Q 699. What is Persona Profiling? How can it be used in a Lean Six Sigma project to improve the customer satisfaction? Provide some examples where it is already in use.

 

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Persona Profiling in other words Customer persona is an activity through which thorough analysis of targeted customers are build using the real data. It helps to understand the needs, behavior, challenges by different segment of audience that provides better decision making for developing a particular product or service.

Sharing an example of the project that we worked on known as 'Customer Journey Mapping' to make changes in the existing process and changes in the system which would simplify for customer to make changes in the address and nominee in the insurance policy bought by the customer without visiting the Branch. 

In order to create customer persona we collected the historical policy data(pervious 1 year data) as per system including the customer CSAT(Customer Satisfaction) and Complaints report. 
Project was based on DMAIC approach - 
Define - Data was segregated as per Tier1 and Tier2 cities which are our targeted customer, basis this we divided the data as per age group, education, qualification, marital status, employed/unemployed/student/businessman, goals, complaints, challenges faced, and feedback(as per current services provided). With the help of this data we were able to create 12 different customer segments
Measure -  It helped detailed insights in terms of providing which customer to more focus on and help us
 provide solutions to the customers who are facing the most grievance. 
Analyze - CSAT and complaints data helped us analyze the real cause of the service provided and problems faced by the customer to change their address or nominee name, language barrier was also one of the root cause of the address not getting update right at the first time 
Improve - Customer portal app was introduced to make changes preliminary changes in the policy without having the customer visiting the branch as this was one of the main issues highlighted in the analyze phase
Control- Continuous monitoring and feedback from customer helped us gain insights if introducing portal whether really worked or not.

To conclude incorporating customer persona in the this project not only helped our helped our system to become better but it also helped us to focus highly on customer. By understanding the specific needs of the customers it helps to prioritize actions and deliver the most to bring desired outcome. This practice is currently in use in an organization.

 

Persona Profiling is a technique of building a fictionalized and representative description of a business’s ideal customers based on actual research data. The profiling process entails gathering demographic, psychographic, and behavioural information to create personality archetypes that represent different segments or groups within the target market.

 

The key elements of a persona profile may typically includes,

1. Photos or illustrations to humanize and make the persona memorable.
2. Demographics including name, age, location, etc.
3. Other Basic Information such as bio, job title and education
4. Psychographics such as personal values, personality, traits and archetypes
5. Goals that the persona aims to achieve
6. Skills, areas of expertise and technology proficiency
7. Personal preferences such as favorite channels, preferred apps, trusted resources, etc.
    

These persona profiles aren't just based on stereotypes, but they are built using real customer data, providing a deep understanding of individual customers.

Benefits of Persona Profiling

 

By incorporating the persona profiles into Lean Six Sigma projects, teams can ensure that their efforts are in line with the needs and expectations of the customers, leading to effective and customer-centric solutions. Let's have a look at how;

1. Enhanced Customer Focus: By keeping the customer at the center of all decision-making processes we are able to understand the needs, pain points and motivations of different customer segments. Additionally, persona profiling can aid in idea generation and prioritizing features by keeping the focus on the customer throughout the project lifecycle.
2. Relevant Data Collection: Data collection becomes targeted and meaningful when persona profiles guide the process. Teams can design and carry out data collection activities that are in line with the specific characteristics of each persona, leading to insights relevant to the project goals.
3. Problem Identification: A deeper analysis of customer experiences can be done by incorporating persona profiling into LSS projects, which can help identify root causes of customer dissatisfaction or inefficiencies. By understanding how different personas engage with a process or a product, teams can uncover specific issues affecting each customer segment. For example, if a persona indicates frustration with longer wait times, the project can focus on streamlining processes that contributes to delays. Teams can also prioritize their efforts based on which customer segments are most impacted by specific issues, ensuring efficient resource allocation and focusing on improvements that will have the maximum impact on customer satisfaction.
4. Tailored Solutions: By integrating persona profiling within LSS projects, we can develop customized solutions to meet the specific needs of different personas. For instance, a persona that values quick services may require process streamlining, while another that prioritizes detailed information might benefit from enhanced communication channels. Being able to customize solutions with such a focus on the voice of the customer leads to effective and widely accepted improvements.
5. Empathy and Engagement: Persona profiling can help cultivate a strong sense of empathy among team members for the customers they are serving. When teams are able to visualize and understand the personas, they can engage deeply with the project and remain motivated to achieve outcomes that genuinely improve customer experiences. 
6. Sustainable Improvements: By keeping customer personas in mind throughout the DMAIC process, Lean Six Sigma teams are able to conceptualize improvements that are sustainable in the long term. The persona profiles also serve as a common reference point for all team members, ensuring that everyone is aligned on who the customers are and what they need, leading to a cohesive project execution. Continuous monitoring, improved communication and adjustments based on insights from different personas ensures that the improvements remain relevant as the customer needs evolve.

