Mastering market research
Market research is an incredibly important part of growing any business. It helps you to not only understand ways that you can best make changes but also how you are performing at this moment in time. The trouble with market research, is that many people think that it needs to involve a research company, which means that there is going to be an associated cost.
What you may not realise is that market research is something that you can do yourself, reducing the cost and giving you back the control. In fact, you may already be doing it, you just don’t realise you are. So, with this in mind, let’s take a look at how you can become a DIY master at market research.
Take the time to talk to your staff
Whilst you may best understand your service, product or vision, when it comes to understanding your customers and then in turn what they think, your customer-facing or sales staff are king. They interact the most with the customers, they are the ones who see their reactions to things, they are the ones who deal with any issues as they come up. Therefore, it makes sense to have a talk with your staff and find out what is going on with this front-line of your business.
Talk to your customers
Of course, when it comes to market research, one key group of people to talk to is your customers. They are the ones who buy your products, who use your service. Talking to them can give you answers on what is going well, what needs improving and perhaps what additions that you can make to your business to give the best value. It can really be that simple.
Ask customers to test your ideas
When it comes to adding a new product or service to your business, you need to make sure that it is going to be something that will work for your customers or your target audience. Just because you think it might be a good idea doesn’t mean your customers do!
A great way to do to this is to speak to some of your long-term customers, this could be a new product or perhaps a new service, or potentially improving what you already have. Ultimately the end result is the same, you want to know whether or not it is going to be worthwhile introducing it to your line-up so don’t be afraid to ask people’s opinions. It might stop you wasting a lot of time and money!
Sign up a mystery shopper to check customer experience
Customer experience is a key part of the success of any business, you can have the best product or service, but if your customers are not satisfied with the way that they are treated, then they are less likely to come back. Finding out how your customer feels isn’t always easy, you can ask feedback from them directly, which will give you useful results, however, this isn’t always the most accurate or reliable of approaches. A different way to look at it is to try out mystery shopping, task someone outside of your business to buy a product or book in a service and then report back to you on how well your staff performed.
As you can see, market research comes in a variety of forms, so why not see if you can try it out for yourself and learn more about how you can take your business to the next level?
Interested in finding out more about my services?
