In the part one of this series about understanding customers needs, we identify two negative effect from unsatisfied customers needs: Losing business potential energy from customers and marketing activities and losing potential energy stored into your cash. These negative effects are fatal to every company and especially for startups that have lack of cash and business experience. One of the reasons why small business fails is misunderstanding customers needs.
How can you better understand customers needs?
- Understand your market niche. If you decide to sell on that market niche you must ask yourself who, what, why, when and where some individual from that niche buying something. This means that you must know who are your buyers. If you know who are your buyers you will know something about their needs. If it is a senior citizen they will have different needs than juniors. After answering first question you can simply answer next four questions.
- Ask your sales team about your customers. Because your sales team is in direct contact with your customers they can have enough information about them, and what they want. In one retail store into the database about selling, I make an option to each employee as seller to make daily reports about most important parts of the day. In this way, they can record if some customer asks for something that entrepreneur doesn’t have, and after that entrepreneur will see that records and can make analysis if it is possible to bring that type of products or services.
- Make short Interview with your customers. This can be used also as a marketing weapon that will tell you something about your current or future buyers from your leads list. The interview will be with several simple questions about their need and previously experience with that type of products and services. You can use this information for continuously improvement of your company.
- Blog Comments. If you use blog as a marketing weapon for your business you can have different comments on your posts. Don’t ignore negative comments. Answer that you will improve that negative impression and start finding solutions about that. When you fixed reasons about that negativity you can send mail to that commenter and tell him that you make changes and now everything is perfect. In this way, you will try to receive one more chance for your company.
- Survey. Make surveys about customers experience with your business. Surveys can be online on your blog and offline in your store or other business places. Survey will give you fresh information about experience of your customers with your business. Surveys can be used from current customers but also from potential customers. You will be able to mix current experience with expectations from potential buyers.
- Social Networks. Social networks in the past years become so popular that there is not a person or business that doesn’t use some of them. Make your current and potential customers the part of your social network and look for their notes and expectations.
- Read another blogs of your industry and comments on them. On the internet, you can find thousands of blogs in the same niche as yours. Choose some of them and read the post and comments. In the comments, you can find different needs of the different individuals with different problems. You can also give some answers about that problems and send him to your blog to read something about your business.
- Talk with people. Everywhere you go talk with people about their needs connected with your business. You can receive worth information’s about their problems and their needs that will give you ideas of improvement of your business. If you don’t talk they will not tell you nothing, and you will miss the chance to obtain good information.
- Read the news in industry. Read newspapers and magazines that cover themes about your industry. Here you can find different information about what’s happening outside of your business. Use that information to improve your business decisions.
- Track trends. You must track trends in your business field. For example, many people before decide to buy something search on internet to see what type of products exists on the market and to find experience with that products of other individuals. You can use Google’s trends to analyze what is searched more on the internet and what is current trends.
And at the end spend some time for this activity:
- Think about your marketing niche.
- Talk with your employees about customer’s need minimum once a week.
- Schedule interview with some of the most important customers once in two months.
- Read comments on your blog every day.
- Schedule 3-4 surveys yearly that you will conduct.
- Spend 10-20 minutes daily on social networks and read about different needs.
- Spend 30 minutes weakly to read 2-3 blogs about your industry or market.
- When you’re talking with different people don’t forget to ask him about their needs connected with your business.
- Spend 30 minutes daily to read news about your industry.
- Track the different trends in your industry.
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About Dragan
Excellent Post , Many thanks. residing in North East Scotland it’s good to find a useful resource like yours, especially with good posts like the one above. Many thanks and keep up the great work.