Every business claims to put customers first, but few have the methodological rigor to truly understand what drives customer choices. At WATC Consulting AG, we’ve developed Customer Choice Analysis© – a proprietary suite of research tools designed to uncover the conscious and unconscious factors that influence customer decisions. This comprehensive methodology enables organizations to base strategic decisions on genuine customer insights rather than assumptions or incomplete data.
WHY TRADITIONAL CUSTOMER RESEARCH FALLS SHORT
Most market research captures only what customers consciously express – their stated preferences and opinions. Yet research in behavioral economics and psychology has consistently shown that human decision-making is far more complex, with many influences operating below the conscious level. As Europe’s pioneering customer centricity consultancy, WATC has developed Customer Choice Analysis© to bridge this critical insight gap.
INSIDE THE CUSTOMER CHOICE ANALYSIS© TOOLBOX
Our proprietary methodology integrates four specialized research approaches, each designed to illuminate different aspects of customer behavior:
1) Process:Genie© – Seeing the Customer Journey Through Their Eyes
This innovative electronic tool allows researchers to document and visualize customer journeys in real-time, working directly with respondents to map their experiences step by step. Process:Genie© is uniquely valuable for:
- Capturing the precise sequence and duration of each customer interaction
- Identifying specific motivations and triggers that prompt customer actions
- Providing structured guidance for both interviewer and respondent
- Ensuring consistency and comparability across diverse participant responses
The visual mapping capabilities of Process:Genie© make complex customer journeys accessible and actionable for management teams.
2) Repertory Grid – Uncovering the Unconscious Framework of Customer Decisions
Based on George A. Kelly’s psychological theory of personal constructs, this sophisticated method reveals the implicit frameworks that guide customer decisions – even when customers themselves cannot articulate these influences. Repertory Grid excels at:
- Revealing both conscious and unconscious customer needs
- Documenting tacit knowledge and hard-to-describe experiences
- Exposing underlying cultural values within organizations
- Minimizing interviewer influence to capture authentic perspectives
By mapping these cognitive frameworks, organizations gain access to the invisible factors that often determine customer preference and loyalty.
3) Conjoint Analysis – Quantifying Value Perceptions With Advanced Precision
Customer Choice Analysis© uses a particularly sophisticated and efficient Conjoint Analysis variant, that can include multiple elements while prioritizing and reducing choice criteria. It helps with:
- Determine precise customer willingness-to-pay thresholds
- Evaluate the relative value contribution of individual offering elements
- Identify natural customer segments based on preference patterns
- Develop optimized product and service packages
- Predict market reactions to potential offerings with mathematical precision
This sophisticated approach transforms qualitative customer preferences into quantifiable metrics that directly inform product and pricing decisions.
4) AHP – Bringing Mathematical Rigor to Complex Decisions
The Analytic Hierarchy Process uses paired comparisons and advanced algorithms to create detailed preference profiles. Our online implementation makes this powerful methodology accessible for both internal teams and external customers. Key applications include:
- Identifying deeply held organizational beliefs and potential misalignments
- Testing for alignment between various stakeholder groups
- Supporting complex strategic decisions with mathematical rigor
- Systematically prioritizing customer needs and expectations
- Guiding product development roadmaps and investment priorities
This methodology brings mathematical precision to what are often intuition-based decisions in many organizations.
INTEGRATING CUSTOMER CHOICE ANALYSIS© INTO STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING
Understanding customers forms the essential first step in WATC’s proven 6-step Customer Experience Management framework. The rich, multidimensional understanding generated by Customer Choice Analysis© enables organizations to:
- Define genuinely relevant objectives based on what actually matters to customers
- Design truly differentiating experiences grounded in customer needs
- Build internal capabilities aligned with customer expectations
- Structure customer relationships based on authentic preference insights
- Implement continuous improvement cycles guided by meaningful feedback
Under the leadership of founding partner Patrick E. Koller, WATC has implemented these methodologies with leading companies across industries ranging from automotive and financial services to telecommunications and consumer products.
FROM INSIGHT TO IMPLEMENTATION
The true value of Customer Choice Analysis© lies not just in the insights generated, but in how these insights transform business strategy and operations. As the first European consulting company to specialize exclusively in customer centricity, with over 20 years of experience helping leading organizations enhance their growth through customer-centric approaches, WATC brings unparalleled expertise to translating customer understanding into competitive advantage.
Ready to discover what truly drives your customers’ decisions? Contact the WATC team to explore how Customer Choice Analysis© can transform your organization’s approach to customer understanding.
