What's your process for anticipating customer needs?

Establish a comprehensive feedback ecosystem by tapping into diverse sources -- such as surveys, reviews, testimonials, social media, support tickets, and analytics. The amalgamation of these signals provides a holistic view of customer sentiments, preferences, and behaviors, equipping you to anticipate needs effectively.

Listening to your customers also allows you to build a business case with empirical evidence. It's important to ensure customers needs are given the appropriate urgency and importance. I've seen minor issues given overtly heavy importance and also major issues not dealt with appropriately. Ensure the right weighting is given to feedback based on volume, impact of the problem and other metrics that are important to your business so you can appropriately prioritise.

You need to understand you customer, not only as it pertains specifically to your product but holistically. Yes, get feedback that is inwardly focused. As probing questions, read reviews, see where you get testimonials. Analyze what data you have to see where there are trends. It is also critical to get the information about what is going on with your customer. Read 10-Ks, press releases. Listen to podcasts of company leaders. Get any information you can to gain insight into the key initiatives and issues the company is having. Additionally, gather information about the market and competitors. See what regulations, industry dynamics, up and coming competitors are doing and anticipate how they might affect your customer's business.

Some ways to get started: - Customer interviews: spend some time interviewing past clients, especially clients that left or no longer use your service. Get their feedback and learn about them. Also interview those in your target demographic. - Build a buyer persona: buyer personas come after the research and interviews, not before. Spend some time compiling your interview data as well as other metrics (i.e. social media analytics) to create a persona based on your ideal customer. - Use this persona to anticipate your customers’ needs: don’t be afraid to re-evaluate if necessary, this process is repeatable. Marketing is occasionally as much a game of psychology as it is social media, billboards, and SEO.

Recognize that customer dynamics evolve over time. Regularly reassess and adapt your segmentation criteria to stay attuned to shifting customer behaviors and expectations.

In my experience, segmentation is best applied with a clear strategy and plan for usage. It's all too easy to create segmentations, however without a plan, they won't be given the credibility they deserve. Building segments is all about developing better relationships with the customer that create higher value exchange for all parties involved. It's about taking action and measuring results.

We segment our customers based on their membership level. This allows us to tailor our approach to their specific needs and expectations. Our marketing automation team closely collaborates with our membership coaching team to stay in sync with what they're teaching and coaching. This alignment ensures that our support and resources complement the coaching, providing customers with a seamless experience. To meet customer needs proactively, we schedule software workshops and sessions in alignment with coaching timelines. This means customers can access the support and guidance they need precisely when it's most relevant to their journey.

Regularly revisit and update your tools, methodologies, and datasets to ensure they align with the evolving landscape. This iterative refinement not only hones your predictive capabilities but also positions your organization to stay ahead of the curve, proactively adapting to emerging customer needs and market trends.

You need to make sure that what you have built actually addresses the needs of the customer. Just as you cannot build in a vacuum, you cannot test in a vacuum. The value you get from testing the solution is huge. You can figure out what may need to be changed. You will also figure out areas for customer training, potential marketing messages, and possible support needs. Better to learn this before you launch than wait until to find out later.

Be careful with the definition of assumptions and hypotheses. Typically hypotheses are investigated with a scientific approach and can be either accepted or rejected. This differs from assumptions, which are typically a statement deemed to be true (and therefore often avoid the process of validation). To ensure rigour when testing, ensure that clearly defined hypotheses are documented so testing and results remain aligned to the initial intention for the test and that risk of simply 'assuming' is avoided.