In today’s highly competitive business landscape, understanding your customers is more critical than ever before. Customer insight platforms can make or break a company’s success, as they provide valuable information that enables businesses to make informed decisions, tailor their offerings, and enhance customer experience.
To harness these insights effectively, companies turn to a consumer insights platform. In this blog post, we will explore the definition, uses, types, and examples of the consumer insights platform.
What is a Customer Insight Platform?
Customer insight platforms are defined as online tools or forums created for businesses to enable them to have 2-way communication with their customers. Gaining, nurturing, and retaining valuable customer relationships needs a strong and robust customer insight platform.
Adopting the best customer insight software is a major step toward engaging your customers and building healthy relationships with them in the form of an online community.
The customer insight platform is nothing but an extension of your brand. Members of the community can share open feedback about the product or service they use.
Businesses use such platforms to understand their needs and expectations of customers and make important business decisions based on the findings. They help create meaningful, long-term relationships to maintain a competitive business edge.
Thus, a consumer insights platform enables customers to come together to give important feedback on various subject matters related to a product or service.
Communities help businesses and organizations receive real-time data and honest feedback on what is going well and what they may need to alter, which helps alter their approach or strategy to better suit themselves and their customers. This results in a win-win situation for both the customer and the organization.
The collection of actionable insights can be achieved using multiple qualitative market research and quantitative market research methods such as surveys, topics and discussions, polls, etc.
Customer-centric organizations rely on an online customer insight platform to create and launch new products or upgrade existing products in the market to suit what the customer looks for. Using insight platforms is a major step toward achieving all-around customer satisfaction.
10 of The Best Customer Insight Platforms
Here, we present ten top-notch platforms that offer robust features, insightful analytics, and user-friendly interfaces.
1. QuestionPro InsightHub
QuestionPro InsightHub is an all-encompassing consumer insight platform designed to gather, analyze, and interpret data from various sources. It offers a wide range of tools for survey creation, data analysis, and reporting. It allows businesses to understand their customers’ behavior, preferences, and needs.
Best Features:
- Customizable survey templates
- Visualize cross-project relationships
- Insights repositories
- Collaboration features for team-based analysis
- Democratized insights
- Data segmentation and targeting options
Cons:
- Some features may require additional costs
Pricing:
- QuestionPro offers free trial options for 14 days, starting at $99 per month per user.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends is a powerful consumer insight platform offered by Google, providing real-time data on search trends and consumer behavior. It enables businesses to track the popularity of specific keywords, topics, and brands, offering valuable insights into market trends and consumer interests.
Best Features:
- Real-time data on search trends
- Integration with social media platforms
- Geographic and demographic insights
- Trending topics and related queries
- Insights for content strategy and SEO optimization
Cons:
- Limited to online search data
- Lack of detailed demographic information
- Limited customization options
Pricing:
- Google Trends, provided by Google, is a cost-free tool accessible to all, enabling users to analyze data and the popularity of search queries entered into Google Analytics across different regions and languages.
3. Attest
Attest is a leading consumer research platform that helps businesses gather consumer insights through surveys, market research, and data analytics. It offers a range of features to understand consumer preferences, behaviors, and sentiments, helping businesses make informed decisions.
Best Features:
- Targeted audience recruitment
- Real-time insights dashboard
- Automated report generation
- Competitive benchmarking
- Consumer trend analysis
Cons:
- Higher pricing compared to some competitors
- Occasional delays in report generation
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
4. Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a leading customer experience and insight platform that enables organizations to gather and analyze customer feedback across multiple channels. It offers tools for survey creation, data analytics, and customer journey mapping.
Best Features:
- Advanced survey logic and customization.
- Predictive analytics.
- Real-time feedback collection.
- Customer journey mapping.
Cons:
- Higher cost for advanced features.
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
5. SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a well-known platform for creating and distributing surveys, offering businesses the ability to gather customer insights easily. It provides a variety of survey templates and robust analytics tools.
Best Features:
- User-friendly interface.
- Survey templates for various industries.
- Data visualization tools.
- Automated responses and follow-ups.
Cons:
- Advanced analytics is available only in higher-tier plans.
Pricing:
- Plans start at $25 per user per month.
6. Clarabridge
Clarabridge offers a sophisticated platform for customer insight, focusing on text and sentiment analysis. It enables businesses to analyze customer feedback from various sources, including social media, surveys, and customer support interactions.
Best Features:
- AI-powered text analysis.
- Multi-language support.
- Customizable reports and dashboards.
- Integration with various data sources.
- Customer journey mapping.
Cons:
- Requires time to learn complex features.
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
7. NielsenIQ
NielsenIQ provides comprehensive consumer insights by analyzing purchasing behavior, media consumption, and brand performance. It offers businesses detailed market research and trend analysis.
Best Features:
- Detailed market segmentation.
- Retail and media measurement.
- Predictive analytics.
- Data integration from multiple sources.
- Customizable reporting.
Cons:
- Expensive for small businesses.
- Requires expertise in data interpretation.
