Photo by Trung Vo Chi, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest
How do you understand your customers?
Knowing customers' lives, needs, and aspirations is the starting point for customer centricity. Insights from daily interactions, targeted research, and smart use of internal data reveal what drives financial behavior and help providers create more relevant and empowering solutions. Information generated by providers can be complemented by other sources, such as national DFS risk surveys, to build a more complete picture of customers and their operating environment.
Key Resources
- Persona profile: Create user personas to represent key customer groups.
- Customer journey map: Track how customers interact with your products and services.
How do you turn data into insights?
Collecting information is only useful if it translates into action. Tools like personas, journey maps, and segmentation help providers visualize customer experiences, identify pain points, and uncover unmet needs. These insights make it possible to design products and services that customers will actually use.
Key Resources
- Customer Analytics Toolkit: A four-phase process to strengthen analytics capacity and link data to business strategy.
- Customer Segmentation Toolkit: Identify groups with shared needs to better tailor products and strategies.
How do insights shape value and design?
Customers weigh both costs and benefits when deciding to use financial services. Beyond price, factors like trust, time, and convenience determine uptake. Turning these insights into clear design principles ensures organizations consistently deliver value and build stronger relationships with customers.
Key Resources
- Money, Decisions, and Control: Three principles for aligning services with how low-income people manage money.
- How the Poor Manage their Money (video): Short explainer on designing around existing behaviors.