UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS
Today’s technology advances have made the competitive market much tougher, customers have access to more information and can compare different products or services before actually purchasing them. Even though the internet and social network sites have stimulated competition between companies, the same basic rules of business still persist nowadays. There are two main negative effects from unsatisfied customers’ needs: - The loss of business potential energy from customers and marketing activities. - The loss of potential energy stored in your cash. Not being able to understand your customers’ needs can lead to fatal effects to your company, especially for those small or starting businesses.
Understand your market segment First thing you need to do is understanding who’s your market niche. You must ask yourself who, when, why and what the customers from that market segment are buying. You basically need to know who are your buyers. Carry out a market research and identify the different market segments that are buying your products or services, this is the starting point to have a full knowledge of your customers’ needs.
Use Social Networks Having a company profile on the most common social networks is essential nowadays. Use Facebook and Twitter to understand what your customers want and interact with them. Creating engagement is the best way to know what your customers want from your business. Successful marketing starts with the right data, you need to know who your followers or fans are. Nowadays there are customer intelligence tools that allow identifying the users preferences and help in the online marketing process.
Use surveys Make surveys about customers experience, develop brief questions (not more than 6-7) and include some dialogue boxes where customers can express their own thoughts. You can carry out online surveys or offline in your store or other business places. Study the results from the surveys regularly, this is the best way to obtain fresh information about what your customers think of your business.
Talk with your sales team The sales team is the part of the business which is in direct contact with your customers, therefore their members have enough information about them and what they want. Schedule regular meetings with your sales team and implement activities such as keeping reports about the most important part of the day and factors that might be affecting sales.
Host discussions If you can bring your best customers together you’ll be able to obtain valuable information. You can carry out personal interviews or use online conference tools such as Lync and email discussion groups. In order to thank your customers for their time, you can offer them some kind of reward such as a discount or some samples of your products.
Set up a Blog Set up a company blog where you can post news related to your business and industry. Track your comments and spend some time replying to them. Don’t ignore negative comments, some of them might contain really valuable information that will help you improve some sectors of your business. Read other companies’ blogs and analyse the comments from their readers, you’ll be able to identify needs that those companies aren’t currently offering.
Talk to your customers If you’re dealing with customers face to face, try to spend some time talking to them and find out what they think of your business. Positive comments are always nice but try to find out what you’re doing wrong or what areas you can improve.
Read the industry news Keep informed of everything that is going on in your sector. Find out what your competitors are offering and use this information to improve your business decisions and provide a better service to your customers.
Read comments on review websites Read review websites to discover about customers’ needs. Nowadays, consumers like to spend time doing some research before actually buying a product. Look at the scores of your products on these sites and decide how you can improve the negative feedback.
Track trends Track trends in your industry and find out what people are looking for or what they are spending their money on. You can use tools like Google Trends to analyse the terms that are searched more on the internet and see the current trends.