You Don’t Profit From Customer Insights Unless You Take Action

This article answers the question: How do companies turn customer insights into profit?

Answer: Customer insights only create value when companies act on them to improve customer experience, reduce problems, and strengthen loyalty.

I recently received an email from Mariusz Gromada, the chief of retail customers at Bank Millennium in Warsaw. He shared some information about his recently released book, Customers First, Value Next. A quote from the book caught my eye: 

“Insight is a cost. Action is a profit.” 

As I thought about that quote, I realized, without reading his explanation, that Gromada is spot on. How do we get insights? They come from what we experience, what customers say, what frontline employees observe, customer complaints, online reviews, survey results, social media comments, and even watching customers’ behaviors and buying patterns.  

None of that is free. There is always a cost to gaining insight. It can be the hard cost of putting together a formal feedback program, whether through surveys or technology that tracks customer sentiment and comments. Or it could be the time it takes to talk directly to customers and discuss with your team. Yes, time is money.  

Until you take action, all the activity leading up to the insight and the decision to act on it carries a cost. Consider that an investment. 

That investment must have a return. It’s not until you take action and see positive results that you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. And at this point, I must share that any company that intentionally asks customers for feedback and then does nothing with it is not only wasting everyone’s time, it’s also wasting dollars, as in the cost of preparing the survey and creating the system that collects the responses. Without action, you can’t profit from the investment of your effort. 

Assuming you take action, what’s the ROI of these insights? 

1. An opportunity to improve products and services 

2. Improved customer service and experience 

3. Fewer complaints 

4. Lower customer churn 

5. The elimination or mitigation of recurring problems 

6. Increased customer loyalty that drives more revenue and profit 

Of course, there are other ways to profit from insights, but the six I’ve shared should be enough to reinforce the idea that insights by themselves have no value unless they inspire you to take action.  

Collecting feedback without taking action is nothing more than an expensive exercise. Customers notice when their feedback leads to improvements. Employees notice when leadership listens to them. And businesses see the results of their efforts in the form of loyalty, retention, and growth. Insight may be a cost, but when you combine it with action, you find profit.