Probably the most important aspect of any business is its customer base. This is the core audience that browses your website and makes purchases. The goal of any business is to grow this base and incentivise its continued business by offering products and services which would appeal.
Understanding the wants and needs of your customers is key and, thanks to the unprecedented leaps forward in technology over the past few decades, there are now more opportunities than ever to dig into the detail when it comes to who is interacting with your business.
Data from Point of Sale technology
Perhaps the most insightful data that a business can explore is sales data. Up to date information about who is buying what - and when - from your business is invaluable and can form the basis of key decision making in the fields of product selection and marketing strategy.
Modern Point of Sale systems, helpfully, can automatically digest these findings and export the relevant data to teams in an instant, making important sales reports instantly available to those who need it.
This data has the benefit of being taken directly from the source and, therefore, is just about as pure an insight as is possible to get. After all, what can shed light better on what your customers want to purchase, than the data of what your customers are actually purchasing?
Market research
Sometimes the business of trying to understand what customers want can become overcomplicated. Sometimes it is as easy as asking them! Market research is essentially just that. This can be carried out on your target audience or within your existing customer list.
Incentivised customer satisfaction surveys are a great way of getting feedback from customers who have used your services in the past. Not only do they give the recipient a chance to win a prize (usually a gift card or discount code) but they also showcase that your business really does care about their opinions.
Like all market research, do not ask for feedback and insight if you are not willing to make subsequent changes. Not all feedback will be positive, but it’s important not to shy away from this and implement the required fixes to ensure customer satisfaction remains at a high standard.
Put yourself in their shoes
As the old saying goes, honesty is the best policy. Sometimes taking a step back and putting yourself in your customer's shoes and simply being honest about what your experience is can be an enlightening experience.
Take time to interact with points of contact as a customer - such as customer service phone lines, company social media accounts and live chat mechanisms - to see if the quality of service and insight delivered was up to standard.
In 2020’s competitive landscape, consumers expect businesses to go above and beyond their expectations and this activity will help you understand any possible frustrations customers could have with your service.
