Understanding Customer Needs: How to Analyze & Take Action

Understanding your customers is the foundation of any successful business. It influences everything from product development and marketing strategies to sales interactions and customer service. Yet, many businesses struggle to get this right – and it’s impacting their customer experience.

Instead of identifying customers’ actual wants and needs, they make assumptions based on internal ideas or outdated data. This results in ineffective campaigns, products that don’t meet real needs, and messaging that fails to resonate.

The key to success is listening to your current customers, understanding their pain points, and using those insights for a positive experience. When businesses do this well, they create stronger connections, increase sales, and drive long-term customer loyalty.

In this guide, we’ll explore the best techniques for understanding customer needs, uncover what they truly need, and apply those insights to business growth.

Why understanding your customer matters

Businesses that deeply understand their audience gain a competitive edge. They can anticipate customer needs, develop better products, and create more compelling marketing messages.

When businesses fail to grasp their customers’ needs, they often experience:

• Poor sales performance – If your messaging doesn’t address customer challenges, they won’t see the value in what you offer.
• Wasted marketing budget – Campaigns and marketing tactics fall flat when they don’t resonate with the right audience.
• Low buyer retention – Forget impulse buying. If your product doesn’t solve a real problem, customer satisfaction will be low and you won’t get loyal customers.

Even global brands can get it wrong!

📉 Coca-Cola’s ‘New Coke’ disaster (1985)

Coca-Cola decided to change its existing product formula in an attempt to compete with Pepsi. They assumed people wanted a sweeter drink without properly validating the decision. The backlash was immediate – consumers rejected the new formula, and the company had to revert to the original Coca-Cola. 

This misstep cost millions and proved that businesses must base decisions on real customer insights rather than assumptions.

On the other hand, when companies invest in understanding their customers, they see benefits like:

• Higher conversions – Messaging aligns with real customer needs.
• Stronger brand loyalty – Customers feel valued and understood.
• More effective product development – Products are designed around what consumers actually want, improving customer satisfaction in the long run.

When brands get this right, the results can be transformative!

🎯 Netflix’s personalization strategy

Netflix tracks user preferences, viewing history, and interactions to deliver highly personalized recommendations. By continuously analyzing customer behavior (including 250 A/B tests every year!), they keep audiences engaged and satisfied, which has contributed to their dominance in the streaming industry.

Understand your customers better – 7 powerful techniques

If you want to truly connect with your audience, surface-level insights won’t cut it. You need to dig deeper – combining data, observation, and real conversations to uncover what your customers actually think, feel, and need. 

Here are seven proven techniques to help you gain meaningful insights and build stronger customer relationships.

1. Conducting customer research

One of the best ways to understand your customers is to ask them directly. 

Whether through quick surveys, detailed interviews, or casual conversations, these interactions offer valuable insights you can use to shape your products, services, and messaging.

For example, a SaaS company might interview new customers after onboarding to find out what nearly stopped them from signing up – uncovering friction points in the sales process they didn’t even realize existed.

There are several ways to start these conversations – from scalable surveys to one-on-one deep dives. It’s simply a case of deciding which method would work best for you.

2. Customer surveys and feedback loops

Surveys are a great way to gather quick, scalable feedback. They help you uncover customer concerns, preferences, trends, and expectations – and the more responses you collect, the more useful your data becomes.

To get the most out of your surveys:

✅ Keep them short – aim for 5-10 questions max. Long surveys put people off (67% of customers say so!).
✅ Use a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions.
✅ Focus on challenges, motivations, and buying habits.

Here are a few examples of questions you could ask:

• What’s your biggest challenge when [doing X]?
• What made you choose our product over the alternatives?
• What’s one feature you wish we offered?

This information is valuable – and so is your customer’s time. To boost response rates, consider offering a small incentive, such as a discount or entry into a giveaway.

3. Focus groups and one-to-one interviews

If you want deeper insights, talk to customers directly. Focus groups and interviews let you explore real thoughts, feelings, and motivations that generic surveys might miss.

Use these to uncover emotional drivers, product pain points, and potential improvements. You can ask questions like:

• What made you decide to buy this product/service?
• Were there any concerns before purchasing?
• How would you describe your overall experience with us?

