5 Strategic Questions for Better Customer Market Research
Knowing your customers and clients is at the heart of every single type of business, and that means customer market research should be a priority for every founder, sole proprietor, and CEO.
The more you know about your customers, the more success you will find.
Getting into the nitty gritty details of customer research isn’t so easy, though. It takes a lot of trial and error and more active listening skills than even a psychiatrist could shake a stick at.
At the heart of your market research, there are five core strategies that can boost your research effectiveness. When you can find a way to ask the right questions, listen for the right answers, and follow up with appropriate actions, then your customer market research will be worth every penny, every time.
1. Create a “want” that fills a “need”
It’s a common question in customer market research to ask what people want…
…but here’s the thing…most people don’t actually know what they want. And they don’t truly know what they need.
You think you need a new watch, when it really turns out you just want a new watch. Instead, what you needed was an efficient way to track time or something to tie an outfit together or a convenient way to access your apps.
We may think these are petty examples of a need, but that is relative. Beyond Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs every need is based on the situation of the individual.
So all you need to do is create or structure an offer that positions your product or service as a want that effectively fills that particular need. So if you can do your customer market research right and discover those needs, then the rest becomes a cakewalk.
2. Look at past actions to inform future decisions.
Actions people have performed in the past, their previous purchase history, can go a long way to telling you whether or not your product or service will work with that particular audience.
And good customer market research means finding out what similar products and services they have used, what the experience was like, and what could have been better.
But, just because you get good customer feedback on certain tweaks and features, don’t think that means customers will purchase the new and improved over the tried and true.
This is something else to consider: shiny object syndrome.
As it turns out, people aren’t that different from birds. Both like shiny objects. And will collect them regardless of how much use they get out of them.
So paying close attention to what purchase habits of customers look like with what they are actually doing and using is valuable insight for your customer market research.
3. Base decisions on actions, not opinions
Speaking of customer feedback, as I said, don’t become so reliant on surveys and reviews of new-and-improved features on your services and products that you ignore the actual market research.
Just because your selected customer reviewers are telling you they like the new features added to your SaaS product doesn’t mean they will automatically buy it.
Let’s do another thought experiment: are you going to jump ship to a different product or service with all the same great features plus a couple extra? Or are you going to stay with what you know works?
Most people tend to stick with something until the wheels fall off…because switching is so much effort. And those extra features might be great…but they aren’t worth the effort involved in switching.
If customers are typically staying with their current similar product or service for a long period of time, then it is worth considering what it might take (beyond additional features) to get them to switch…
4. Talk to buyers, not potential customers.
When most brands are doing customer market research, they tend to speak to people who have tried something out but never purchased.
Think of all the free trials you’ve participated in.
When did you get the survey sent to you? When the trial is about over? Or after the free trial, right?
Because seeing why people stay or leave is important…
…but for great customer market research, you should be talking to people who took that next step and/or have stuck around for a while. That is where the real goldmine of information will be.
What made them purchase?
How did it feel to make the purchasing decision?
Is there a specific need our product/service is filling for you or your business?
Did you transition from a similar product/service? If so, how was that transition process?
These are incredibly valuable pieces of information from someone who has made the purchasing decision rather than someone who gave a free trial a shot because it was…ya know…free?
5. Find out when people purchased, that’s often more important than the why.
One final customer market research question that gets overlooked in the process: why now?
As much as we all want to think we are doing something completely new and unique, that just isn’t the case.
So asking why a customer decided to purchase your product or service is valuable…but getting the reason why now is even better.
Timing is everything, including in your customer market research. If you can understand and find patterns on why customers made their purchasing decision when they did, then you can draw some conclusions about what the mental, physical, and emotional state of purchasers are.
And, in the psychology of marketing, this is some of the best raw data you can get.
If you can consistently tap into moments when potential customers are frustrated with their current products and then present your alternative…then you will see drastic bumps in your sales, ROAS, ROI, etc.
Ready for better customer market research?
I am, by no means, a numbers guy.
But data can be really exciting when you get the right data and use it in the best way possible to fuel your marketing efforts.
So, which of these five customer market research questions could you ask and use more effectively in your brand or business??
And, if you liked what you read in this post, then there are loads of other great pieces of content over on the DSM Blog.
And, even better: you can hire me directly to churn out some great content marketing just like this. Oh yeah, it’s a pretty sweet deal.
Just get in touch and we will sort out all the details!
And, my friend, as always…I appreciate you!