 

Integrating Persona Profiling into DMAIC
 

1. Define Phase

• Customer-Centric Focus: In this phase, persona profiling can identify the key customer segments and their specific needs, ensuring that the project is focused on solving problems that matter the most to the target audience.
• Voice of the Customer: Persona profiles provide a clearer picture of the VOC by humanizing the data and customer feedback, aiding in setting of precise projects goals in line with customer expectations.
• For example, a financial services company may identify "FIRE-focused Millenial"* as a key persona to target for a new investment app.

 

2. Measure Phase

• Targeted Data Collection: The data collection process can be targeted to gather specific insights from the personas, leading to relevant and actionable data.
• Identifying Key Metrics: Persona profiles can help pinpoint which metrics are the most important to different customer segments. These might include satisfaction scores, response times or effectiveness of specific service touchpoints. 
• For example, they key metrics for "FIRE-focused Millenial" may include time to open an account, mobile app rating, investment portfolio performance etc.  

 

3. Analyse Phase

• Root Cause Analysis: By analysing data through the lens of different personas, teams are able to uncover pain points and inefficiencies affecting the different customer groups
• Prioritization of Issues: Profiling helps prioritize issues based on which customer segments are the most affected, ensuring improvements are made where they will have the maximum impact on satisfaction.
• For Example, analysing the account setup process, investment options and FIRE goals can help the team to address critical issues and that the solutions meet the target audience's needs.

 

4. Improve Phase

• Tailored Solutions: The improvement strategies can be tailored to address the unique needs of the different personas.
• Prototyping and Testing: Solutions can be tested with specific personas in mind, allowing for effective prototyping and refinements based on the feedback from representative customer groups.
• For example, the improvements may focus on streamlining the account opening process or providing personalized investment recommendations based on risk tolerance and FIRE goals or offering educational content on FIRE strategies or enabling seamless mobile access to account information and tools.

 

5. Control Phase

• Ongoing Monitoring: Post the implementation of improvements, ongoing monitoring can be put in place and tailored to measure the impact on different personas ensuring that the improvements continue to meet the expectations of all key customer segments.
• Sustaining Gains: By keeping the focus on the customer as the business evolves, ensuring continuous alignment with customer needs and preferences can help sustain the gains.
• For example, increase in percentage of income saved towards FIRE goals or continued usage of the mobile app and educational resources can be the success criteria for the "FIRE-focused Millenial" persona.

 

References & Glossary

1. FIRE is the acronym for Financial Independence Retire Early movement.
2. https://www.robertacinus.it/en/blog/marketing/customer-personas-profiling-the-basic-step-to-boost-your-marketing-strategy/
3. https://persona.qcri.org/blog/elements-of-a-persona-profile/

 

Personal Profiling

Customer and consumer behaviors are different across demographics, profession, nature of an individual, background, culture, channels etc. Personal profiling is done by segmenting the customers of a product (who are using or may use the product) in specific categories, creating a character & assigning some generic attributes specific to the category to that character. This helps in need identification & reflection of that in the product or process to improve satisfaction.

 

Examples of Personas

Salman: Businessman who loves reading stories of successful business or person, and often buys books that are recommended to him on podcasts or by thought leaders on social platforms.

Monalisa: Young professional working in the financial sector, looking for ways to save money and invest for her future.

Heena: Young mother who wants to use safe products in her home, and is willing to pay more for products recommended by physicians

These personas can help organizations to understand the needs and behaviors of their customers and design processes that meet those needs.

 

 

How can it be used in a Lean Six Sigma project to improve the customer satisfaction?

 

In the Define phase, the goal is to define the problem or opportunity for improvement. The problem or opportunity is identified from any gap between offering & customer or user expectation. Persona Profiling is used to identify the target customer and understand their needs, behaviors, and motivations.

