Show me a customer analytics tool now!
Not exactly sure what you should be looking for? Maybe you’re not entirely convinced what customer analytics is? Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re in a hurry, feel free to skip some super helpful insights and go straight to the list of tools I’ve collected!
What is customer analytics?
Let’s keep it simple. Customer analytics are metrics that allow you to better understand your customer.
Much like you would be inclined to get to know a potential date, asking the right questions and coming across as a genuine person is a decent start. Not many people enjoy an ego-driven, pretentious know-it-all with a tendency to exaggerate. Spoiler alert: this applies to most things, including marketing.
There’s no longer an excuse not to have some basic customer analytics up your sleeve when tackling brand awareness or obtaining insights about your audience. Industry trends are constantly evolving, as are consumer behaviors. So, the better you understand your consumers, the better your campaign strategies, social media content, customer engagement, and business decisions will be.
And if that doesn’t cut it for you, let’s kick it up a notch and talk about the benefits of having access to this detailed analysis.
The benefits of customer analytics
Picture this. You show up to your first date, a little nervous, wondering if you’re overdressed. It’s a pizza parlor. Perfect, you love pizza.
What if, instead of panicking and trying to be polite for 13 minutes, there was a pizza already on the table, perfect for sharing? Wouldn’t that save everyone a lot of headache? (Or stomachache?)
Friend: Hey I see you smiling at your phone. Who is she?
Me: {quickly closing out a Pizza Hut order confirmation email} Oh, just some girl.
— Seth (@djsethlowery) August 16, 2016
Imagine you could figure out exactly which toppings each of your customers wanted. Perfectly made to order. Customer analytics software allows you and your team to understand what your customers want, and how they interact with your products or services.
Customer analysis done right is a treasure trove of valuable information. It allows you to create more streamlined campaigns and really target marketing efforts. By focusing on the individual, you can create customized content, features, and services that apply to their profile.
Another huge plus is brand loyalty. With the proper customer insights, you’ll be able to deliver appropriate content to consumers, ensuring they come back.
Discover more ways to build customer loyalty with our Brand Love Story 2022 and see how top brands around the world successfully implemented the 11 methods to drive brand love.
The 11 methods to drive brand love.
If you can get your hands on customer analytics tools, you can also retain customers which is even more important when budgets are slashed. Whoops. Guess dinner’s on you.
Everyone has been on at least one date that was a complete flop. Makes for a great story, but most of us would probably prefer it never to have happened.
Whether you want to think about it or not, a PR crisis is a possibility, and the more aware you are of conversations regarding your customer and within your industry, the faster you’ll be able to react and tackle an issue before disaster strikes. There’s no coming back from having your email blacklisted, or your number blocked. Trust me.
Why is customer analytics important?
So… what’s all the fuss about?
Is customer analytics going to make or break your brand? Perhaps not, but extra protection never hurt anyone. Some people are more selective with their dating options or food choices than others, just as they can be when choosing a product or service. For some, preferring sushi over Korean BBQ is a mortal sin, but I’ll leave that distinction up to you.
By tuning into conversations from all over the web, you’ll be able to build targeted, niche campaigns that perform better. Gone are the days where you could just check likes, mentions, and other vanity metrics; you need to track customer touchpoints to see what they’re saying about you. If you can make consumers feel like you’re talking directly to them, you’re likely to reduce costs and increase ROI.
Play your cards right, and you just might get that second date.
What are the best customer analytics tools?
Just as people have different preferences when it comes to dating, you’re not beholden to using just one tool or software. There are many different platforms out there that fulfill different needs. Let’s get into the thick of it.
Talkwalker
Want to paint a super clear picture of your customer’s wants and needs? Look no further than the Talkwalker platform, our AI-powered analytics tool that collects valuable social insights. Giving you a more complete picture of your consumers.
Whether you need to improve your customer journey, create more targeted content, or simply understand your audience better, Talkwalker’s range of features is sure to do the trick. Just like attending a Paint and Sip event, a little extra help won’t hurt.
Top features to check out:
- Use Quick Search to discover trending content that is relevant to your consumers. Improve campaigns and content with streamlined information and a super clear all-in-one dashboard.
- Want something a bit flashier? Check out our Conversation Clusters to map out any topic visually. See what your consumers are into in real time and detect emerging themes and trending conversations.
- To really know how people are feeling about your brand, head over to sentiment analysis and alerts to get the lowdown on whether people think positively or negatively about you. Stop problematic situations dead in their tracks; be responsive anywhere, anytime.
Google Analytics
The life of the party. This list would be slightly amiss without mentioning Google Analytics, a staple in many marketers’ back pocket. Lucky for us, it’s free!
A website analytics service, this platform gives you heaps of insightful metrics, including juicy details about your customers or visitors to your page. What else can you do with this data collection powerhouse?
- Browse how and from what location customers are discovering your page
- Track ROI for all your marketing efforts, and boost overall performance
- Make calculated decisions based on user behavior to better reach your target consumer
Hotjar
Want to bring the heat? Swing over to Hotjar’s website to really understand your user experience without facing a ton of numbers. Where most predictive analytics tools give you a breakdown of traffic data, Hotjar can let you know what consumers are really doing on your site.
