Sometimes knowing what your customers really want can seem as easy as predicting the future. Other times, you may spend a lot of time and money developing a product or service and there is little response from customers. How can you uncover what products or services your customers really want from you?
Use these five simple strategies to help you understand your customers’ goals. Once you know what your customers want, you can tailor your products and services to directly deliver the solutions they require.
1. Use Past Sales Data
You are probably already tracking your past sales for determining profits and expenses. The hard numbers on past sales are great for knowing how a product or service is doing financially. However, this data can also be used to discover what customers want. If you notice that customers consistently buy a certain product or service, it’s probably safe to assume they see the value in it. You can use this information to promote that particular product.
Sales data can also be used to see what products or services customers don’t regularly purchase. Products that are performing poorly should be given a closer look. You can compare low-performance products with the best sellers to determine how they aren’t giving customers what they want.
Your customer service team can help customers find solutions by recommending products related to your best sellers or explaining the benefits of your other products to consumers. Outsourcing order processing to a professional order taking call center service can help you handle call volume and upsell your products to customers.
2. Read Online Reviews
Knowing your company’s online reputation can help you stay proactive in dealing with a bad review from an upset customer. Staying up to date on online reviews can also allow you to quickly thank a satisfied customer who leaves a positive review. Use online reviews to see what the common complaints or compliments are.
When you see a pattern in online reviews of things your company is doing well or needs to improve upon, you can make the changes to best fit your customers’ requirements. For example, you may have customers in a different time zone who have mentioned they would like to be able to contact your business during what’s considered after hours for you, but not for them. This customer desire can easily be fulfilled with a 24/7 call answering service.
3. Track Comments and Questions
Similar to monitoring your online reputation, you can use the information customers give you directly to discover what they want. Each time a customer gives you feedback or asks a question, keep track of that data. Look for common questions to determine how your services can provide solutions. Alternatively, if customers are consistently providing comments on a certain aspect of your services, you know that is something your customers find important.
You can even compile all that information in a FAQ section or self-help knowledgebase on your website so customers have the ability to solve their own issues before even having to call.
4. Ask for Surveys
One of the easiest ways to discover what your customers want is simply to ask. Providing potential customers with a simple survey about their requirements and goals can give you a multitude of information. The key to a good survey is to keep it short and simple. You can also entice potential customers to take an informational survey by offering a prize drawing or discounts for anyone who completes the survey. Surveys can also be useful for existing or past customers. Satisfaction surveys focus on what customers did or didn’t like about their experience with your company.
Even with a short survey, it can be tedious to ask ever caller to answer a few short questions. As a busy business owner, you probably don’t have time to talk with every customer who calls in. A customer support call center service can make collecting customer surveys painless.
5. Collect Information During Inquiry Calls
One of the best times to collect data on customer wants is during inquiry calls. When a potential customer calls in to ask questions about a product or learn more about your services, you have the chance to speak with them directly about their goals. Having the personal connection of a conversation begins building a relationship with potential customers and allows them to open up about what they want.
A large volume of calls, however, can mean some calls are missed. If a customer wants to know more about your product but gets a voicemail when they call in, they are more likely to look for other solutions to their problems. Hiring a professional call center team gives you the chance to make personal connections with each and every customer that calls in. Customer service professionals are experts at nurturing leads and answering customer questions.
Discover Customer Goals as a Part of the Customer Service Process
These five easy strategies make uncovering customer wants simple through existing data and new data collection. You can make collecting and sorting through new data from customers even easier by outsourcing your customer service. A 24/7 customer service team of professionals allows all of your customer calls to be answered. Uncover what your customers really want by integrating data collection into the customer service process with a call center customer service team. Try our call center service free for seven days to see how easy it can be to collect information on what your customers want.
