How BMG and Loop use data to make critical decisions

The audience at X4 London were treated to a panel discussion with leaders from two brands that take listening extremely seriously – both literally and figuratively speaking. Louise Haazen is Research & User-centered Design Lead at Loop, a scale-up producing innovative earplugs, and Thomas Cnudde is Loop’s Marketing Insight Specialist. Simon Wood is Head of Research Division at leading market research agency BMG.

They discussed the importance of listening to customers when making decisions and how they use data to improve product design, marketing messages, and strategy to name just a few.

Customer data is useful right across the product lifecycle

Loop has a close and productive relationship with its customer base, which inputs into the business in multiple ways.

“Making sure people know we understand them is super, super important,” says Louise. “We're really happy we’ve been able to do that so far, because we have a huge, loyal community that really helps us on a daily basis with our innovation.”

Loop sets itself the goal of basing 80% of decisions on customer insights, and the team is diligent about collecting data from various sources.

“You have a little bit of repetition, but our community offers us a lot of information on social media. So our community management team and customer support gather a lot of data, and we use tags to segment it. We tag tickets and incoming messages, and it reaches a certain volume, for example of complaints, that's immediately communicated to the product team. We also use the data to guide marketing and communication style,“ Louise says.

Insight-backed actions might be strategic or tactical

At BMG, big picture analysis sits side by side with shorter-horizon insights. The key, says Simon, is knowing which is which.

“We have strategic insights, and then the more tactical piece. A lot of the work we do involves getting the bigger insights to inform, for example, if a pilot process needs to be changed. But that's a big thing and for most organizations, that’s behavioral change that takes time.

“But there are a lot of quicker wins. Put the data in the right people's hands and they can make  little changes on a daily basis that actually helps organizations be more successful. Meanwhile, the bigger piece can be going on in the background.”

Getting data into the right hands is a challenge Loop have considered carefully.

“A challenge many of us face is how to spread these insights across the organization and make sure that people are actually using them,” says Thomas.

“At Loop we and the customer experience team have a monthly flow where we organize newsletters and meetings to highlight what has been researched or discovered. It ensures that everybody is aware of all the new and interesting stuff that our customers are telling us, and that they can take immediate actions on it.”

Start with your end goal

You don’t need a crystal ball to look at what the future can tell you. Starting your market research with an end goal in mind is critical, Simon says, especially when it comes to internal communication and getting the green light to turn your insights into actions.

“Think about what you want to do at the end of the project,” advises Simon. “Where do you want to be when you have the output or insight in your hands?

“It's very easy to end up saying ‘I've got a great report, I've got a great insight, now what do I do with it? Who is the right person to go to? Do I need to check how I communicate with them? What's their level of buy-in?

“By doing that part first, and feeding your answers into the process, you get a far, far better, quicker outcome.”