I’ve recommended to three different clients in the past week that they undertake a client and prospect survey to find out what’s really going on with their business. Each of these clients has different challenges but each will be able to make better decisions by asking the people they are trying to reach.
I was in the advertising industry for over 20 years and the most effective work we ever did for clients came out of insights we had gained from understanding their customers and potential customers. When I ran my own agency, we would always start a new campaign by talking to both existing customers and potential customers. We would base our advertising messages on what they told us…. more so than on what the client told us about their business.
Today I am still a huge believer in the power of talking to your customers on a regular basis.
Why and when should you do a customer survey
- To learn more about customer purchasing and spending habits, and how they are utilizing competitor products – so you can be sure you are positioning your product and marketing in the most appealing way
- To build a more detailed customer profile for future marketing campaigns – who are your hot clients, what do they want and where can you find more of them?
- To further define a clear point of difference – what is that you do that your customers love, and why do they choose you over the competition?
- To learn what frustrates your customers about your industry and how can you package your offering to provide the best solution to this
- To assist with brand development – if you are undergoing branding work, you can build better strategies with customer insights
- For new product development – before you spend money building something, make sure it is needed and wanted by matching it against client/prospect needs
- To find out why clients are not referring others, even with very good incentives to do so
How do you go about it?
I’ve just published a report called ‘Customer Insights: Developing valuable insights for marketing and product development’, which outlines the steps to take and the types of questions you should ask.
You can download it at www.liber8yourbusiness.com/tools
Research is a really important part of product development and positioning so do check it out, and let me know if you have any questions at laura@liber8me.com
Good luck
From the desk of Liber8me. Small business mentors and publisher of Liber8 your Business, the revolutionary planning technique that will set every small business owner free.