Where Do You Find Customer Insight?

Geological conditions often point to where diamonds may be found; similarly,  insight is more likely under certain market and organizational conditions.

According to research by Dr Brian Smith, it is more likely in areas of the market that are complex and/or turbulent.  So the current market for mobile communications may throw up more opportunities for actionable insight than the current market for confectionary.  Although in the latter case, turbulence in political and social trends is creating more insight opportunities. It is also found:

• when data from different sources is fused to create a big picture eg customer behaviour data, social trends, attitudinal market research, feedback and econometric models.

“Customer insight is lost down the cracks between different customer information departments” Julian Berry, the customer partnerships

• in cultures where thinking is valued and given time, and where different thinking styles are melded together  eg lateral thinking, emotional intelligence and problem solving,

Thinking is the means of productions.  You can no longer have the situation where one person thinks and the rest follow orders.

• in learning organizations,  where the insight behind the current strategy is recorded and understood,  and there is an organized process of scanning information, turning it into relevant knowledge and challenging what is known in order to distilling insight.

Have you worked out where the best place for insight is in your market and organization?