Consumer Expert Networks: Key to Business Success
As the competitive landscape becomes tighter, businesses today need to understand and use consumer insights in order to get ahead. A consumer expert network can do this very well. We will cover what a consumer expert network is, why it seriously benefits companies and how they can leverage this type of go-to-market strategy to ramp up their game in terms of competitive edge and customer satisfaction.
What Is a Consumer Expert Network?
A consumer expert network is a cohort of consumers who have specialized knowledge, skill or expertise in any given product/service. These people are not just any users, but they have an important input for the needs and tastes of other consumers as their behavior in many ways determines what your marketing campaigns will look like.
Key Role in Business
That is what a consumer expert network acts as, between firms and consumers in business. They offer businesses the ability to gain a deeper understanding of the market, trends and needs in order to develop goods or services that better serve consumers.
Benefits of a Consumer Expert Network for Businesses
By adding a consumer expert network element to your business strategy, you can achieve true growth and success at the company level.
1. Understanding The Consumer In Depth
A consumer expert network provides business with access to deeper, more individualized insights into the habits and preferences of consumers. These learnings can then be leveraged to further custom tailor products or services in line with what the market truly needs.
2. Enhancing Consumer Engagement
Engaging consumers as inventors will promote a feeling of ownership and increase consumer engagement. This can promote brand loyalty and create better customer relationships in the long run.
3. Streamlining the products and services-based
Consumer expert networks can provide information that product developers or service providers need to improve upon a consumer good. Consequently, companies can provide improved selling solutions as needed by the market and that will result in sales growth which is ultimately what ensures profitable margins.
4. Building Trust and Reputation
Companies inspire confidence if they listen to their audiences and are not deaf. Organizations with consumer expert networks can also develop a positive image as an inherently responsive company focused on the customer.
4 Best Practices for Setting Up a Consumer Expert Network in Your Business
Now that you have a grasp of the confer benefits, let’s dive into how businesses can actually put in need a consumer expert network.
1. Identify Relevant Consumers
First, identify consumers with any relevant knowledge and expertise about your product or service. These could be your own customers, or new users who you source from online communities and discussion groups.
2. Forge the Network and Keep It
After you know who to target, it is time to connect with your new community. The two main facets of maintaining a strong network are that you must consistently engage your audience with relevant and interesting communications and they must feel valued for the feedback (and money) they provide to you.
3. Collect and Analyze Data
Data can be collected based on a consumer expert network via surveys, interviews or focus group discussions. Each of the data collected is analyzed in a way to provide actionable insights which can be integrated into business strategies.
4. Use Insights for Business Strategy
Use the insights this network provides within your business offering whether it be in product, marketing, or customer service. Effective implementation will bring tangible positive changes to your business.
How a Consumer Expert Network Was Successfully Implemented [Case Study]
To provide a clearer picture, let’s look at an example of a SaaS-based company that successfully implemented a consumer expert network to develop products for small businesses and warungs in Indonesia.
Case Study: A SaaS Company – Developing Solutions for Warungs and Small SMEs
Situation:
The SaaS company provides software to help small and medium-sized SMEs —mainly warungs in Indonesia function, but they have been getting increasingly lost amongst the rapidly changing market landscape. The first thing that we looked to capture through our research was a precise understanding of these small enterprises requirements especially around financial reporting, cash flow management, and inventory control. Without understanding this, there was a real chance that the company could innovate to develop products that did not address true market needs.
Challenge:
However, what we realized was that it would be tough for us to understand the warung owners compared if only we had been able to access valuable and practical day-to-day pain points. If it tried to compete, the company would foolishly risk spending valuable development cycle time in creating software features that no one uses — setting itself up for low adoption rates and wasted resources.
Action:
Facing this challenge, the SaaS company set up a so-called Consumer Expert Network in which most of its members were warung owners and small business operators. This informal network was used to communicate directly with the company’s desired end users, via discussions, interviews and surveys. This in turn led us to look for the real needs and pain points of these SMEs, especially related to their way of dealing with daily transaction records keeping alongside balancing cash inflows-outflows, stock maintenance.
Solution:
The insights collected from Consumer Expert Network result in several new functionalities created by SaaS companies aimed to solve warnings and small SMEs problems. Boosting financial reporting, advancing systems for cash flow management and improving the clarity of inventory levels were just some of these.
After that the company released its 3 main features in the updated product because they were exactly what the market needed.
Result/Outcome:
It was a major win for their product launch. With this new solution, the warungs and SMEs flocked to use it as soon as they became aware of a product that could enable them manage their daily business operations better. All of this resulted in a 40% increase in sales revenue within six months from launching the product for our SaaS company. It was then when they diversified their portfolio to reinforce why it’s important customers first, under the hood with customer understanding and finally underneath that reputation. This helped SAASquatch not just grow its market share but also reach a stage where everyone thought about them as more of an extension arms-caring company than actual traditional outsourcing development factory — I trust you are already well aware how real good exactly great products are!
Lesson Learned:
This case study also shows the necessity to understand your potential market very well in advance, before any product development or introduction. Leveraging a Consumer Expert Network armed the SaaS company with critical information that shaped product evolution in response to user demands. The success of these strategies highlights the importance of including feedback from users in your innovation process, which allows you to create a product that is relevant and good at solving real-life problems.
The consumer expert network has become the most forceful weapon in today’s business strategies. This enables companies to create deeper brand engagement, improve the performance of products and services along with becoming known for market leadership. Businesses that wish to remain competitive and adaptive in response to shifting market dynamics—must consider setting up a consumer expert network.
If you are looking to elevate your business by using a consumer expert network, then Konnect Network is the perfect partner. Our services are tailored to introduce your business with consumer influencers that can help you make better, smarter choices. Feel free to Email us at info@konnect.co.id and let’s embark on this journey together towards success!
