The study shows overwhelming support for strategies that improve the customer experience. Nearly 98 percent of respondents said improving the customer experience was important, while another 97 percent cited increasing customer satisfaction as a priority.

In pursuit of these objectives, retailers are working to better understand customers’ lifestyles and life stages. According to the survey, retailers are deploying a wide variety of feedback techniques, including market and customer research, focus groups, store intercepts, supplier input, Web statistics, third-party data and Internet research.

The study also shows that more than 35 percent of retailers are obtaining direct customer feedback on a daily basis—a notable increase from 2004, when just less than 10 percent of retailers obtained weekly customer feedback.

“Retailers have been gathering consumer trend data for years,” said Janet Murphy of Ogden Associates (Morristown, N.J.), the consulting and retail research firm that conducted the survey. “Understanding the value of [customer relationship management] technology will help retailers use this information to personalize the relationships with their customers.”

Reflecting a major shift toward more strategic use of information, 67 percent of respondents said they used customer information for merchandise planning, up significantly from 42 percent of respondents in 2004. Retailers also see customer insight as important in developing marketing strategies (92 percent), promotions (83 percent), advertising budgets (69 percent), catalog targeting (67 percent), and, of course, customer service (78 percent). [May 2006 PET AGE]