Keeping a breast and having the ability to identify those important human truths creates a platform for ‘magic’.

We’ve seen it, many traditional industries and markets are being disrupted by smaller businesses mainly by those introducing new technologies and innovation. However no matter the size of your business, maintaining good momentum comes with how agile your business is to the speed of market changes today. Speed and agility are significant challenges for businesses.

Identifying and monitoring your business key drivers, is critical to maintaining positive momentum and boosting business profitability. So what is a key driver? A key driver is something that has a major impact on the performance of your business. Companies decide how often they monitor key drivers, some monitor monthly, others weekly or even daily to keep ahead of the curve.

A business could have various drivers, but one critical threat to a changing market is the rise of customer expectations. Technology has led to the increase of information available to people, making nearly everyone expecting more. Businesses need to know what customers want now and how it will drive their customers satisfaction and loyalty. Knowing your customer and keeping abreast with the changes is critical as it directly affects your sales and therefore any business success.

You’re able to access various consumer trendspotting insights like Euromonitor International: Top 10 Global Consumer Trends for 2018, Emerging Forces Shaping Consumer Behaviour and Top Five Digital Consumer Trends in 2018. But I’d like to reference a recent article by Kris Gage, from her experience she notes the three most important insights she’s learnt about customers. A good guide to human truths applied to better understand your customer and creating the magic through your customer experience model.

1. It’s never really about the product; consumers are looking to solve a problem, to feel important, to feel beautiful, to kill time, to have fun to socialize, to feel something or to stop feeling something. Understanding these needs and deep motivations goes a long way to building a rapport with your customer. You almost never talk or market directly to the need, you don’t want to lose the magic. We’ve seen this strategy used by many great brands from soft drinks to investment banks. They all create the magic. Have a look at Air France latest TV commercial.
2. People want to be guided; they don’t want to do much decision making and very rarely come to the table knowing exactly what they want. So this is a great opportunity to navigate and guide consumers to your product.
   1. People want to know your expertise – people are always looking for your recommendation. The clever use of available data and online platforms like your website and social media platforms can help guide your customer.
   2. People want to know what everyone else is doing – people generally want to try the most popular so first entry or best known brands generally stay that. Social proof is a powerful tool, and with  great power comes great responsibility.
3. Consistency vs Novelty; People love consistency, they want to understand what they’re getting into and will often base decisions on historical behaviour or experiences. They want consistency in their environments. So anything experienced for the first time generally makes people disoriented. They feel lost compared to those familiar and those who know their way around. Regulars generally know what to expect and they know your name. An example Kris Gage used, much like a regular at the bar, they know what they want to order. Consistency is critical to building a brand. A successful brand has to be consistent in communication and experience, across many applications.

People love new stuff, they will engage with whatever you put in front of them. People love free stuff even more. However, it has to feel special, targeted and unexpected.

People want to be liked and believe it or not they want to like you. The closer you help your customers to get to their goals the closer you’ll get to yours.

CONCLUSION

Your ongoing effort to explore and better understand human truths and creating the magic will result in establishing long-term relationships with your customers. This can mean an increase in sales, more projects, word-of-mouth referrals, advocacy for your products or services as well as as the insight and ability to adapt to market changes.