Mine Customer Data, Part I

If you’re convinced you know what your customers want even though you’ve never asked them, you might be leading your business down a path to failure. Hearing directly from your customers about what they expect from your business is a simple way to set a course to success. In this first of two articles, we suggest steps to take before you get started on market research – and one easy-to-implement research solution.

Develop your plan. To maximize research dollars, customers’ time and the results of your efforts, do some planning before you begin gathering feedback.

1. Define your objective. What is it you want to know? Input on customer service? Thoughts on new products or services? Customers’ reactions to your business versus your competition? Understanding what you want to know helps you to develop questions that provide precisely that information.
2. Determine your budget. Knowing what you have to spend allows you to make decisions about which research methods are options for your business, how many responses you can hope to elicit and whether you need to be responsible for analyzing the results yourself.
3. Consider how you can best reach customers. If you have an e-mail database of customers or a Web site that customers frequent, you likely have more options for gathering customer feedback than if you haven’t collected any customer data in the past.

Once you’ve done the planning, you’re ready to start research. Here’s one tactic:

Customer comment cards. Though feedback cards have been around for a long time, they still present one of the easiest and lowest-cost options for gathering customer feedback. Many online sources offer customer feedback cards you can download. If you are in the restaurant industry, for example, Restaurantowner.com provides a customer feedback card that members can download, along with recommendations for how to use the card and incentive programs to encourage patrons to complete the form.

Collecting the feedback with a response card is only the first step. To maximize the usefulness of customer comment cards, you need to review and evaluate them. According to The Business Research Lab, you’ll gain the best insights if you review comment cards in batches rather than looking at each card in isolation. Start by listing common categories such as pricing, product selection and courtesy. Then make two lists – one for positive comments and another for negative responses, each with the same categories. Keep a simple spreadsheet or other record of responses so you can look for trends over time. Once you’ve identified trends, you can reward the positive ones and feel confident knowing you’re maximizing resources when you focus efforts on addressing the most common concerns.

Coming in December: Mine Customer Data, Part II. How to make the most of questionnaires and surveys.

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