Customer research is something I do when I want to know more about who is coming to my store. Knowing who comes into my store can help me to make sure that I have things that they like. When I have things those people like, they want to buy them. When people buy things in my store, it helps to make me successful!
People hate doing long surveys for peanuts. Increase the reward or try getting your information through passive means. Analytics are your best friend. Try to keep it less subjective and short. If you need more information, increase the frequency of trials over a large population.
I think that reaching people who are sometimes overlooked is important. For instance, reaching people without a landline or someone who doesn’t watch television in traditional ways. As young people are comprising a larger portion of consumers it is important to consider new ways to reach people.
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 would someone really get out of this?
Talking to customers and listening to their opinions on products and services is a great store level way of doing customer research. Working as a manager in a retail environment allowed me to do one on one research. Reading online reviews of a business is a way to do customer research.
How do you think this could change someone’s life?
It’s important to know your customer. Gender, race, and age are all important things to know about customers who use your product. With more knowledge about your target customer you will be able to make better products geared toward your target customer. The consumer benefits this way, and the company benefits with increased sales.
Could this topic help regular people like me and you be better at what we do?
Doing customer research makes one more understanding of humanity in general. As such, the researcher hopefully will be better able to connect with individuals within his community after studying that such community for business-related reasons. Being able to connect better to others will make one more sociable and likely happier by helping one feel more connected to others around him/her.
If you had to put more time into bringing this topic into your daily life, what would you do?
Someone new to customer research should first learn about marketing and what kind of information marketing wants and desires. Once learning some about marketing, they should start to look at the methods different marketing firms employ to gather their research. Finally, this person should seek to learn how people use marketing research to adapt or change or product.
How would you recommend someone dive into this topic further?
A person could make up a survey about a company and ask friends about it. That way, they are practicing with customer research. Also, a person can get a job in a call center were they do customer research.
Who’s the flat-out worst at this subject?
Consumer product good companies have many layers of customers. The wholesalers, retailers, the shoppers that buy in these stores and finally the consumers who purchase their products. There are typically multiple people within CPU companies that handle customer research: shopper marketing, marketing research and category management.
What are your best pieces of advice for this topic?
My advice to someone looking to use customer research in their lives is only think about this if your on a project team or if you’re an advertiser. Unless you’re in a field of position that utilizes the following topic, I don’t think you’d use it a lot in life. That’s just what I believe.
Please, let us know what you think is the biggest problem related to this topic?
Determine the goal of your clients. Try to determine the number of employees they have and how this may affect your ability to serve them. Give them feedback on the methods you used to research them.
How could you use this to succeed?
Consumer research is a mix of insights and story telling from data vs. opinion. Have a point of view, use data to tell the story you want. Don’t waver and sound confident. Stand your ground.
Give me an example of something we can do to discover more about this subject.
Customer research could be introduced to employees through staff meeting, memos, etc. Facts concerning the importance of the customer could also be included (i.e. sale projections, results of good/bad customer service). Actual feedback from real customers also reveals the importance of customer service and research.
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