These conversations can help shape your messaging, improve customer support, and guide product development.

4. Analysing customer behavior

Beyond direct feedback, analyzing behavior helps you understand unspoken needs. By tracking how people interact with your website, sales and marketing material, and products, you can uncover hidden patterns and pain points. Key behaviors to monitor are:

• Website activity – Which pages get the most attention?
• Drop-off points – Where do customers abandon their journey?
• Repeat purchases – What products do people keep coming back for?

For example, if users repeatedly visit your pricing page but don’t convert, it may indicate confusion or pricing concerns – signaling a need for clearer messaging or better value justification.

If you use touchscreen experiences in your business, POPcomms provides the ideal solution. Our no-code content creation platform is built to help you track exactly how people engage with your interactive content – whether it’s a sales presentation, product showcase, or immersive brand experience. 

With built-in analytics, you can monitor user journeys, see which areas get the most interaction, and uncover what’s driving engagement (or what’s being missed). From heatmaps to time-on-screen data, you’ll gain actionable insights to help you refine your messaging, optimize future content, and get more value from every experience.

As a case in point, look at Safeware, who used POPcomms to transform their trade show presence. With over 484 safety and security products to showcase across critical industries, they needed a way to present everything effectively within limited booth space. By consolidating their full product and service catalog into an interactive digital experience, Safeware engaged visitors more professionally and efficiently—eliminating the need for printed materials and making it easier for buyers to explore all their solutions in one place. Their sales team found the platform so valuable, they didn’t want to walk away from it.

Want to learn more? Take a look at these five ways to measure the success of an interactive touchscreen experience.

5. Listening to the right customer data sources

Customers talk about their experiences, whether it’s directly to you or publicly online. Smart businesses analyze data to listen and adapt. There are several different ways to mine these golden insights: 

Social media listening

What are people saying about your industry? You can use tools like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, or Sprout Social to monitor:

✅ Brand mentions on social media.
✅ Common complaints or praises about competitors.
✅ Customer discussions in relevant groups and forums.

For example, if you notice multiple users complaining on social media about a competitor’s poor customer service, you could highlight your excellent support in your marketing to differentiate your brand.

Customer support & sales team feedback

Your customer support and sales teams engage with buyers daily – they hear recurring problems, objections, and requests first-hand.

Create a shared document where support and sales teams log recurring questions or frustrations. This real-world data can shape everything from product updates to FAQs and marketing copy.

Competitor analysis

Remember, your competitors’ customers are your potential customers. To get a better insight, check out competitor reviews:

✅ What do people love? → Emphasize similar benefits in your messaging.
✅ What are common complaints? → Solve those problems in your offering.

If buyers frequently complain that a competitor’s product lacks customization options, highlighting your customization features in marketing can make your product more appealing and give you a competitive advantage.

Take these Trustpilot reviews for Monday.com – a task management platform – as an example: 

They include both praise and criticism, offering valuable insights for the team at Monday.com – as well as competitors. 

One reviewer highlights issues with customer service for enterprise users, for instance, citing unannounced maintenance, unexpected downtime, and persistent API bugs. These reviews are full of golden nuggets – lessons your business can learn from and use to improve.

6. Creating buyer personas & journey mapping

Once you’ve gathered data, the next step is to organize insights into clear buyer personas and map their journey.

A customer profile or persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on real data. Here’s an example to give you a better idea…

👩💼 Marketing Manager Sarah

• Demographics – Sarah is 35, works in B2B marketing, and is US-based.
• Challenges – She struggles to demonstrate ROI for content marketing.
• Motivations – Sarah wants easy-to-use analytics and reporting tools.
• Preferred content – She mostly engages with LinkedIn articles and interactive content.

Creating personas helps businesses tailor content, products, and messaging to specific audience needs. You can find out more in our article: What Is Conversational Presenting & Why It’s Effective for B2B Sales?

Next you’ll want to go through the customer journey step by step. Understanding the customer journey helps identify opportunities to improve engagement and reduce friction. Here’s an example customer journey:

1. Awareness – Your customer sees a social media post about your product.
2. Consideration – They read a case study or watch a product demo.
3. Decision – The customer requests a quote or speaks to sales.
4. Post-purchase – They onboard with the product and receive follow-up support.

