NetBaseQuid: The Ultimate Guide to Consumer Research
As a business owner, you’re constantly looking for ways to improve your services and target the right consumers. Consumer research is just one way to learn more about consumers, their needs, and how to provide your product or service best. The article below will give you some general tips on conducting effective surveys and things companies or brands should avoid when collecting and interpreting consumer research.
General tips that will help companies or brands when conducting consumer research.
- Understand Your Potential Customer:
The first step in your research is to understand your potential customer. The type of person you’re looking to attract will dictate what kind of questions you ask, how you ask them, and how you analyze the responses. For example, a teenager shopping for an air-conditioner for his or her room probably wants great quality at a low price.
- Decide The Sources For Your Consumer Research:
Once you have a better idea of the types of people who would be interested in your product or service, you’ll want to decide which source(s) of information will help tell your story to that audience. For example, you could use first-hand accounts from people like former customers or even competitors if you’re selling appliances. You could also use online reviews and testimonials.
- Ask The Right Questions To Your Sources:
Once you have your sources, it’s time to put the questions in place to gather the information you need. Your sources may provide you with more detailed information than you’d like. Some people even tell you things that aren’t true but still help paint a clearer picture of what’s available. With some research and consideration of your customers, you may be able to turn this unexpected detail into something positive for your business.
- Use Your Competitor’s Data Wisely:
If you’re using your competitor’s data in your survey, be sure that the information you’re getting is valid. Before the survey was conducted, how were the results analyzed? Was it just making a list of the highest complaints and fixing them? Was it only comparing this year’s results to last year’s results to find areas of improvement or decline? If so, you may not be getting an accurate picture. Did they conduct any interviews with current customers who had problems? Did they do anything to fix those issues before collecting data for this year’s survey? Be sure you know these things before you add your competitor’s survey information to yours.
- Offer Incentives To Be A Part Of The Survey:
Along with collecting data from your customers, you’ll want to make sure that you’re adding incentives for people to fill out the survey. People won’t be willing to complete a survey without an incentive. Whether it’s a coupon for your store, money, or merchandise, something will make them more likely to fill out the survey than nothing. You can also use these incentives to give yourself insight into your potential customers’ thinking about you and your product.
Things companies or brands should avoid when collecting and interpreting consumer research.
- Don’t Make It Mandatory:
When it comes to conducting surveys, make sure that you’re doing so in an empathetic way. You don’t want your customers to feel like they’re being forced into filling out the survey. It’s important that the surveys feel voluntary since this will create more accurate data. Of course, if you don’t have any other way of contacting your customers, making it mandatory will not be helpful.
- Don’t Use Ridiculous Questions:
When conducting your survey, keep in mind that there are probably other things that your customers would rather be doing with their time than filling out a survey. For this reason, try not to include any questions that are going to waste their time. It’s always best to reward them for completing the survey or incentivize them with an educational discount or something else they want from your store.
- Don’t Make The Results Hard To Understand:
One of the most important parts of conducting a survey is getting your results and interpretation right. After all, it’s going to be impossible for you to offer a good product or service if you don’t know what the customers are thinking about it. So the first thing you should do is find out what questions are being asked and make sure that the answers make sense. By ensuring that your results are easy to understand, you’ll be able to take them and use them to benefit your business.
