How to do customer research like a pro

You wouldn’t make important business decisions without considering all relevant data, right? 

You might feel confident and think you know your business like the back of your hand, but we can tell you right now without customer research you’ll be missing important opportunities left, right and centre.

Customer research gives you everything you need to know about your customers on a silver platter. 

Although conducting customer research can be intimidating for some, it’s so worth having reliable information to base your business decisions off.

That said, here’s how to conduct customer research (like a pro!).

Step One: Define your customer segments

Firstly, ask yourself, who exactly are my customers?

Creating customer personas is super helpful when visualising your customer segments. 

But don’t just make assumptions about your customers! 

If you have customer data, use that to create customer personas, fleshing our their name, age, gender, income, values, etc.

If you don’t have your own customer data, look for industry research. A quick Google should turn up plenty of information about your industry’s audience.

Step Two: Decide what you want to find out

Without a clear goal for your customer research, you can’t expect clear answers! 

Decide what you’re hoping to gain from your customer research. Is it a better understanding of your audiences’ values and motivations? Their thoughts on a new product offering? 

Make a list of specific questions you want to be answered before talking to anyone.

Step Three: Decide on how you will carry out the research

Depending on what you are hoping to discover, you’ll want to pick an appropriate research method.

In-person approaches are more time-intensive but tend to lead to deeper insights, while surveys can give you more data.

Some options to consider:

• Email survey
• Phone interviews
• In-person interviews 
• Focus groups
• User testing

Step Four: Prepare customer research questions

Next, you’ll need to prepare your questions.

It’s always good practice to start off with questions that help the participant(s) get comfortable in their environment.

We like to include questions about customers’ feelings, motivations, values and decision-making process.

Step Five: Conduct customer research

Now for the fun part – conduct the research!

Always present yourself appropriately, conduct the research professionally and prompt for detailed answers whenever possible.

Step 6: Summarise findings and make future recommendations

Once you’ve conducted your research, you’ll want to compile your findings.

Make a summary of the answers to your questions, as well as any other key findings or surprising insights. 

Now you can make business decisions with not only your eyes wide open, but with an in-depth report of everything you need to know in your grasp.

If there’s one holy grail to marketing, it’s customer research.

Want to find out all there is to know about your customers? Chat to the digital team about conducting your customer research and get you on your way to making the most informed business decisions yet!