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
8. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a social media monitoring and customer insight platform that tracks consumer sentiment and brand mentions across various online platforms. It provides valuable insights for brand management and marketing strategies.
Best Features:
- Social media analytics.
- Brand sentiment analysis.
- Competitive benchmarking.
- Customizable dashboards.
- AI-driven insights.
Cons:
- Complex user interface.
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
9. Medallia
Medallia is a customer experience management platform that captures customer feedback in real time. It focuses on understanding customer sentiments and improving experiences across touchpoints.
Best Features:
- AI-driven sentiment analysis.
- Multi-channel feedback collection.
- Real-time alerts and action management.
- Customizable dashboards.
Cons:
- Complex setup for new users.
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
10. Sprinklr
Sprinklr is a customer experience management platform that offers deep insights into customer behavior across social media and digital channels. It integrates customer feedback, social listening, and analytics in one platform.
Best Features:
- Excellent social listening.
- Multi-channel customer engagement.
- AI-driven insights.
- Real-time analytics.
- Workflow automation.
Cons:
- Premium pricing for advanced features.
Pricing:
- Pricing is available upon request.
Factors to Consider While Setting Up a Customer Insight Platform
Setting up and managing a successful customer insights platform is definitely not a piece of cake. Multiple factors must be considered to set up successful online consumer insights platforms. Let’s look at what they are:
- The number of members: This is the most important factor because your members make up your platform. Having an optimal size of the sample is essential. Also, having a mix of people belonging to different backgrounds and demographics, having different product experience levels, customer experience levels, etc., will help you get wider feedback.
- Clarity of topics: The online community in a customer insight platform provides the most relevant results when the topics appeal to the community members. Keeping the topics clear and understandable by the majority of your community helps the organization collect accurate information that is most relevant to the business.
- Collecting data through mobile devices: Mobiles are the go-to devices for the majority of people. Getting in touch with your community has never been simpler due to its wide reach.
- Incentivize members: Incentives are the driving force that attracts insight community members to respond to studies and surveys.
Offering incentives to members will increase the overall participation of its members, boosting the health of your community. Always choose to give back to your customers or community members for the time they take to help you improve your product or service.
- Community management: Skillfully managing your insight community is important for the sustainment and growth of your platform.
It is also important to keep the existing members active and engaged. Clearly defining the community objective, recruiting members, and actively engaging the people play a crucial role in the success of the customer insight platform.
Learn More: The 10-Step Guide to Managing and Using Online Communities
Advantages of Customer Insight Platforms
Companies are increasingly relying on advanced tools and technologies like customer insight platforms to gain deeper customer intelligence through customer analytics to achieve customer satisfaction.
These platforms offer a multitude of advantages, empowering businesses to not only meet but exceed customer expectations. Let’s delve into the remarkable benefits that consumer Insights tools bring to the table.
Brand familiarity
Community members have a high level of brand awareness due to their familiarity with the brand. The level and quantity of insights received by these existing users will be much higher due to the members trusting the brand while being a part of the customer insight platform.
Accumulated insights
Reactions received from different persons belonging to various backgrounds, demographics, cultures, and locations over a period of time will help the organization understand the life and behavior of the product and service. Insights accumulated over a period of time will help them take the best approach towards bettering their products by understanding their customers and giving them what they want if feasible.
Gamified rewards
Providing gamified rewards to your members will increase the level of participation and the number of responses received. The excitement of receiving rewards motivates the members to participate actively and often. Active participation is what every consumer insights platform strives to achieve.
Customer engagement
If your customer is kept engaged with your brand, it’s more likely that he/she will choose your product over your competitor.
A customer insight platform is the best way to keep your customers engaged and have them come back for more of your products or services. Customer engagement provides a feel-good factor for customers, which is what every business aims to achieve.
Decreased market research budget
Conducting market research comprises various activities like formulating studies, collecting samples, urging samples to take surveys, etc. Building and maintaining a consumer insights platform can help the organization cut costs and save time on the activities.
Get a more comprehensive customer view
Companies are taking the “understand your patrons deeper” approach. These organizations understand that knowing their customers more by interacting with them and accepting open feedback will give them an upper hand in the market.
Characteristics of a Customer Insight Platform
Some of the major characteristics of a customer insight platform are:
Monitored business objectives
An unmonitored customer platform is like pouring water on a duck’s back. The whole objective of the online community is to gain real-time insights from your customers and to act upon them to better your product or service.
This is done to retain your existing customers by keeping them happy and also gain more customers by giving them what they need. Monitoring customer feedback is of utmost importance, and a portal that is unmonitored is as good as useless.
Relevant target audience
It goes unsaid; true, valuable feedback is only received from the appropriate audience. Feedback received from random sources who are in no way connected to your product will not take you anywhere.
You may end up making the wrong choices and making the wrong decisions, which will impact your business heavily. As a thumb rule, always choose the right members to reach out to, whose opinions can be put into action to positively enhance your product or service.
Engaging content
Engaging content is content that enhances the value of the lives of your potential customers, customers, and other community members. The more you engage your community, the more benefit you will potentially get out of it. If it is relevant to the reader at the moment, they will read it.
