How Can We Understand User Behavior From a Business Perspective?

Customers are at the center of every business. Faithful customers can help grow businesses, but at the same time customers can affect the success of business or organization. Simply put, ‘no customers’ means ‘no business.’ If you can’t find a customer for your product or if customers are dissatisfied with your service, then you won’t have that business for long.

Therefore, it is extremely important to know who your customers are, what they want and what you can do for them. Understanding user behavior is essential for the success of any business, as not only can it give you valuable insights about your customers and even your own products but it also gives you a competitive edge and reduces the need to guesstimate customers’ needs. This can be easily done by tracking online service users and gathering more information about them to make informed decisions.

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What can understanding user behaviour do for your business?

In regular brick-and-mortar stores this is done easily just by interacting with your customers. You can speak with them, learn which products interest them and which ones are not working out as well as you hoped, discover any issues the moment they happen and even recognize suspicious behaviours. Unfortunately, when it comes to the ecommerce that is not possible. Your interactions with customers are limited and you can’t rely on the same strategies as you would in brick-and-mortar stores.

Luckily, having your business online comes with certain benefits that can help you with that. By using proper tools like device fingerprinting, data enrichment and email lookup tools you can get an insight in customer behaviour and use it to help your business. Gathering insight about user behaviour can make a difference in various aspects of your business, from marketing and sales to cybersecurity which is why more and more companies have implemented them into their business. It is what helps Amazon to suggest you your next purchase, streaming services to give you a recommendation of what to watch or listen to next or lets Google to give you answers that are more relevant for you.

How to get insight in users’ behavior?

There are different methods you can use to get an insight into users’ behaviour such as device fingerprinting, data enrichment and email lookup tools.

Device fingerprinting – By using this tool you can analyse the devices of your users and create a unique ID associated with that user. This way you can keep track of users’ activity on your website, discover what they are interested in, utilize targeted marketing, and monitor any discrepancias in their behaviour that might indicate malicious intent. Device fingerprinting uses different variables of your phone such as the operating system, browser features, browser features, IP address and many more to create a unique fingerprint just like the lines and patterns on your finger create your own fingerprint.

Data enrichment – Like device fingerprinting, data enrichment also helps you create a unique profile for your customers. It does that by gathering data from external and internal databases which are used to enrich the original data the customer has provided you with to gain better insight into the customer. By having more information about your user, it will be easier to understand their behaviour and use the knowledge to benefit your business.

Email lookup and reverse email lookup tools – These tools help you collect additional information about the user by using a single piece of information. With an email lookup tool, you can find users’ email by using personal data like their phone number or a name, while the reverse email lookup can provide you with additional information about you user by using their email.

Gathering users’ data is the most important step in understanding the user behaviour. It allows you to notice any patterns that might emerge, to improve your products and services based on the information, to ensure customer retention and to protect your business and all its users from the growing threat of cyber-attacks. If you want your business or organization to stay competitive in today’s market, you need to start using all the tools in your arsenal and stay one step ahead of your competition but also cyber criminals.

Author: Robert Kormoczi is a Content Distribution Manager and fraud fighter @SEON