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Lynx is an online broker that enables customers to trade and invest in financial markets around the world. Founded in the Netherlands, the company is currently operating in 10 different countries across Europe. Having previously worked together in a wide range of projects, Lynx chose Rlevance to help them target and serve their clients better. To achieve this, we chose the path of a customer typology, closing the gap between a one-size-fits-all and a fully personalized approach. During the process, we interviewed, 6.500 participants in seven countries, making this project one of the most extensive study on online traders in Europe. Applying data science as well as a psychological approach, we were able to extract and describe tangible personas that made the target audience clear to every Lynx employee. In a second step of the project, and based on qualitative data from each type, we created individualized customer experiences for the types along the entire life cycle. We also extended the customer typology approach from customer acquisition into customer retention. As a result we were not only able to establish a more fulfilling and sustainable relationships with target customers, but also helped Lynx to a more customer-centric approach.
Deep understanding of online traders is key to create a solid customer typology and well-founded personas. We started this endeavor with multi-leveled qualitative research: Interviews and workshops with trading experts helped us to identify factors relevant in distinguishing between different types of traders. Equipped with these insights, we created a survey and ran it in 7 different markets across Europe, capturing insights from more than 6.500 active online traders and investors. This survey became a standard tool for Lynx.
The approximately 350.000 data points we collected built our basis for the analysis of trading behavior and attitudes. Through advanced data science, we were first able to identify factors that determine the individual trading personalities. These were the basis to cluster customers into larger segments. Our background in consumer psychology and years of experience in user research enabled us to interpret these clusters and describe them on a more human, holistic level and transforming them into highly useful persona descriptions – our customer typology. The large body of data we created in this pan-European study can be mined on demand as Lynx is progressing into the future.
Customer knowledge only becomes valuable when it is actively used within the organization. We created a “user manual” that holds detailed descriptions of the types, their behaviors and attitudes for marketing, media planning, product and service design. To introduce the types to a wider internal audience, we created a short, descriptive characterization and had them visualized by a professional illustrator. We payed close attention to delivering copy and images that would be true to the level of detail of our data and facilitate quick understanding. For employees responsible for the customer journey and marketing, we conducted workshops across all European branches. Here we introduced them to the new customer typology and enabled them to adapt their daily work practices accordingly.
To create individualized customer experiences for our new customer types, we teamed up with service design agency Essense from Amsterdam. Our goal was to design individual solutions for each type – based on a common customer journey – and across the entire customer life cycle. This process was carried out together with a task force consisting of Lynx marketing leads to facilitate adoption within the organization. Our common goal was to deepen customer loyalty and inspire their recommendations, as well as implementing a more customer centric way of working within Lynx.
The customer typology project gave Lynx a deeper understanding of customer needs and a clearer picture of their target audience’s needs. Lynx was able to improve the quality of their customer base by attracting and maintaining more of their desired target customers. Beyond that, they profit from a synchronized approach to markets and reduced marketing and product development costs, without sacrificing a highly individualized customer-approach. As a whole, the company has gained a more customer centric way of working. Lynx customers now profit from an approach that answers to their individual needs and provides them with a more fitting service experience.
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