Qualitative and quantitative data collection
Primary research data is collected basically by two methods – Qualitative and quantitative methods. One or both (as a mix) methods can be used to collect data based on the requirement. The method chosen for customer data collection is deployed depending on the type of feedback expected by the organization.
Rewards and recognition
A crucial characteristic of a quality customer insights platform is recognizing members and rewarding them. This enhances the quality of customer data collected and also ensures a high volume of engagement by the community.
There are higher chances of you receiving good quality feedback if the audiences are rewarded from time. This is a major motivating factor for the respondents.
Types With Examples of Customer Insight Platforms
Customer insight portals are used widely in different domains and different types of businesses. Each portal has its own distinctive use. Some of the major types, with examples, are:
Business customer insights platform
This is the most widely used customer insights platform. Modern businesses or at least businesses adapting to modern marketing practices, use business and customer insights platforms.
In-depth market research studies are conducted to gain consumer insights on the health of an existing product or service, customer behavior, trends, and needs. Studies are also deployed before launching a new product to the market or tweaking a product or service before its launch.
An example of a business customer insights platform is a car manufacturing company that wants to launch a new model. With their online community’s help, they can upgrade the vehicle or add features that many customers want.
Education customer insight platform
This type of platform can vary from institute to institute. Depending on their needs to customize the community, institutes build a community comprising students, alumni, parents, faculty, and management.
In this complex structure, the customer data collected is varied and thorough. Respondents are included in the study depending on the area and type of data the institute aims to collect. Most of the targeted respondents are the institute’s students, as they can give accurate feedback on most of the topics.
An example of an educational customer insights platform is the institute, which wants to collect all-around feedback about itself from students at the end of the academic year to improve its educational and extracurricular facilities.
Healthcare customer insight platform
The rise of socially active consumers makes it necessary to create an engaging and vital space for doctors and patients to come together, connect with each other, share their experiences and opinions, and progress collaboratively.
Undoubtedly, the healthcare industry is a very vast and diversified industry. It consists of patients, doctors, nurses, pharmaceuticals, insurance providers, manufacturers, distributors, sellers, etc. A healthcare customer insight platform can break barriers and bridge patients to doctors, doctors to pharma companies, etc.
In a world where medicine advancement is skyrocketing, a healthcare customer insights platform will only help boost the advancement of medicine by helping pharma companies, doctors, and patients connect and collaborate more easily.
Other widely used types of customer insights platform
Other customer insights platforms include banking and financial customer insight platforms and information technology and software customer insights platforms. These online communities help different organizations of various types and magnitudes collect important data depending on the purpose of the research.
A customer insights platform is one of the most important aspects of market research, which helps organizations collect actionable, useful insights to grow, better themselves, and earn profits.
Why Choose QuestionPro InsightHub as Your Right Customer Insight Platform?
QuestionPro InsightHub stands out as the ideal Customer Insight Platform for numerous reasons. Here’s why QuestionPro InsightHub could be the right choice for your business:
- Organizational Efficiency: InsightsHub empowers your insights team to supercharge their productivity by organizing effectively, increasing agility, and generating better research. The platform serves as a dedicated and searchable repository for all your insights data, research methods, and project lifecycles
- Comprehensive Project Management: The platform streamlines project management processes, allowing teams to create, track, and update projects efficiently.
- Insight Discovery: QuestionPro InsightHub enables users to uncover hidden insights by leveraging smart tagging, deep search, and knowledge graphing capabilities.
- System-of-Record for Insights: Acting as the second brain for insights teams, InsightsHub serves as the system-of-record for all insights data. This means that all insights-related information, from data to project statuses, is centralized within the platform
- Democratized Insights: With accessible information and a single source of truth, InsightsHub democratizes insights within your organization. This means that all stakeholders can access and understand the data without barriers
- Unified Repository: By providing a consolidated platform to organize, explore, search, and discover all research data, InsightsHub offers a unified repository for insights.
- Real-Time Dashboard: The platform offers real-time analytics and statistics through customizable reporting dashboards. These dashboards are easy to read and distribute to stakeholders.
Conclusion
Understanding your customers is the key to staying ahead of the competition. The use of customer insight platforms is no longer a luxury but a necessity. QuestionPro stands out as a leading customer insight platform among the notable players in this field.
With its robust suite of features, QuestionPro empowers organizations across industries to collect, analyze, and leverage customer data effectively.
Whether you are a small startup or a global corporation, harnessing the power of QuestionPro’s customer insight platform can be your strategic advantage in delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving business growth.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A Customer Insight Platform is a software or tool that collects, analyzes, and interprets customer data to provide businesses with valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.
Customer Insight Platforms help businesses make informed decisions, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth by understanding their customers better.
Common uses include improving product development, tailoring marketing strategies, optimizing customer support, and enhancing overall customer engagement.
It gathers data from various sources like surveys, social media, and customer interactions and then analyzes it to provide actionable insights.
Yes, many platforms offer integration with CRM systems, marketing tools, and other business applications.
