Understand Customer Needs
A business cannot survive without conducting ongoing efforts to better understand customer needs. To discover if your product or service is having a positive effect and creating customer loyalty, take time to ascertain your customer's emotional and material needs, then offer valuable incentives for remaining loyal to your company. Acquiring customer feedback doesn't have to be expensive; from creating simple email surveys to taking an extra minute to engage on the sales floor, you can learn a lot about what customers want just by asking and listening. Also to learn more, you could even ask them for a little bit of time just to fill out a questionnaire.
Steps
- Listen to your customers. Whether talking on the phone with a customer or conducting business in person, take a minute to ask your customer why they purchased your product.
- Call, write or visit your customers to find out if they are happy with your quality and price. A business that focuses on selling the cheapest goods will not survive against manufacturers selling comparable goods for similar prices.
- Empathize with customers. When your customer offers feedback about your company, take time to put yourself in their place. Customers want to be acknowledged for taking the time to comment and do not want to be unfairly judged if they have issues with your service.
- Allow your customer to tell her story and offer expedient ways to address unmet needs.
- Offer free product demonstrations. If you're a manufacturer, interacting with current or future customers through product demos is the ideal way to find out if your products are meeting customer expectations.
- Contact trade industry journalists to offer free product try-outs in exchange for a comprehensive review in their publication. Sometimes the feedback may not be what you had hoped for, but at least you will have a better understanding of your product's success in real world applications.
- Reach out to customers through your company's social media accounts. Offer lucrative incentives such as coupons in exchange for taking time to answer a survey about the effectiveness of your product.
- Learn about your competitors. If your target market isn't buying your products, research the competition. Conduct a phone or email survey of your potential customers to uncover the most outstanding qualities of other vendors. Then, attempt to replicate those qualities in your daily business practices.
- When competitors offer more personalized services or attractive buying incentives that you don't, devise strategies to create similar programs that can earn repeat customer business.
- Give customers options. Whether you're dealing with a long-term project or an on-site product sale, always make it clear to customers that other options exist to help them meet and enhance their needs.
- Show customers accessories and coordinating products that enhance their main product interest. You'll increase sales and provide a feeling of reassurance about your product knowledge and customer service.
- Reassure customers that your services will meet their expectations. A no-questions-asked exchange policy, money-back guarantee or other monetary compensation can instill consumer confidence.
Tips
- Always create proper customer feedback channels. Ensure that your sales force and company representatives know who to contact when customers have negative or positive comments about your company. Create follow-up methods for making sure a customer's feedback is addressed. Personalized email communications or postal letters are 2 ways to reassure customers you are listening.
Warnings
- Failure to understand customer needs can result in widespread negative comments about your company. Consumer review sites on the Internet are the first place many angry customers turn to when they feel they're being ignored.
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