Beyond Knowing Your Customer: The Next Evolution of Customer Understanding in Financial Services
By: Meaghan Willis Meaghan is a senior qualitative research strategist with nearly 20 years of experience partnering with category leaders and globally recognized brands to shape how insight informs business strategy. She has deep expertise across healthcare, financial services/fintech, CPG/retail, luxury, automotive, and beyond, working with audiences ranging from B2B and HNW to Gen Z […]
FeltonBuford Partners Acquires Zeldis Research Associates, Creating a Next-Generation Insights Firm Serving Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance, and Consumer Markets
Acquisition expands quantitative research capabilities, broadens industry expertise, and bolsters commitment to innovation. CINCINNATI, OHIO – July 7, 2026 – FeltonBuford Partners, LLC, a qualitative market research, deep insights and strategy boutique, has acquired Zeldis Research Associates, LLC, a full-service qualitative and quantitative market research and analytics firm. Founded in 1991, Zeldis’s areas of […]
Synthetic Data, Virtual Personas, and the Dangerous Comfort of “Good Enough”
By: Meaghan Willis Meaghan is a senior qualitative research strategist with nearly 20 years of experience partnering with category leaders and globally recognized brands to shape how insight informs business strategy. She has deep expertise across healthcare, financial services/fintech, CPG/retail, luxury, automotive, and beyond, working with audiences ranging from B2B and HNW to Gen Z […]
Empathy Is a Practice, Not a Posture: Meet Your Customers Where They Are, Not Where You Want Them to Be
We recently worked with a financial institution that had everything right on the surface. But their at-risk customers weren’t responding, and kept falling further behind. Real empathy—and the solution to this case—means doing the ongoing work to meet customers where they actually are. The more abstract your customer, the easier it is to keep designing for the imagined version, and the further you drift from reality.
Why Customer Understanding is the Real Competitive Advantage in Banking
Across sessions, themes like AI, trust, fraud, personalization, and generational change, reflect an industry actively working to evolve to better serve customers, build stronger relationships, and stay relevant in an increasingly complex landscape.
But what stood out most is not unique to the banking industry.
As AI accelerates, digital experiences become more seamless, and customer expectations continue to rise, organizations are being pushed to rethink how they create value, not just through efficiency, but through understanding.
From a qualitative perspective, that’s where things get interesting.
More Data, Less Clarity: How Sidelining Qualitative Research Undermines Strategic Decision-Making
More Data, Less Clarity: How Sidelining Qualitative Research Undermines Strategic Decision-Making
The Case for Expert Respondents in Early-Stage Healthcare Research
By: Meaghan Willis Meaghan is a senior qualitative research strategist with nearly 20 years of experience partnering with category leaders and globally recognized brands to shape how insight informs business strategy. She has deep expertise across healthcare, financial services/fintech, CPG/retail, luxury, automotive, and beyond, working with audiences ranging from B2B and HNW to Gen Z […]