Some cool things to check out:
- Heatmaps are a cool visual representation of user behavior on your site. Pinpoint where people click and scroll to really understand what’s drawing their attention
- Put yourself in your customer’s shoes with surveys that add voice of the customer to your business intelligence
- Identify potential issues and solutions immediately by reviewing live playbacks of users on your site including clicks and mouse movement
Brand24
Do you care about your online reputation? If you don’t, maybe you should; it affects more than you think. Brand awareness, media monitoring, customer behavior, Brand24 covers all the bases.
Enjoy instant access to brand mentions, and track online reviews across social media, blogs, news sites, and more. Would you give someone a second chance if the internet was full of warning signs and negative reviews?
What to leverage with Brand24...
- Speed up your interaction time with a Mentions Feed
- Access changes in volume and reach with a Discussion Volume Chart
- For significant changes, program an alert so you’re able to respond at the drop of a hat
Sprout Social
Inform brand and strategy for every area of your business with a comprehensive social media management platform. Do everything all in one place and transform your marketing. Work smarter and stay aware of everything that’s going on without getting bogged down by the details.
Looking for a head start? Try these out:
- Stay on top of response management by delegating tasks and receiving notifications of relevant customer activity
- Create a personalized service for longer-lasting relationships and gain insight into customer satisfaction
- Ensure you measure the impact of your actions with reports that provide detailed insights on individual and team response times
Mixpanel
Let’s mix things up by throwing in a product that focuses on retaining customers, or in their words, “Stop the Drop” and bring user dropoff to a screeching halt. Learn how users are using your product and which aspects or features are most popular. You’d want to identify your best attributes too, right?
A lot of information is out there, and sometimes it can be just a bit brain-scrambling to make sense of it all. To figure out who converts and why, take these Mixpanel features for a spin…
- Measure the results of a new launch to see how users are reacting
- Identify the actions consumers take before they buy or even after they sign up
- Figure out the parts of your funnel that cause friction so you can improve customer interaction before they ditch
Woopra
Let’s talk user journey! A common problem for a lot of brands is not knowing what their customers are doing. Trying to get things done in the dark is pretty tough; just ask anyone that’s been on a blind date. No, I mean a literal blind date, the dine-in-the-dark kind of event where you accidentally spill wine on the waiter and it takes three times as long to eat anything.
Woopra is a customer journey analytics tools, that helps you understand users from every possible angle. They help build a detailed individual profile for every single consumer in real time. Unconvinced? See for yourself…
- Sync customer information and track activity from your website, app, email, support systems, and much more
- Access People Reports to create lists and segment users by behavior and engagement
- Examine the profile and actions of every single user to better understand customer behavior
Your users aren’t just numbers, they’re living breathing consumers with minds of their own. The faster you’re able to tap into and translate customer data, the better off your results will be.
Tableau
They say time is money, and I’m not one to disagree. Tableau helps you achieve a lot more in less time than before.
How do they do that? By putting the user first. Their products help people understand big data with an emphasis on collaboration. What you’ll get from Tableau:
- Get up and running in no time flat thanks to Tableau Online being a fully hosted solution
- Publish dashboards with customers via easily accessible and interactive visuals
- With subscriptions, choose when people receive updates so actions are more targeted
Simplity
Simply one of the best ways to understand and act on your data? You betcha. This award-winning agency makes things simple. They tailor the services they offer to the specific needs of your business or data and offer suggestions that will achieve positive results in a short amount of time.
Let’s break it down…
- Figure out who your best customers are to gain predictable revenues through customer segmentation
- Identify the exact reasons customers are leaving and improve CX well before it’s a crisis
- Boost your loyalty program via unified customer profiles from various locations
Kissmetrics
Well, this is one analytics platform that’s bound to turn heads. Ideal for SaaS teams, Kissmetrics enables you to really crank up the heat on customer experience. Their key objectives are to convert more demos into customers and reduce churn as well.
There is no denying that customer analytics are valuable, but at the end of the day, you have to put food on the table, right?
How to do just that with Kissmetrics:
- Identify which features of your product are used most daily, weekly, and monthly
- Compare feature usage over time to pinpoint problem areas
- Track the consumers that keep on returning and identify your best customers
Totango
A lot of people like traveling, a little bit of adventure, the thrill of a journey. However, when it comes to perfecting your customer journey, there are a few things to consider. This is where Totango steps in, accelerating customer success with a widely adopted user system. Integrate the tools you’re already comfortable with, and implement changes quickly and easily as your business grows.
Ready to tango?
- Totango’s customer success software gives you increased productivity and a lower churn rate
- Access a complete view of your customer with account profiles that give you everything you need to know
- Connect all your consumer data into one data stream to achieve cross-channel efficiency
A few final words…
There you have it. Customer analytics tools are incredibly useful for obtaining insights and making the right call. As things progress and new technologies are developed, it’s important to stay aware of who you’re trying to market to, and what their habits, preferences, and needs are.
There may come a time when people are much more upfront about their likes and dislikes, but until that time, it’s vital that you have the right software and analysis to help your business along. If you want to get a head start, I highly recommend giving our consumer intelligence platform a whirl to experience for yourself the difference it really makes.
