New FlexMR Practice to Focus on Customer Closeness

UK-based research tech company FlexMR has added a new consulting arm, the 'Closeness Practice', and appointed Danielle Wilkinson to lead it.

FlexMR launched its InsightHub in 2018, integrated platform bringing together its range of existing research tools and services; and in 2022 added ActivateMR, which uses a variety of in-platform data collection sources to help researchers build collaborative, real-time dashboards.

The new division aims to help brands bring real customer understanding directly into decision-making, via a portfolio of consulting services based on the principles of empathy and co-design. FlexMR says its work is designed to strengthen 'Customer Salience' - the extent to which customer perspectives are actively present, valued and used in organisational decision-making.

The new practice will start life with two primary services: Customer Closeness Programmes, which allow small groups of decision-makers from a client company to interact regularly with customers through facilitated conversations, and follow up with Empathy Workshops; and Co-Design Labs, which bring customers and decision-makers together to work on specific challenges - identifying issues, discussing priorities, exploring solutions and producing a clear record of solutions and action accountability.

Led by Danielle Wilkinson, previously a Client Relationship Manager at the company and with nearly a decade's experience in agency-side market research, the practice will tackle both long-term programmes and tactical projects using ad hoc labs. Says Wilkinson: 'Many of the clientside teams I speak to feel frustrated by the disconnect between data and decision-making. The truth is that customer input simply isn't strategically prioritised in the same way that financial and operational considerations are. But getting insight to the top table won't change that. To create lasting change, our new Closeness practice is about shaping better decisions and practices at all levels.' CEO Paul Hudson says the launch reflects the firm's continued commitment to Customer Salience and making insight matter,and comments: 'Over the last decade, FlexMR has run more than one hundred online research communities. One consistent indicator of strategic value has always been the degree to which stakeholders, decision-makers and senior leadership engage with customers in these spaces. Our new Closeness practice extends this insight - recognising that impact doesn't just come from reporting but from culture and engagement.'

The new unit is online at www.flexmr.net/practices/customer-closeness .