Know Your Customer
The small business owner of today must be knowledgeable in a host of important areas – operations, cash flow, customer service, competition, planning, and sales to name only a few.>
In my experience, an area in which many business people do not have an adequate understanding is market research. Unfortunately this is an area that is fundamental to not only all marketing efforts, but to the core of the business itself.
I believe that business owners should familiarize themselves with various market research techniques themselves and not leave this to an infrequent activity done by some outside consultant.
One technique that can be learned and used effectively is the written survey. Here, a set of written questions is offered for completion to a customer (or a non-customer). By collecting a significant number, an owner has a good input on what people are thinking.
What makes a good survey?
It must be short. People just won’t complete a long survey unless they have some over-riding reason to do so. Being your customer is not such a reason. I am a big fan of one-page surveys. It also needs to be easy to complete with no big words. Make it clear.
I like three sections in a written survey. After a brief introductory sentence describing what the survey is for, ask two “open-ended” questions. These would be something like “What do you like most about our product (or service)?” and then “What do you think most needs improvement?” The purpose of these two questions is to get the respondent, in their own words, to tell you what is first and foremost on their mind without any prompting.
Next should be a series of specific questions on issues that the owner wants market feedback. Don’t get carried away with trivia. Make sure the answers will provide information you really need. Included in this section can be a request to rate various aspects of your business. A good quantitative rating scale like 1 (very poor) to 10 (outstanding) should be used. This way you can get numerical averages that you can compare for such topics as quality, service, delivery, variety, web site, etc.
Finally you need to ask questions that will describe the respondent. These include age (use ranges like 40-45), sex, zip code, household income (again, use ranges), and marital status. This provides demographic information that is a must for making later decisions.
After you have developed and revised your questionnaire, it is critical to test it. This testing process has 8 to 10 people review the survey for clarity and understanding. Ask them what the questions mean to them. It’s critical that what the questions mean to you is what they mean to them. If not, revise it until clear.
You must make the survey anonymous. People more accurately tell you what they mean if they can speak freely. Don’t ask for names and contact information. This is a research tool, not a sales lead generator. You really want to know what people think about your business.
A method of increasing response rates is to provide an incentive for completion. This can be a discount coupon, a free product or even cash. Sometimes, using the phrase “local small business” in the preamble helps.
Competed surveys can help you greatly in such decisions as where to advertise, which product improvements to make, what not to change, and whether to expand. They should be a regular business tool.
This article was written by Seattle SCORE Chapter member Fred Parkinson for the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton.