Testing new products and features to improve customer experience

how brands can stay competitive with consumer insights

Today, new product failures, whether in design or at marketing launch are more costly than ever and can be devastating for enterprises large and small. To ensure your offerings align with consumer preferences, you must keep your target customers at the center of every decision, and that means employing effective strategies: cultivating deep audience insights and rapidly testing concepts, messages, and campaigns. This can minimize risks, fuel your market success, and foster brand loyalty among customers. Read on for a deeper dive into these benefits.

Address unmet customer needs from the outset

CX insights are a must for understanding the needs and preferences of your target audiences. By testing new product ideas directly with target customers, businesses can gauge potential demand and identify market gaps. Then, they can tailor their offerings to meet existing and prospective customers’ specific needs, optimizing the chances for grabbing market share, driving higher satisfaction, and ultimately increasing sales. 

Customer feedback shouldn’t stop there – because there are always new offerings on the way from your competitors’ pipelines. You should continuously cultivate CX insights, gathering data that goes well beyond things like traditional brand metrics. 

Today, it’s possible – and imperative – to combine these insights with behavioral data from purchase journeys in order to get a full understanding of what people think, what they buy, and why. Connecting brand and behavioral data will help you close the say/do gap, and many customers, like those in DISQO’s two million plus consumer audience, have opted in to help you do that. They want to help improve the products and services they bring into their lives. 

Mitigate risks and reduce costs in product development

Introducing new products or features to the market without proper testing is a risk you can’t afford. CX research serves as a safeguard against gross failure by allowing you to evaluate market viability before investing precious company resources. You can identify flaws, limitations, or potential issues early, allowing for necessary adjustments and refinements. This iterative process significantly reduces the likelihood of costly mistakes and mitigates risks associated with unsuccessful product launches. 

The cost of capital, supply chain challenges, and the plethora of options available to consumers today mean that the cost of mistakes in developing and launching new products are multiplied. Errors can be devastating to your profits – and to the brand loyalty you’re trying to build.  

It’s essential to optimize your company’s resource allocations by focusing on ideas with the highest chances of success. Gather feedback from customers you already have… and from those that are in your larger target audience to prioritize ideas that will resonate. Putting this into ongoing practice makes product development more cost-effective over the near and longer term. 

Build long-lasting brand loyalty

This customer-centric approach, fueled by customer feedback, leads to increased loyalty and positive word-of-mouth promotion. If you aspire to product-led growth, insights about the experiences of your target customers are essential ingredients in your path to success. Direct customer feedback gives you valuable intelligence into their perceptions, preferences, and expectations. 

Today, that feedback can also involve passive data for intelligence about their behaviors. A large number of consumers have opted in to share behaviors from their digital journeys with DISQO so you can understand how they engage with your brand (and your competitors), what campaigns they are exposed to, and what actions they take afterward. Our behavioral data is a treasure trove for product teams and researchers because it lets them gather intelligence about target customers who are already exhibiting the behaviors relevant to them (e.g. searching for “energy efficient electric cars”). 

Our clients incorporate demographic and behavioral insights about customer experience into product development to improve their offerings iteratively, enhancing overall customer experience and maintaining a competitive edge.

Keep your edge with a “day 1” approach to CX insights 

In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, companies must constantly innovate to differentiate themselves. Cultivating CX insights is absolutely essential, from Early Stage Discovery to Concept Testing, Message Testing, and Ad Testing. The deep understanding of customer experience you’ll gain can help you develop unique products and features that cater to unmet marketplace needs. 

Continuously building CX insights will help you anticipate market trends and stay ahead of changing consumer demands. You can also better use data to engage your C-Suite for investments in proactive strategies and offerings that ensure continued relevance and success with your customers.

Leaning into CX insights and testing ideas for new products and features is a vital step in the product development process. Regardless of your brand’s category, product team leaders’ ethos must be to gather feedback early and continuously. In an era of rapid innovation and change, companies that invest in customer-led product innovation are more likely to thrive through the rigors of today’s ever-evolving markets. 

Interested in a real-world example? Download DISQO's case study with Best Egg for a roadmap to success.