In this episode of Getting to Aha!, Darshan Mehta is joined by Rebecca Brooks, CEO & Founder of Alter Agents. They discuss Rebecca’s aha! moments, how to improve customer experience by making it more powerful and emotional for them, the revelation of customer truths, the future of brand loyalty, the emotional side of customer experience, product innovation, experience innovation, augmented reality, brand response to feedback, and more.  

Rebecca Brooks is a consumer insights researcher who is passionate about revealing consumer history. She has always been interested in the motivations beyond human behavior, what people say and what they do, and why they are doing it. She uses insights from her research to find explanations and provide solutions to modern-day consumer problems and help businesses and brands make better decisions. Rebecca is the CEO & Founder of Alter Agents, a market research consultancy providing innovative quantitative and qualitative solutions that deliver consumer insights to businesses. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

👉 “When people are answering questions, they're answering kind of an idealized version of themselves”

👉 Rather than asking people, “What will you do?”, ask them what they did and why they did it

👉 Brands should always think from the consumers’ perspective, not from what you as a brand want to know, but what is their experience?

👉 There is no defined path to purchase 

👉 With Gen Z, we’ve come to a point where customer loyalty is incredibly hard to hold on to

👉 “Shopper promiscuity” in customers is due to the ease of access to information about several existing brands and markets, and the constant pursuit of the best products 

👉 The increase in customer research is due to the societal and self-imposed pressure to make informed decisions in purchases

👉 “[Brand] is packaging. It is advertising. But it is also who you are, what you stand for, how you are seen in the world, how you handle controversy, how you talk about things that have gone wrong. All of that is now part of the brand identity, and all have to be given equal attention"  

👉 Customer experience is “not only about innovating in terms of the products in your category, but it's also thinking about innovating the customer's experience so that you are living up to experiences that they're getting from other brands, even if those brands aren't in your category”

👉 Understand the emotional driver behind customers' purchases

👉 Creating an emotional connection between customers and your product is a great way to improve customer experience and aid customer retention

👉 “Understand who your shopper is, and where are they on the scale and kind of what are their needs at the moment. Are you really serving what their emotional health is?” 

👉 The ability to connect to customers' emotional side, figure out the driving force behind them, and make them happy are powerful components in the enhancement of customer experience 

bCast - https://bit.ly/3ACsRBz

Apple - https://apple.co/3gsuA31 

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3B0lVy6 

Youtube - https://bit.ly/3KYAHtd 

RSS -  https://bit.ly/3AFrUs6 

And connect with the host and guests here:

Darshan Mehta on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/darshan--mehta

IResearch Website - https://iresearch.com
Rebecca Brooks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccalbrooks/
Alter Agents: http://www.alteragents.com