Coremetrix Psychometric Profiles: Do you really know your customer?

By David Kaufer (Senior research psychologist at Coremetrix)

I used to live in a small town where everyone knew everyone. I don’t live there anymore – not even in the same country or continent. I grew up and moved on, but deep inside I still have a sweet spot for this town because of the memories; memories of the countryside, my primary school, my family, neighbours, playmates, teachers and local merchants.

I used to go to the local grocery shop and take anything – be it an ice-lolly or some shampoo – without needing to pay for it immediately. I would smile at the shop owner and show him what I took. I didn’t even sign his notebook where he registered the items I took. He trusted me (especially my parents) to pay him at the end of the week. In return, they trusted him to accurately record the purchased items. We were very loyal to our local merchants and even when new and bigger shops opened, we kept going to the same shops. We knew each other, trusted each other and want to help each other. There was a special unwritten bond between us.

Many things have changed since then. The town has become a city, I have lost my hair along with the need for shampoo and many of the smaller stores have lost their battle against bigger and stronger retailers that can offer more for less money. Sometimes, it makes me sad to think of the sweet memories from the past, but at other times I enjoy the immense offering that this modern economy has brought. What hasn’t changed since then is the need for mutual trust. Trust from the side of retailers, and service and credit providers to be paid for their offerings and from the side of the customers to get these services and goods at a fair price and interest. From a business perspective, this trust can obviously be translated into income. More good customers, loyal customers, customers who will recommend products to their friends or customers that will buy other products from the same company, just as we did 30 years ago.

We don’t always have the luxury of getting to know each and every customer personally in order to build mutual trust. How can we, as a business, develop and maintain trust when we deal with hundreds of thousands of customers? How can we ensure that our customers feel unique? How can we better understand customer needs and motivations?

Coremetrix’s psychometric profiles are the solution for large-scale companies who really want to understand their customers and recreate this business-to-customer bond. Coremetrix can now help businesses segment their entire portfolio based on personality traits that underlie their customer behaviour and motivation. When intelligently and respectfully used, this knowledge will translate to actions impacting higher retention rates, acquisition of new profitable customers, and creation of effective communication channels and development of new products.

Contact us at: contact@coremetrix.com