Research Live published an article exploring the changing role of insight experts, the business case for customer-led transformation and the ways in which insight teams can drive value in their organisations. The article entitled, The True Role of Insight Teams in Customer-Led Transformation, was published on 9th April 2024.
As the world changes, so do customers, and so too should businesses. PwC put it quite succinctly, in that “customers have changed. They work and consume in new and different ways. They have less to spend and demand sustainability, security and a brand they can trust to behave responsibly”. Businesses must catch up to the demands of customers or lose out on business entirely.
However, they are still slashing market research budgets, relying on experience or gut-based decision-making, and reinforcing silos across their organisation and industry. And throughout all of this, the role of an insight team is shifting.
As it is, building business strategies is a tricky task; building future-proofed business strategies that are customer-led and in line with the changes in customer behaviour, where operations are more sustainable and transparent, is trickier still when you don’t know how. Doing this successfully requires one thing: customer insight. And that is where insight teams come in.
Historically, those who worked in market research were there to question customers and consumers on their experiences, take the data to businesses and that was that. Then, it evolved to sorting through the data, analysing it to generate key insights, and organising a debrief in which they would present a report to stakeholders, and that was that. But now, insight teams have to be researchers, business advisors, founts of vital information, and insight translators all at the very least to keep up with stakeholder demands and help them become customer-led organisations.
Insight teams hold the answers, not just to what customers are thinking and doing at this moment in time, but also to how stakeholders can use these insights to guide organisational changes and business strategies to best fit in this new world.
Becoming customer-led requires a continuous level of Customer Salience throughout an organisation, and insight teams are the key to making this work. Continue reading the full article to learn more.
Research Live is the world's leading source of industry news, opinions, special reports and feature articles for market and social researchers, data analysts and consumer insight professionals. Covering the latest trends and techniques from behavioural economics to big data analytics, as well as hot topics like polling and privacy. The publication is operated by the Market Research Society.