Beyond the Brief
Imagine recruiting a Morrisons shopper, preparing them to articulate their frustrations, motivations and lived experience, then putting them in front of 500 store managers, category directors and the CEO at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.
That’s the kind of thing we do for Morrisons. Regularly.
Customer Closeness isn’t a methodology. It’s a commitment to regular, structured, meaningful contact between your brand and your real customers. For brands where customers visit frequently, retailers, coffee shops, restaurant groups, hospitality brands – that ongoing connection isn’t a nice to have. It’s a competitive advantage.
At Zest, we build and run Customer Closeness programmes for some of the UK’s biggest consumer brands. We embed ourselves into your insight function, manage the programme end to end, and think proactively about what you need next.
What We Deliver
Customer Closeness is only as good as the people in the room and the team running it. Here’s what Zest brings to every programme.
01The right people, prepared to the right standard
02Every session type, under one roof
03An embedded partner, not a transactional supplier
04Proactive Thinking
05The Outcome
Customer Closeness participants aren’t just recruited to a spec, they’re curated to a standard. We proactively build panels that genuinely reflect your real customer base and align with your strategic priorities, so the right people are always available when you need them.
- Pre-screening videos and persona alignment checks
- Past participation cross-checks to ensure fresh perspectives
- Personal phone confirmation for every participant
- Proactive panel building across your key customer segments
- Extended screening and video audition tasks for high-stakes environments
- Reserves built into every session as standard, a no-show is never a crisis
- Ongoing participant retention and relationship management
- Online and in-person focus groups
- Accompanied shopping and visit experiences
- Speed dating stakeholder sessions
- Large-scale panel events
- Post-task follow-ups to capture real reactions once products go live
- Out-of-hours and senior stakeholder support when sessions demand it
A Customer Closeness programme runs continuously. The relationship behind it needs to as well. We embed ourselves into your insight function — so institutional knowledge doesn’t get rebuilt every time a new project lands. It’s already there.
- Regular planning sessions and weekly collaboration
- Shared live project tracking
- Clear cost governance and transparent project management
- Direct contact when things need to move fast
- Working knowledge of your personas, seasonal priorities, and stakeholder sensitivities
The most valuable thing a long-term partner can do is think ahead. We see the gap and fill it — without being asked.
- Facilitating direct follow-up between participants and senior stakeholders when something surfaces that matters
- Real-time support for out-of-hours sessions and senior leader attendance
- Post-task follow-ups when products won’t be available to customers until after fieldwork runs
- Proactive flags when briefings change or priorities shift
Nobody asks us to do most of this. We just see the gap and fill it.
A Customer Closeness programme built and run by Zest gives your insight function something most research projects can’t, continuity. A panel that grows and deepens over time. Participants who know how to contribute meaningfully. A partner who understands your business well enough to challenge your thinking, not just execute your briefs.
If you’re running ad hoc customer research and wondering why the insight never quite sticks, the answer is usually that the relationship ends when the project does.
Ours doesn’t.
Zest Spotlight: Customer Closeness
Example 1
When Red Daffodil approached us, they were tackling a subject that required both precision and empathy: understanding nutrition and fragility among people aged 60+. It was a brief that sat firmly in the “handle with care” category, and exactly the kind of challenge Zest is built to support.
Example 2
When an up-and-coming beauty brand (i-BRATE) approached us, they had a clear goal to get their product advertised on TV. But to make it onto our screens, they needed something more than just a great product. They needed proof of the results for Clearcast approval.
Example 3
What started as a way to understand how people felt week by week is now Kokoro’s longest-running community. Respondents stay engaged year after year thanks to real connection, clear communication, and supportive management — giving Kokoro richer insight than snapshots ever could.
