1. What is customer/consumer behaviour? 2. Why customer behaviour is important? 3. How to implement? # **#1 What is customer behaviour?** Customer behaviour is the process of understanding the key patterns of the customer. Whether your customer is male or female, it is very important to understand their buying, living, and subconscious patterns. When you understand the patterns of your customers, it becomes easy for you to pitch them on a subconscious level. **For example:** - When you buy from Amazon, it understands your buying patterns and that’s why, when you go back to the website/app, you see products that Amazon thinks you’ll buy. - If you buy organic pulses from Amazon, it knows when you’ll buy next and starts showing pictures of similar products. This is known as understanding consumer behaviour and buying patterns. Even if you have an offline shop or a physical store, you can understand your customer’s buying patterns by noticing the following patterns: - Who’s the customer? - Name - Place - What does the purchase? - 1st month - 2nd month - 3rd month - 4th month - Maintain data If you can’t afford huge software, you should at least have: - CRM Software - Basic excel sheet **For example:** - If a customer buys the same products from you every month, you can easily understand what and when the customer will buy and you can give him a discount to attract him. # **#2 Why Customer Behaviour is Important?** Understanding the customer persona can help build the right product. - Giving products as per your wish is different but giving products that your customers want is a different thing. - You will earn only by selling products that your customers want. - If you give products that solve customer’s burning problems, that’s when they will pay you. Hence, it’s very critical to understand consumer patterns, buying behaviour, and purchase behaviour. When your customer likes your product, that’s when he will spread and word and your sale will increase because they feel that you understand them. **For example:** - Mr. Paritosh Sharma lives in Greater Kailash and is a regular customer of the Starbucks in his area. - Since he’s regular, the barista understands his order, and even before he orders, she asks if he wants a cappuccino and with his nod, gives him the same. This is one of the examples of understanding customer’s buying patterns and it gives the customer a great experience. # **#3 How to Implement?** Let us understand the implementation of understanding customer behaviour through case studies. #### **Case Study 1:** - This case study will help you understand how you can observe customer behaviour and their buying patterns and how it will help you in growing your business. - Mr. Paritosh Sharma used to work at a firm called Hike Messenger. As the name suggests, it is a messaging app, just like WhatsApp messenger. - It was started in India a few years ago and is still active. - When Mr. Sharma joined, he was given the task to onboard 5 million customers in 6 months. - 5 million is a huge number and asking 5 million people to download and use the app is a challenge. - In the initial 1-2 months, he didn’t understand how to go about it but slowly and gradually, he started understanding consumer patterns. - He studied how WhatsApp grew when it was launched in India and how Line grew when it was launched in China. - He noticed that chit-chat is very famous among women. He did intensive research on this factor. - He conducted this research in women colleges and many such places and noticed a subconscious behaviour when women talk in a group. - He noticed that after finishing the food, other than using tissues to wipe their hands, women put some in their bags for future use. - Using this behaviour, they printed 5 lakhs tissue paper with Hike’s logo and inside it was written: “Download Hike to get Rs. 50”. - The customers just had to enter the URL in their mobile phones and the app would get downloaded itself, with Rs. 50 in the wallet. - This offer was initially run where there was high women concentration like colleges, canteens, markets, etc. - They approach restaurants and asked them not to spend on tissue papers as they will provide them with the same. - Many restaurants took them without hesitation because it saved their tissue cost. - The cost of printing a tissue paper was just 10 paise per piece, so they printed them in abundance. - As per their assumptions, the downloads increased, and like they presumed, with female customers came male customers. - This way, millions of people downloaded Hike Messenger in just 60 days. - Many competitor apps were spending Rs. 50 per customer but Hike Messenger gave Rs. 50 with the condition that the customer will be able to redeem the amount only when they bring 2 more friends on board. - This method created a chain and Hike Messenger successfully achieved its target. #### **Case Study 2:** - Once while conducting a seminar, a woman entrepreneur shared a very interesting idea with Mr. Sharma. - The lady owned an artificial jewellery store. She noticed that women prefer bags more. - She printed elegant bags with their brand logo and distributed them at nearby stores for free. - With the increase in sales of the bags, the sale of her store also increased. - While the cost per bag would be around Rs. 50 – Rs. 100, the margins that she is making today is much more than that because she subconsciously became the influencer of many women. If you understand customer’s buying behaviour, you’ll be able to create viral campaigns, add value to your product, make your customers your loyalist and word of mouth influencers.