How to Research Customers

Researching your customers is one of the most important things you can do for your bottom line. You won’t be able to get people in your door or on your Web site if you don’t know who you are marketing to.

Marketing to everyone in the world and hoping some of them show up to buy your product is a waste of time and money – it doesn’t work.

Here are six strategies to help you research, interpret and handle information about your customers in the most effective manner possible.

1. Gather some background information. It's vital to understand where your customers are coming from. You need to know their demographics and income ranges. What kind of car do they drive? What is it about them that makes them choose you over your competitor? You also need to know why they choose a competitor over you.

2. Learn why they buy your product. You need to know what motivates customers to travel to your store and go in and give you their hard earned money. What’s driving them?

Are you solving a problem for them or are you preventing a problem from happening? Knowing which way they’re approaching your product can give you insight into how to write your advertising copy and how to design your marketing materials. Should you invest in color printing to create posters that show you fixing a problem or preventing a problem?

3. How many options do they want? Some people want lots of choices, others have a problem with lots of choices. If you give too many options, someone may get overwhelmed and not choose at all, while another person may think you don’t give enough options. Try to get that optimum number by asking your customers if they are satisfied with their choice selection.

4. Don’t stop researching. Don’t stop your research mission once you’ve gathered the basics of a prospect’s address and phone number. Those are only the obvious ones. Keep your ears open when customers are in your store – what kind of questions are they asking? What are they concerned about?

Watch what they do in your store and how they shop. Do they compare items or just grab the first thing they see?

5. Don’t lose your ethics. There’s a fine line between being a good, thorough researcher and intruding in people’s privacy. Decide ahead of time what kind of information you want to know – maybe how many kids people have, but you don’t need to know if their kids are potty-training or have some kind of disorder. Don’t listen in on cell phone conversations in your store – you can pick up plenty of information by talking directly to the customer and watching how they shop.

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