How Your Insight Team Can Use Customer Tracking to Boost Sales

Customer tracking used to be a two-dimensional practice based on postcodes and static IP addresses.

But, with the widespread adoption of mobile devices, social media and geotagging, you can now use customer tracking to gain the in-depth insight you need to boost sales and your overall customer experience.

What customer tracking should my business be doing?

Provided your methods are legal, ethical and orientated towards improving the customer experience, you should be using every possible avenue to track your customers online and offline, including:

  • Census data
  • In-store purchasing behaviour
  • Direct mail response rates
  • Email open and response rates
  • Social media dialogue
  • Mobile device geotags
  • Website search and click behaviours

How insights gained from customer tracking can boost sales

These are just some of the ways that you can use customer tracking to boost sales:

Census data

Businesses can acquire two integral types of data from the census, which is updated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) every decade:

Economic data

  • How markets are performing in specific regions
  • How performance compares to previous censuses
  • Frequency and location of competitor stores within a defined locality
  • Scope of regional logistical and distributional networks

Public data

  • Names, ages and addresses
  • Education level, employment and disposable income
  • Marital and parental status
  • Cultural or religious affiliation

Use this data to:

  • Optimise store locations close to potential customers
  • Draw up more accurate customer personas
  • Establish which areas might be under-served
  • Distribute stock or service provision effectively

Purchasing behaviour

Track purchasing behaviour using data from tills and online transactions (via IP address) to find out:

  • What products specific customers are inclined to purchase
  • The times and dates on which customers are most likely to purchase
  • Which related products or services customers might be interested in

Use this data to:

Mobile device data

Mobile device (smartphone, tablet or phablet) data adds a location-based element to the overall picture, including:

  • What routes customers travel regularly on and when
  • Whether they prefer to research/purchase via mobile or desktop devices
  • What types of activity they enjoy and when via social media ‘check-ins’

Use this data to:

  • Find store locations with high footfall
  • Target customers with relevant digital marketing offers when they’re most likely to be utilised
  • Decipher how their interests/lifestyle choices might sway their purchasing decisions
  • Decide where to place offline ads (billboards, posters on public transport etc.) for maximum effect

Feedback

Feedback can now be collated from a range of different online and offline sources, such as feedback slips, questionnaires, customer service interaction and social media posts.

Use this data to:

  • Judge users’ opinion of your brand and specific stores/sales channels
  • Identify and address issues at specific stores in a timely manner
  • Increase customer loyalty by providing immediate assistance
  • Launch targeted marketing initiatives
  • Adapt store or service to meet local tastes

With so much insight available, the only real risk is that it takes you too long to draw insights, making them both less relevant and cost-effective. By using Periscope®, you can analyse up to 200 datasets simultaneously, then intuitively overlay your insights on your own corporate, secure version of Google Maps.

Discover how Periscope® can help you gain valuable insights from customer, competitor and location-specific data.