What Do My Customers Really Want?

“Market research is for the large companies. It’s too complex, too formal, too costly, and unnecessary.”

We hear this comment a lot when we first meet prospective clients. One of the biggest, if not The Biggest, mistakes a company makes is to assume that you know what your customers need. While experience and frequent contact with customers will give you a good sense of the markets and your customers, they are not infallible.

Even if you did know your customers’ needs at one point in time, people and situations change and so do the needs of your customers. And customers don’t always tell you how they really feel or what they really want, even if they are unsatisfied with some part of your product/service. Don’t believe us, let’s use a common situation that most people can relate to as an illustration.

You and your spouse go out to dinner a local restaurant. When you get your meals, some of the food was cold or undercooked.  As you exit the restaurant, the Manager asks you “how was everything?”  How do most people respond?  “Fine.”  The Manager has no idea that the customer was dissatisfied but the customers are unlikely to return.

The situation gets worse as personal relationship between your people and the customer grow stronger. Let’s go back to our restaurant example. Do you think that the customers told the waitress about the food? It’s not her fault the food wasn’t prepared properly.

She was so nice and did a good job serving them. Why complain? And even if they did complain to the waitress, did she tell the cook or the manager. Probably not.

Now let’s say that your salesman has been serving the customer for years and you have a strong personal relationship. Is this customer going to complain or will they just get up one day and go somewhere else?

Market research, then, is important and must become a continuous process not a one- time act otherwise you risk that your marketing and sales efforts may miss the mark.

Fear not, as we will outline here, it need not be a costly process.

Uses of Market Research
The goal of market research is to gather facts that will help your business solve problems, avoid problems, make marketing and business decisions, and operate more efficiently and effectively.  Market research covers a broad range of topics, including product/service research, copy testing, ad testing, pricing research, new market research, competitor research and demographic research.

What You Need to Know
Here is a list of questions that you should be asking on a regular and continuous basis:

• Who are our customers?
• What do I know about them?
• What do they think they are buying?
• What do we think we are selling?
• What do customers perceive as the strengths and weaknesses of our products/services and of our company?
• What are our strengths and weaknesses?
• Who are our competitors?
• What do our customers like about them and what new things are they doing?
• Why have old customers left us?
• Why are new customers coming to us?

Inexpensive Market Research Tactics
Hiring a professional market researcher can be the most effective method to gather the vital information you need, but inexpensive options are also available.  We discuss these here.

Telephone surveys Mail surveys E-Mail surveys

Website surveys and support pages Add-on surveys

Questions added on to other documents your customers receive and return to you such as:

Reply cards Warranty cards Coupons Invoices and statements Redemption certificates Customer bulletin boards Facebook and social media comments Customer advisory boards

Customer support team and websites Live customer interviews Tradeshows & conferences At your facilities Face-to-face discussions Sales and repair team meetings on customer needs and complaints

Related Articles
Customers Leaving: What to Do Immediately
What to Do With Hotel Soap
Lifetime Value Cycle
Barriers to Customer Touch Excellence

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