Know your Customer; Know thy Self
Do you even know your customers? Many business owners don't ever ask their customer why. We are just happy that customers are buying and that's good enough for us.
But when the buying slows down or you want to expand and you feel the need to advertise, what will you say? How do you know what will resonate with your customer? What is important to them? Why did they buy? Why now?
Would you infer from Zaidy's surfboard purchase that senior citizens are now into surfing and you should do some marketing to 55+ housing? Or do you figure out from his address that he lives near the shore so maybe the marketing should be geo-targeted to shore communities. Or maybe he is using the surfboard in an art project and you should target artists for the new surfboard art trend. Or maybe.... just ask and get right to the bottom of the matter.
Send your customers a two question survey or ask them directly if you see them face to face or over the phone. Why did you buy? And why did you buy from us?
Not everyone will have the same answer but as you ask more and more you will see trends forming and opportunities appearing.
Ways to Ask
You can have your cashiers offer the customers a small discount if they answer a short two question survey
You can use a Google Form to create a survey which you can email to customers (Click here to for an example of a template survey)
You can incorporate this important survey into your sales process. here are some examples
When sending out invoices include a self addressed postcard with the survey and offer a 5% discount- you can also print the link to the Google Form. Do this once a year for your best customers.
If you are a service company, plumber, exterminator etc. You can have the service pro ask the customer before they leave.
Make sure to implement a system to track responses and set a time to mine the responses for insights after you have collected enough data.
Start asking the right questions so you can get the right results.
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