personas, allowing for targeted improvements that enhance overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

??? Visualize the customer's path with journey mapping. 1. Map touchpoints and pain points for empathy. 2. Align personas with specific stages in the journey. 3. Refine personas to guide CX improvements. Conclusion: Journey mapping ensures personas are actionable, guiding strategic decisions.

Visualize the customer's path with journey mapping. 1. Map touchpoints and pain points for empathy. 2. Align personas with specific stages in the journey. 3. Refine personas to guide CX improvements. Conclusion: Journey mapping ensures personas are actionable, guiding strategic decisions.

Visually represent the customer personas alsong with the customer journey. Find out creative ways to present your story as per the CJM exercise.

? Validate personas for accuracy and relevance. 1. Test assumptions with targeted customer interactions. 2. Update personas with new findings and trends. 3. Ensure personas remain dynamic and reflective of the customer base. Conclusion: Continuous validation keeps personas fresh and aligned with evolving customer needs.

In my experience, a lot of organizations have a difficult time accessing real customers in order to validate personas. So you must get creative by getting as close to real customers as possible. Here a few ways to do it: analyze customer support interactions, review social media listening reports, analyze customer feedback/reviews, and talk to customer-facing colleagues such as sales or customer support.

Engage your customer-facing employees while looking for both pain-points and solutions. Your front-line employees likely have thought many times about how to fix certain issues but may be shy about sharing that feedback. By creating an open system for input and encouraging ideas your employees can help drive the most meaningful changes. Added bonus: you'll be encouraging professional growth on an individual level as well.

Beyond traditional data, explore emerging tech and methodologies. 1 Leverage AI for predictive insights. 2 Incorporate voice of customer (VoC) tools for richer data. 3 Stay agile, updating personas as your market and customers evolve. Vision: Future-proof personas by embracing innovation and flexibility in your data collection.