Once the VOC is clearly defined through use of Personal Profiling, CTQs can be easily identified & drilled down to create the problem statement.

 

Example of how Persona Profiling can be used in the Define phase:

Project Goal: Improve customer satisfaction with the online ordering process.

Persona: Salman, a young professional who orders online regularly and values convenience & faster delivery

Problem Statement: Salman is not happy with the current online ordering process because it is slow and complex, leading to a high rate of discontinued orders.

Project Scope: Improve the online ordering process to reduce the time it takes to complete an order and make it easier to use.

 

Some more examples of using Persona Profiling in finalizing the problem statement in the Define phase are outlined below

• Super shop: A Super shop might create personas for different customer segments, such as frequent shoppers, budget-conscious shoppers, and online shoppers. These personas can help the store identify opportunities to improve the in-store experience, online shopping experience, and product offerings.
• Hospital: A hospital might create personas for different patient types, such as elderly patients, parents of young children, and patients with chronic conditions. These personas can help the hospital identify areas where the patient experience could be improved, such as wait times, communication, and the overall care environment.
• Banking: A bank might create personas for different customer types, such as young professionals, families, and retirees. These personas can help the bank identify opportunities to improve its product offerings, customer service, and branch locations.

Many a times we come across terms as Average Joe, the common man or Aam Aadmi. The moment this term comes up we have an image come up in our mind. This is sorts of a subconscious profiling. A survey of the imaginations would throw up wild variations but also quite some commonalities. These commonalities are built up through a generalization of what a typical set of people is known to tend to be like. This could be anything from buying patterns, voting patterns, eating preferences, clothing, lifestyle etc. This is an example of persona-profiling.

 

Persona profiling is a technique used by marketing, designing, customer service, or for that matter any direct customer/consumer/client facing organizations to build a fictional customer/consumer/client who they are either targeting or more likely to come across.

 

The broad steps to creation of Persona Profiling would involve: -

1. Market research through surveys/studies

2. Segmentation through patterns

3. Building sets of likely personas

4. Creating a backstory for each persona

5. Survey the market for relatability with each persona

6. Refine the persona

7. Create Strategy

8. Design offerings to cater to the persona

8. Revise and update the persona based on market conditions

 

Benefits: -
1. Designing a new product
A good example of this comes from the FMCG industry, wherein they typically conduct surveys of the potential market/the existing buyers through 3rd party organizations or themselves and then try to design products to cater to unique needs. These surveys try to collect data on the consumers that not only identify the demographics but also understand their driving factors, behavioral patterns, etc. Using this information they create a model of a typical ideal customer for whom their products are designed/remodeled. For e.g. Shampoo sachets were designed by identifying the unique customer who has just become economically mobile and would like to use the shampoo for Rs. 2/- but wouldn't want to spend a major chunk of his/her daily earnings and store it.

2. Prioritization & Customization
Persona profiling also helps in prioritization of service offerings to their customers. Job portals have different pricing plans for different tools and services based on the unique requirements for people with different educational background and no. of years of experience.

3. Building Brand Loyalty
This allows the organization to create offerings which specifically target the customers. An interesting case study for this is how Pepsi and Coca-Cola have identified their customers and create ad campaigns to build brand loyalty and have a sublime preference for their products in the early 90s. Based on the persona profiling of their existing customers Pepsi had ad themes that had spunk, rebellious and individualistic, and Coca-Cola had ads themes that had more festivals, social gatherings themes, in-line to social norms. Off course, it keeps evolving over time and is usually never the same.

 

There are certain risks too involved: -
1. Ignoring of other potential risks
While focusing on a critical few delighters for the customer, marketers and designers can overlook some basic features. A good case in example for this is how a majority of Indian cars fare poorly on safety tests because they prioritize cost, mileage, maintainability etc. This is severely shortsighted in a country were road accidents claims 1.5 Lakhs lives every year. (https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/RA_2022_30_Oct.pdf)

 

2. Personas built on flawed data sources
Many data sources are likely to flawed due to incorrect methods used, unreliable sources, biased sources, etc. Such data sources would likely build a persona that has conflicting characteristics thereby creating a wrong persona. Thus leading to products and service which attracts no one in particular.

