Tracking brand impact.

Giving your tracker commercial clout

In the world of big and sexy data, trackers often get side lined by the magpie lustre of shiny-shiny science. Yet a well-managed tracker can power up insight and marketing departments with a rich seam of customer intelligence.

We’ve outlined a few practical pointers to show how to give your tracker commercial clout.

Customer tracker KPIs

You might have the most insightful tracker in the market, but without a tangible link to the brand’s DNA it runs the risk of becoming fancy wallpaper. Linking the tracker to the NPS, customer satisfaction score or other business performance indicator, emphasizes the central importance of customers to the financial health of the brand. This, in turn, ensures that stakeholders care about the outputs.

A clear story

Make sure the consultancy you work with takes time to understand the types of deliverables you will value most. Even if the customer tracker draws on information from multiple business units and myriad touch points, you need a simple story with a clear narrative that details your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Your consultancy should be able to create reports, videos and decks tailored to the (sometimes disparate) needs of the stakeholders. They should be initiating frequent reviews of your needs to keep the tracker responsive.

Beyond the customer tracker questionnaire

The best tracker teams know that the tracker is more than just the questionnaire. Drawing on other sources of insight like qualitative research, behavioural economics, digital dialogue, existing brand knowledge and customer data and stakeholder interviews (e.g. identity pain points through front line staff) will create outputs that have real depth and meaning applicable to multiple decision-making units.

A dynamic tracker

Your consultancy should be working with you to understand your brand’s priorities and using the tracking questionnaire to create deep-dives in to targeted areas of the brand or customer experience. Similarly, they can use it to shine a spotlight on specific segments. Trackers can make for dull reading if all you receive is a report on the top lines every quarter.

Collaborative working

The magic happens when there’s active collaboration between the brand and the customer consultancy. Invite your tracker team to visit service centres and stores. Spending time in the heart of operations will give them a sense of how a brand feels from the inside and help them understand customer pain points.

Keep it visible

If you’re getting great insight from your customer tracker, don’t just keep it in the insight department. Spread the word and share the customer intelligence and strategy suggestions your consultancy has developed. It can make a powerful difference to the decision making in departments from customer experience, to proposition development and marketing.