By mapping out this journey, you can pinpoint areas to improve, such as adding more educational content during the consideration stage or simplifying the checkout process.

For example, CLD Inc. – a global leader in crafting personalized educational solutions – recognized the need to showcase their products and programs in a way that was clear and engaging. They implemented a fully interactive touchscreen experience with innovative “Lift & Learn” RFID engagement technology – which helped make the complex simple for potential customers.

“At the show, people were just coming up, interacting, and swiping through. They loved the lift and learn. The ability to incorporate videos, PDFs, and demos made our booth stand out.”

Mark Currier, Director of Marketing & New Business at CLD

The role of personalization in meeting customer needs

Customers expect personalized experiences. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that offer personalization.

If you want to personalize effectively for your customer base, try to:

✅ Use dynamic content that adapts based on customer interests.
✅ Segment email campaigns based on behavior and preferences.
✅ Offer customized product or service recommendations.

Personalization builds trust and makes people feel valued, keeping customers happy. 

For example, Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” playlist curates personalized song recommendations based on listening history – keeping users engaged and subscribed. Take a look at how they do it:

Want to go even further with personalization? Interactive experiences – like those delivered on touchscreens – can take things to the next level. 

Whether it’s recognizing a returning customer, tailoring content based on their interests, or even allowing them to enter their name at the start, these small touches can create a “WOW” moment that sticks. 

It all starts with knowing who your customers are and what they value. From advanced features like demographic and facial recognition to simple interactive stories that put users in control, personalization isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s what customers expect.

Did you know some fast food restaurants can now recognize returning customers and remember their favorite orders? That’s exactly what CaliBurger is doing – and people love it. Now that’s personalization in action.

Want to see what a truly personalized interactive experience looks like? 

Watch the video below to discover what’s possible with POPcomms’ interactive experiences platform – and see how it can help you delight your customers.

Turning customer understanding into action

Now that you’ve gathered deep insights into your audience, the next step is applying these learnings to your marketing, sales, and product development strategies.

After all, understanding your target audience is only valuable if you use that information to improve customer experiences and increase engagement, conversions, and retention.

Adapting your marketing & messaging

Firstly, your marketing efforts should be data-driven – informed by real customer problems, preferences, and behaviors. You can find out more in: 7 Business Benefits of Data-Driven Sales Enablement Tools.

Here’s how to ensure your messaging resonates:

1️⃣ Use your customer’s language

A common mistake businesses make is using industry jargon or overly complex explanations. If your main customer base describes their challenges in simple terms, your messaging should reflect that.

For example, you could analyze customer support interactions, reviews, and surveys to identify recurring phrases – then use these exact words in your marketing copy.

2️⃣ Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

People don’t just care about what your product does – they care about what it does for them. If someone wants to go on holiday, the destination is what matters. Whether they get there by plane, train, car or boat is secondary.

🚫 Avoid feature-focused messaging: 

“Our software includes an AI-powered automation tool.”

✅ Use benefit-driven messaging: 

“Save 10+ hours a week with AI-powered automation.”

The second version directly addresses a customer problem – time management – and shows a clear benefit.

3️⃣ Identify customer segments and create highly targeted content

Generic marketing doesn’t convert. Instead, create personalized content for different audience segments within your customer base.

• If your customers are looking for educational resources – Create in-depth guides, blog posts, and webinars.
• If they’re ready to buy – Offer comparison charts, customer testimonials, and ROI breakdowns.
• If they need reassurance – Publish case studies or behind-the-scenes videos to build trust.

For example, a business that sells interactive sales presentations might create:

📌 A blog post for marketers on “How to Create Engaging B2B Presentations.”

📌 A case study for sales managers showing how interactive demos improve conversion rates.

📌 A product video for decision-makers demonstrating ROI and ease of use.

By segmenting your content, you ensure each audience gets valuable information tailored to their needs.

Improving sales & customer experience

Sales teams can also benefit from customer insights by adapting their approach to match customer expectations. The more they know about a buyer’s needs, pain points, and decision-making process, the easier it becomes to build meaningful conversations that convert. Below, we’ll explore two powerful ways to apply these insights in your sales approach.