 

3. Obsolescence

Persona profiling is a long tedious activity which usually takes a lot of time and deliberations to be completed. During this period, a major innovation/disruptor or a competitor offering can likely change the market dynamics thereby making the persona profiling obsolete

Persona Profiling- Visualizing the end customer on the basis of collected data and some research by our own. Persona Profiling is to 'step in to customer's shoe and understanding the problem, situation, habits, needs and they face from his point view. The main objective of persona profiling is to understand the customers for designing products and service as per their practical needs.

 

How Persona Profiling Can Be Used in a Lean Six Sigma Project:

• Recognize the important aspects of the customers to create the Project charter or Business case
• Highlighting the Customer issues in Define Phase
• Solutions Customization in Improvement phase
• Rating the Result in Control Phase

 

Examples of Persona Profiling in Use:

 

 Gym -  Use persona profiling to improve members experiences. For examples; they create profile of fit customers /members in advertising campaigns at various social media handles and pamphlets

 

Mobile network companies - These companies understand the needs of the tech savvy and simple customer, basis which they customize mobile internet plans on different price ranges such as Jio, Airtel in India

 

Banks -  Banks create different persona profiling for all range of customer such as old aged ,Young etc. Lean six sigma  projects might use these profiles to customer support and making service easy and more satisfying.

 

Ecommerce Platform of retail - They influence with  verbiages such as  ' Last minute Deal', 'Festival Bonanza', Independence day sale 'Diwali Dhamaka' to cater all different customers.

 

Persona Profiling is an activity which is aimed at creating the profile (a.k.a persona) of the target audience of a product or a service. This will include information about the customer demographics, their requirements, their pain areas, behaviors etc.

 

The inputs for customer persona are gathered through market research, surveys and customer interviews and it is further utilised to design customer marketing campaigns, internal processes, as well as for product enhancement/modifications to make things more customer oriented.

 

In a Lean Six Sigma project, inputs gathered through the above mentioned channels can be utilized to enhance service/product in Analyze & Improve phase, so that the customer needs can be assessed pro-actively which help in driving a more than satisfactory customer experience resulting in an improves Cust Satisfaction.

 

Example:

For a Digital print organization which provides printing device to its customer, the Order fulfilment team was having an average CSAT Score of 3.7 on a scale of 1-5. Through persona profiling it was identified that most of its customers were Businesses who would like to spread lesser time in placing orders for Toners. To address this below mentioned change/enhancements were done:

- IVR options and verification process steps were reduced which reduces the call Handling time by 20%(average)

- Automating ordering option was introduced - An app was installed on the devices which would monitor the toner levels and will trigger an alert for ordering to the Order fulfillment team when any toner reached a specific empty percentage

- Website ordering option was introduced making it possible for customers to order it from a website as per their convenience

 

As a consequence of the above mentioned steps, the average CSAT for the process improved to 4.3 and has been doing weel since then.

 

 

Persona Profiles are creating fictitious characteristics of ideal customer , user, products etc. based on real data. These profiles are called persona. This cerates based on research data, demographics, customer pain & gain, emotions, behavior etc.

The popular or structured way to do Persona Mapping is Empathy mapping ( Design thinking tool). It is a collaborate tool to organize & synthesize insights of a persona’s pain point regarding an identified problem.

Persona mapping can be used in the define & measure phase to understand the customer's feedback, customer expectation and customer satisfaction in terms of the process improvement. This can help in creating the CTQ ( critical to quality).

Persona Profiling can be used for the below :

1.        VOCs can be captured

2.        VOCs can be converted to CTQs

3.        We can derive potential / Target solution

4.        Focused data collection to avoid bias

5.        Relevant metrics can be derived & designed

Few examples where persona profiling can be used

1.        Retail industry

2.        Banking industry

3.        E-commerce industry

4.        Health care industry

5.        Software / gaming industry

6.        OTT platform

7.        Automotive industry

Persona profiling is the process of creating detailed profiles or representations of specific target audience segments or customer personas. It involves gathering and analyzing data about the characteristics, behaviors, needs, preferences, and goals of individuals within a particular group. The purpose of persona profiling is to gain a deeper understanding of the target audience and to tailor marketing strategies, products, or services to meet their specific needs and preferences.

 

Persona profiling typically involves conducting research, such as surveys, interviews, and data analysis, to gather information about the target audience. This information may include demographic data (age, gender, location), psychographic data (values, attitudes, interests), behavioral data (purchasing habits, online behavior), and other relevant factors.

