The best way to learn about your customers needs is to first, listen to what they are saying and second, ask questions. When a customer enters your establishment, they have a need. Even if you are not able to provide the customer with what they need, you should go above and beyond to help them any way you can. The customer will not forget all you did to assist them and they will refer you to others who you can help. Just remember, a satisfied customer may only refer five people to your business but an unhappy customer will tell people for years if they have a bad experience with you.
"To find you must know how to hide." That is a quote from the book Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury.
I have applied that to many things in life including your question.
The obvious answer is to listen to your customer after asking the questions like;
What separates you from your competition? What do you different than your competitors? What would make your business easier to run? What are you already doing? What is the number one expenditure hitting your bottom line? (Less expensive offerings is useless if you do not have a quality product).
To find answers your customers may not have even thought of, and are not obvious or easily found can be discovered at the following;
LinkedIn Groups. Join groups and look at their problems and challenges in posts..
Google forums around your business and look at questions and problems consumers bring up.
Follow Facebook business pages related to your industry. Read the posts.
Read customer reviews left on Google maps by "Local Guides" and consumers and focus on three "Stars or Less" ratings.
Read Yelp reviews.
Joint "Consumer Reports"" and read reviews left there.
Open a Twitter account and follow people in a similar industries to see Tweets where people spout off.
Go to Craigslist and check out the "For Sale" section then scroll down to "Wanted" and search by a key word of your industry to see what consumers need in that industry.
Read the wanted section of newspapers.
Bring up a topic in your industry and listen to other party goers and listen to their needs.
Join Networking groups in your area and strike up conversations with small business owners to discover best practices.
Meet lawyers who sue companies.to find current trends for problems with other companies.
Watch the news and see what their consumer reporters are helping out people with and their issues.
Look at cost cutting ideas other businesses use to see if they can be applied to your customrrs.
Stay aware of current technology to find better ways of doing things. For instance, Apps vs Websites. Not all business need an App and not all businesses need a website. I can talk volumes on this aspect.
Do a test of your offering with people across a mix of demographics and listen for "why doesn't it do this" or "have you tried this" or "have you considered this." These are people who can provide keen insight as they are looking at it from outside the box.
Install the "Nextdoor" App and see what your local neighborhood is saying about things in general.
I have to run now I hope this was helpful.
My Best Always
Tony Krznarich
Public Technology Consultant
Business from Florham Park, NJ
Answered on Aug 28th, 2019
Listen to them. Many companies are so busy trying to promote their services they do not spend the time to really listen to their customers/clients. Consequently even though their business products/programs are what a customer needs the customer is frustrated and moves on.
You have to have a business conversation and ask questions specifically about their business plus make sure they know anything they tell you is confidential. The relationship is very important. You can ask questions based on things you know about the industry but have to find out if that is in fact true for your customer. They may have a completely different outlook or interpretation of how that particular thing affected them versus the industry. Asking questions with integrity and trust for your client should yield the answers that you need about their needs!
Ask a lot of questions. How long in business? Method of getting new clients? How do you determine how much charge those clients? How are collections? How do you maintain your internal accounting? ... and the list goes on. Ask why changing accountant? Learn about the client's business and its operations.
This is what I recommend; take some quiet time and start writing down a dream list of what you think is important to the customer. Keep that list available so, when talking to customers you can put a mark next to any need or word that appear in your list. Tally them at the end of the week and repeat. At the end of few weeks you will know which ones are important. Keep in mind that different customers may have different needs so, if you can, put the name of the customer at the top of the list. You may find that your customers are grouped by different needs (price, lead time, service, quality, easy to place order, etc)
Business from Wayland, MA
Answered on Sep 19th, 2019
As far as I know, ...
... well established organizations conduct surveys to find answers they want to have to make decisions.
I have a help desk where customers can send me questions as well as a group on Skype to ask me questions about the software required to use my advertising design site. I also have a news page in the members area with information on how to contact me.
