Building a Business Persona

by Michelle Rose-Innes

to attract and retain customers and

improve business performance

businessproduct/service

businessproduct/service

!

"Supposing is good, but finding out is better.”

!Mark Twain

Relationship style • Mindset • Routines • Processes !

Business culture • Values • Unique point of difference !

Uncovering your Business Persona

15mins

Services from the customer

perspective

Are we too occupied in our own businesses that we fail to see what the picture

looks like from outside? !

(Sahar, Coffee Republic)

Question

80%

of companies think they are doing well !

8%

of customers agree !

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A very satisfied customer will tell 3 other people

!

A dissatisfied customer will tell 12 other people

!

A very dissatisfied customer will tell 20 other people

Customer Satisfaction

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98% of dissatisfied customers never complain

they just leave

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65% of lost customers are due to

negative experiences

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75% of negative experiences are

not related to the product

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The biggest reason people leave is because

they don’t feel appreciated

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Retaining Customers

It costs 3 times more

to acquire than to retain a customer !!

It costs 12 times more

to win back a dissatisfied customer

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If customers have a better understanding of your service, it can result in increased customer appreciation for

the value of the service.

Qualitative Research !

Ethnographic research, tools and methods !

The key is to ‘get inside’ the way people see things, how they experience things, their behaviours and perceptions. !With this research you can design a service that works better for them and ultimately better for your business. !More commonly know as “service design”

• Persona cards • User journey mapping • Vox pops • Insight gathering • Service blueprint • Workshops • Focus groups • Behavioural mapping

Ethnographic research, tools and methods

Touch Points“point of contact”

!

advert / shop / directions / social media / texts / radio / referral / email / phone call / signage / website / email

marketing / linkedin / tv / trade fair / conference / seminars / buses / emailer

A user journey experience using touch points

Shoes Sales person

Box/bag receipt

Present-Service

Shop

service re-visit

ShopAdvert

Pre-Service

Back

Sta

geUs

er E

xper

ienc

eTo

uchp

oint

Phone Call

Advert/ flyer

Text

Post-Service

Building Customer Personas

What are they? Why use them?

How do you create them? Why bother?

A frame of reference ‘tool’

To discover more about your users so you can design your service around their needs

!A way of capturing the unknowns (the human factor)

that statistics can’t always reach. !

Quantitative needs qualitative !!

Profile or Persona?Profiles (quantitative) !For gathering facts; age, gender, job, income

Tick box questionnaires

You can compare people based on facts and definitives

Predictable

You can make conclusions easily

No need to be there at the time

Removed from personality and behaviours

Personas (qualitative) !For gathering insight; thoughts, behaviors, experiences, likes, dislikes etc.

Individual user discussions

You can conclude from thoughts, behaviours and experience

Not so predictable

Conclusions are more intuitive

Need to be where they use the service

It’s all about personality, character and behaviours !

!!EMPATHY is identification with the way of thinking, feeling and behaving of others in a situation.

Persona’s used for new product development

Using real people to create ‘Personas’

!

!

Persona’s are like mobile “user stories” !

!

(Personas may seem broad brush but they are still evidence based)

Examples

Insight Gathering (understanding user needs not your needs) !

!

!

Why do they want to use your service?

What are they trying to achieve?

What need has motivated them to seek out YOUR service?

What is their story?

Empathy Map

By Osterwalder , Business Model Generation book

!!!!Find out your Business Persona (brand) Find out your Customer Persona !Design your business to meet the needs of your customer In turn, this should make your business perform better !Be customer centric Be user friendly Keep customers satisfied Find new ways of doing business differently for the customer Retain your customers !

123

“people pay more for simple services”

thank you

Siegel & Gale 2013