Your Very Own Genome Project
I have advice for you in this brand-spanking new decade: Create your own Customer Genome Project. As far as I know, this isn’t an official term anywhere, but I think it should be. The true essence of your business is knowing your customer well and delivering on what you know. To deliver the most to your customer, you must go to a level of understanding that is greater than what you know now. Dig deeper: look at your customers’ unique behaviors, desires, comfort zones, preferences, fears, passions and unique situations. Set aside your humanity for a moment and break each of these components down to a “variable of influence”, or highly detailed preference, that can be formed into an infinite array of combinations based on each unique customer. You now have the components of your “customer DNA strand”. New awareness always leads innovation, and this eye-opening exercise may trigger a serious round of innovation as your customer awareness deepens.. If you get to this “DNA” level with your customers, would it not be hard to miss how to increase the value of what you offer and how you serve them?
Recently I signed up for Pandora, an Internet radio service. In the first three weeks I doubled my music purchases. Why? They have analyzed my customer DNA so thoroughly, they send only music I like I like – and at least half of the music is new to me, yet it is exactly what I want. Every time I listen to a song, give it a thumbs up rating, click to pass to the next song, or bookmark an artist, I am honing my customer DNA profile. It gets better and better as Pandora uses my minute preferences (DNA components) to get better at sending only music perfectly suited to my tastes. Here is what my Pandora “customer DNA” strand of music preferences looks like:
My music variables (DNA components):
Basic rock song structures
Electronica influences
A subtle use of paired vocal harmony
Mild rhythmic syncopation
Intricate melodic phrasing
Major key tonality
A breathy male lead vocalist
Acoustic instrumental undertones
Spontaneous sound samples and vocal riffs
Ninety Seconds take away:
If you build your own customer DNA strands, what would they look like? What is a level of customer preferences that is at least one step beyond where you are now? Start building your strand here. What are the mechanisms and tools you will use to continuously improve your customer DNA strands? Can you get to a level that anticipates what your customer wants? Can you know them so well you can introduce something new you know they will be thrilled to see? This is the way most successful businesses will operate in the very near future. The tools are here now – it’s only a matter of building them into your business.
Tags: , customer dna, customer intelligence, customer segmentation, customer service