Move from product-led to consultative selling

Traditional sales methods focus on pushing a product – but modern consumers expect a consultative approach. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Ask questions before pitching – Instead of launching into a sales script, start by understanding the customer’s challenges.
2. Tailor every conversation – If a buyer is most concerned about ease of use, focus on that – don’t overload them with features they don’t care about.
3. Use real customer stories – Instead of listing benefits, share how past buyers solved similar problems.

Here’s an example – a software company might ask: “What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing in managing your sales content?” 

If the customer says “Our sales team struggles to find the right materials”, the sales rep can immediately tailor their response: “That’s exactly why our interactive platform helps centralize all sales content in one place, so your reps never waste time searching again.”

This makes the conversation solution-focused instead of feeling like a generic sales pitch.

Leverage interactive sales content

Customers don’t want static PDFs and long presentations – they want engaging, interactive experiences that help them explore solutions in a hands-on way. Interactive content improves sales conversations:

• 3D product models – Let customers visualize and interact with your product.
• Self-guided presentations – Allow buyers to explore content at their own pace.
• Clickable sales tools – Instead of a long slide deck, offer an interactive experience where buyers can jump to the sections that interest them most.

For example, a manufacturer could use interactive product demos instead of printed brochures, allowing buyers to customize and explore options in real-time.

This approach is used to great effect by JSP with their global sales tool. It showcases over 300 products, each with their own specifications, H&S standards, technical documentation, accessories, 3D product models, videos and images. Customers can move, customize, and dig deeper into the products that are relevant to them.

Evolving your product or service based on customer needs

Customer needs evolve over time – and your product or service should too. The most successful businesses continuously refine their offerings using real-world customer feedback to guide their decisions.

Using customer feedback for product development

Rather than relying on assumptions, direct customer feedback should be your compass. There are several effective ways to gather this feedback – monitoring support tickets and customer complaints, conducting post-purchase surveys, offering beta testing for new features, or setting up a community forum where users can share suggestions.

A great example of this in action is Slack. The platform actively listens to customer requests and frequently releases updates in response, helping to improve usability and retain users over time.

A/B test new features and messaging

When launching something new – whether it’s a feature, a pricing structure, or a marketing message – testing should be part of your process. A/B testing involves presenting two versions of a webpage, email, or feature to different segments of your audience, then analysing which performs better in terms of engagement, conversions, or user behavior.

For instance, an ecommerce store might test one product page focused on technical specs and another that highlights customer benefits. If the benefits-led version sees more conversions, they can confidently roll it out across the site, knowing it aligns more closely with what customers respond to.

How POPcomms helps businesses understand & engage customers

While everything we’ve discussed applies broadly to any business, many companies struggle with presenting complex information clearly and engagingly. That’s where POPcomms comes in. Our no-code platform…

• Simplifies complex solutions – Interactive presentations help buyers understand your product’s value.
• Improves personalization – Sales teams can dynamically adjust content based on customer conversations. 
• Boosts engagement – Customers are more likely to stay interested when they can explore content interactively.

A great real-world example is Wienerberger. Faced with the challenge of presenting a vast product catalogue without overwhelming potential buyers, they turned to POPcomms to create an interactive sales enablement tool. 

This solution allowed customers to easily filter products based on their specific needs, making the experience more intuitive and tailored. As a result, sales reps were able to provide faster, more relevant recommendations – significantly improving conversion rates.

“It’s been a massive step change. A year or so ago, from first contact with an architect or specifier client, to getting specification information out, it could be up to a week. Whereas now, we can also be more consultative and offer alternative suggestions that fit the brief, and get them what they need in, literally, minutes.”

Dan Cheung, Marketing Manager at Wienerberger

This is the power of interactive sales content – it makes customer interactions smoother, faster, and more engaging.

Understanding customers = business success

If you take away one thing from this guide, it’s this – businesses that listen to their buyers grow faster, sell more, and retain loyal customers.If you want to create engaging, customer-driven sales experiences, POPcomms can help. To get started, book a demo or contact our team and discover how POPcomms can bring your vision to life.