Answers (1-10)
The best way to learn about your customers needs is to first, listen to what they are saying and second, ask questions. When a customer enters your establishment, they have a need. Even if you are not able to provide the customer with what they need, you should go above and beyond to help them any way you can. The customer will not forget all you did to assist them and they will refer you to others who you can help. Just remember, a satisfied customer may only refer five people to your business but an unhappy customer will tell people for years if they have a bad experience with you.
"To find you must know how to hide." That is a quote from the book Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury.
I have applied that to many things in life including your question.
The obvious answer is to listen to your customer after asking the questions like;
What separates you from your competition? What do you different than your competitors? What would make your business easier to run? What are you already doing? What is the number one expenditure hitting your bottom line? (Less expensive offerings is useless if you do not have a quality product).
To find answers your customers may not have even thought of, and are not obvious or easily found can be discovered at the following;
LinkedIn Groups. Join groups and look at their problems and challenges in posts..
Google forums around your business and look at questions and problems consumers bring up.
Follow Facebook business pages related to your industry. Read the posts.
Read customer reviews left on Google maps by "Local Guides" and consumers and focus on three "Stars or Less" ratings.
Read Yelp reviews.
Joint "Consumer Reports"" and read reviews left there.
Open a Twitter account and follow people in a similar industries to see Tweets where people spout off.
Go to Craigslist and check out the "For Sale" section then scroll down to "Wanted" and search by a key word of your industry to see what consumers need in that industry.
Read the wanted section of newspapers.
Bring up a topic in your industry and listen to other party goers and listen to their needs.
Join Networking groups in your area and strike up conversations with small business owners to discover best practices.
Meet lawyers who sue companies.to find current trends for problems with other companies.
Watch the news and see what their consumer reporters are helping out people with and their issues.
Look at cost cutting ideas other businesses use to see if they can be applied to your customrrs.
Stay aware of current technology to find better ways of doing things. For instance, Apps vs Websites. Not all business need an App and not all businesses need a website. I can talk volumes on this aspect.
Do a test of your offering with people across a mix of demographics and listen for "why doesn't it do this" or "have you tried this" or "have you considered this." These are people who can provide keen insight as they are looking at it from outside the box.
Install the "Nextdoor" App and see what your local neighborhood is saying about things in general.
I have to run now I hope this was helpful.
My Best Always
Tony Krznarich
Public Technology Consultant
Listen to them. Many companies are so busy trying to promote their services they do not spend the time to really listen to their customers/clients. Consequently even though their business products/programs are what a customer needs the customer is frustrated and moves on.
You have to have a business conversation and ask questions specifically about their business plus make sure they know anything they tell you is confidential. The relationship is very important. You can ask questions based on things you know about the industry but have to find out if that is in fact true for your customer. They may have a completely different outlook or interpretation of how that particular thing affected them versus the industry. Asking questions with integrity and trust for your client should yield the answers that you need about their needs!
Ask a lot of questions. How long in business? Method of getting new clients? How do you determine how much charge those clients? How are collections? How do you maintain your internal accounting? ... and the list goes on. Ask why changing accountant? Learn about the client's business and its operations.
Ask your customers what they are looking for, fancy about the product/service they are seeking for, what is the most helpful aspect etc.
Once you know what your customer really wants, adjust your product to these needs and package your goods accordingly and sell it that way.
If needed create similar products for different specific needs.
Sell what the customer wants and not what you think they want.
This is the hardest lesson to learn in sales, yet it sets you apart from your competitor if you do it right.
This is what I recommend; take some quiet time and start writing down a dream list of what you think is important to the customer. Keep that list available so, when talking to customers you can put a mark next to any need or word that appear in your list. Tally them at the end of the week and repeat. At the end of few weeks you will know which ones are important. Keep in mind that different customers may have different needs so, if you can, put the name of the customer at the top of the list. You may find that your customers are grouped by different needs (price, lead time, service, quality, easy to place order, etc)
As far as I know, ...
... well established organizations conduct surveys to find answers they want to have to make decisions.
I hope this helps.
I have a help desk where customers can send me questions as well as a group on Skype to ask me questions about the software required to use my advertising design site. I also have a news page in the members area with information on how to contact me.
Conduct a research study asking them.