 

Once the data is collected, it is used to create fictional personas that represent different segments of the target audience. These personas are given names, backgrounds, and detailed descriptions that capture the key characteristics and motivations of the individuals they represent. Persona profiles often include information such as age, occupation, goals, challenges, preferences, and buying behaviors.

 

By developing persona profiles, businesses can better understand their target audience and make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, messaging, and customer experience. Persona profiling helps businesses to create more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns, improve customer engagement, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

 

Persona profiling can be used in Lean Six Sigma project at different stages based on the requirements.

• It can be used in Define phase while doing the Stakeholder analysis to ensure that we capture we capture different goals, motivations, challenges and preferences of different stakeholders and accordingly can develop an engagement plan to gain the optimum level of support from them.
• Personal profiling is a vital ingredient while developing a new product or service in Design phase. It helps to create different persona profiles of the probable users based on their age, gender, job profile, preferences, behaviors and many other demographic and psychographic traits. This in turn help us to do right segmentation to create and deliver more personalized product or service for the users for better customer experience.

 Below are some of the examples where Persona Profiling are used extensively:

 

Starbucks: Starbucks uses persona profiling to understand the preferences and lifestyles of their customers. They create personas such as 'Busy Professionals' and 'Coffee Connoisseurs' to tailor their menu offerings and store layouts.

Netflix: Netflix uses persona profiling to understand the viewing habits and preferences of their subscribers. They create personas such as 'Binge Watchers' and 'Movie Buffs' to personalize recommendations and improve the user experience.

Nike: Nike uses persona profiling to understand the motivations and behaviors of their target audience, such as 'Athletic Performance Seekers' and 'Lifestyle Fitness Enthusiasts'. This helps them develop products and marketing campaigns that resonate with their customers.

Apple: Apple uses persona profiling to understand the needs and preferences of their target audience. They create personas such as 'Creative Professionals' and 'Tech Enthusiasts' to tailor their marketing messages and product features.

 

It is important to note that persona profiling is an ongoing process that requires regular updates and adjustments as customer preferences and behaviors evolve over time.

The persona profiling is more of targeted custom approach one can take to cater needs of diverse target audience, stakeholders or customers. The personas can represent needs based on demography, purchase patterns and seasonality. In Six Sigma define phase, one can use this approach to understand needs of stakeholders and business and can be augmented with Kano model outcomes.

 

During Improve phase, this can be leveraged to come up with more tailored solutions and help prioritise among many solutions.

 

Example, If one persona is created for representing North American and other for India regions, the seasonality can vary based on purchase patterns observed in Thanksgiving in North American region and different pattern observed in Indian region during Deepavali season. The solution approach and prioritisation based on personas can be more effective compared to generic traditional one.

Persona profiling is a process of creating a customer's profile for a suitable product. It provides a product expert with key customer traits such as age, location, education and choices. In an organisation, persona profiling can be used to create segments for each product or customer base. This can help the organization with better alignment to customer satisfaction and preferences.

In Lean Six Sigma, persona profiling can be used to create segments of data for a customer base and analyse the data for a better customer satisfaction impact. These data sets can be used to study the factors to improve customer satisfaction and drive continuous improvement for a product/process.

I can think of examples from the Banking industry. They launch specific products and services for customers based on their profile such as bank accounts for housewives or working women. Another example will be NRI bank accounts or term insurance for working professionals.

Persona Profiling - It’s a process of demarcating and segregating customers basis their behavioral pattern, which is created basis studies and data collected from market. It helps organizations to devise their customer reach strategy by aligning it as per the customer requirements. It could include gathering information on customer demographics, intent, issues, expectations etc, but needs to be supported by concrete data evidence.

 

In the DMAIC approach, it is prominently used during the Define and Measure phase, wherein VOC is being analyzed and studied. By creating Customer Persona's its becomes easy to assign a particular data output with a relevant persona created. It helps in better identification and mitigation of any issues which concerning customer behavior. Study of Customer personas prepare the organizations to be flexible in approach as per the requirements collected and refine output accordingly.

 

Some of the examples of Customer Persons mappings could be,

- Mutual Funds providers have various categories of funds like Higher Risks, Medium Risk and Low Risk Funds, basis investors Risk Taking appetite
- Promotional Activities are planned as per the demographic segregation basis spending pattern for a particular location, thus saving on the cost incurred in advertisements  

Interesting answers to read, specially the examples quoted for persona profiling.

 

The best answer has been given by Akkul Dhand. Well done!!