Customer research is all about getting the customer to open up. You can do this by asking open-ended questions and then actually listening to the answers. Open-ended questions are questions that can not simply be answered with a yes or no. Here’s an example: “What can I help you with?” is a much better question than “Can I help you?” because it requires a longer, more informative answer. The more you know about the customer, the easier it is to make them happy. Happy customers are what we want.
I was curious to figure how to make doctor who memorabilia when I realized the legality of it was in question, so I visited etsy.com and saw that many had appropriated the concept of the show and now it was virally owned. Doctor Who is the Jesus figure of today, so the younger generation has chosen a timeless hero. I also surf a site called reddit and have seen much being made, art, merchandise, etc. So, there’s plenty of opportunity to source and sell products to the next generation.
I feel that doing customer research is an important topic because you want to know what general consensus wants and how to provide these customers with these specified products. By knowing your customer, it’ll be easy to think as one when brainstorming for product ideas. You then also have to think about what customers would be willing to pay for similar products on the market and how you can beat competitors.
The above story and insights are from a go-getter interested in improving their career and business ventures. This is part of the RichardStep Steppers plan to get more out of life! Now, let’s jump into some potential customer interviews and survey responses to see what people really think about this topic.
Doing Customer Research
What’s so special about this topic anyway?
If you are locating a business it is important to find out if the potential customers in an area need, want or can afford what you are selling. Speaking from a rural viewpoint there is no need to try and sell them a house if they are looking for a barn. You want your business to last and should base your sells on target customers instead of casting hoping to win a few out of a hundred. If you meet the needs of the customer you will meet your need in profit.
Think about the topic for a bit – describe what’s so special about it for most folks?
Businesses can not hope to successfully target people’s desires and needs without performing customer research. Too many products and services come close to being good but miss the mark as to what customers are truly seeking. If research had been conducted and accurately interpreted customers needs and desires would be better met and customers would be happier. As a side benefit this can also re-brand companies as the ally of customers rather than as a necessary evil to meet one’s needs.
I think everyone wants to be a better person – can you tell us how this topic relates?
Customer research could make someone a better person in a few ways. It would help someone understand other’s emotions, why they act the way they do, how they prefer to be treated and their general feelings towards customer service employees. This will translate into life in general because it will give you that understanding as mentioned above, giving you a new outlook and strategy when communicating with others.
Start planning for tomorrow by letting us know how this topic could be more present in your daily life.
To start, you need to be familiar with your target demographic. Who are your ideal customers? Get familiar with gender, age, income level, and other preferences. Once you know the basic details of who you are trying to target, you will save yourself considerable time and effort researching these individuals. You can issue surveys, focus groups, and studies in order to narrow down your results.
With this subject as the target, what learning methods or resources would you suggest?
Someone could find plenty of avenues to perform customer research by checking in their own community. There are tons of companies that provide services to secret shop your company to see how they ‘generally appear’ to customers. You can also provide surveys and incentives for customers to fill you in. Add a ‘fill out a survey and win free lunch’ giveaway at your location. Get involved with a rotary or other local clubs. The community is your best friend, be more involved with it, and you’ll get more than enough research to use.
Who’s the flat-out worst at this subject?
New business owners should do customer research to ensure that there is a market for their prospective products. Established companies that want to produce new products need to do customer research. Inventors producing new or improving on a product should do customer research to ensure that there is a need for the new product.
I’m looking for ways to improve my life – what advice would you give me related to this topic?
I would tell them that they should direct their research towards the customer that they are trying to reach. I would also tell them that they should make sure that their product appeals to the customer that they are trying to reach. I would also tell them that they should make sure their product is right for their customer.
Let’s build up some defenses – what do people need to watch out for here?
The first thing that comes to mind is with this is researching your customer, i.e. understanding who it is that buys your product, who uses it etc. This is important in order to market to that audience and to respond to their need. For certain types of businesses, this is probably understanding a broader base using statistics of what types of people like your product. For other types of businesses (such as real estate) it might mean actually researching an individual customer. When I saw the phrase I also thought of an article I read a while back about how Target compiles a ridiculous amount of data/statistics on their customers and then uses the data to create targeted ads. For instance, if you buy a certain type of lotion, Target uses statistical data to interpret this as you might be pregnant and then starts sending you coupons for baby products.
What should someone do to use this topic to succeed?
If I were an expert at doing customer research, I would use my expertise to pursue a career in marketing. Every company could benefit from having a better knowledge of their customers. The more information a company has about their customers, the better they would be able to advertise to their target consumer base.
Give me an example of something we can do to discover more about this subject.
I would think that any way of mass communication would be helpful. I would follow up with more targeted measures, especially if your mass communication had some interested people. For example a mass communication that allowed people to give their email address for more information. The same could be done in person with business cards.
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