9 Things You Need to Know About Your Customer

By September 4, 2019 No Comments

Customers are the center of any successful business. Today’s customers have more control than ever before over which brands they do business with, when, and how they make their purchases. Offering a product or service that solves customers’ needs should be the number one goal of a business. To do that successfully, you first have to know and understand customers.

Understanding customers starts with brainstorming what information would be helpful, determining how you’ll uncover it, and creating a plan to make it all happen.

Here are nine important details about your customer that will assist in delivering a valuable product or service along with a positive customer experience.

1. Lifestyle demographics
When you look at the right demographics, you can learn a lot about customers and potential customers. Compile data about customers’ lifestyles, including gender, marital status, housing type, occupation, income, education, hobbies, ambitions, and values and look for trends. This data shows you what makes customers act and why and can help you better target future customers.

2. Their biggest struggles
Without knowing what customers struggle with, you can’t offer a solution. Instead, you’ll look like the typical salesy brand that only cares about the bottom line. By uncovering their biggest struggles, you understand the reason they are shopping for your product and can paint a picture of what their life looks like without that problem.

3. Where do they spend their time
The best way to attract new customers is to spend time interacting with and building a relationship with them. Are they on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat? Do they belong to any online communities? Once you know, you can join these platforms and network with potential clients daily.

4. Shopping strategy
There is nothing worse than spending marketing dollars promoting the wrong platform or call to action. To invest marketing dollars wisely, you need to understand how your customers’ shop and they shop. Are they driven by experience, emotions, need, or self-improvement? What is their thought process? Do they ask friends and family for recommendations, research choices online, buy online, or do they prefer shopping from a mobile app or storefront?

5. Who are their influencers
Influencers have a special talent for getting their audience to take action. They often promote products or brands they believe in. If the majority of your customers listen to or follow the same influencers, it might be beneficial for your brand to build a connection with the influencer.

6. What other companies did they consider
Many industries are overrun with possibilities, and taking the time to research and understand every competitor’s strategy is impossible. Your existing customers can simplify the process. When they tell you which brands they considered, you know who is  getting close and these brands are the ones you should pay most attention to.

7. What keeps them from buying?
Even the most loyal customers have a sticking point that prevents them from buying. While objections are easy to identify for some customers, that isn’t the case for every customer. Actively listen to and monitor conversations with potential customers that mention price, time, pain points or feeling pressured to buy. Develop scripts that address each of these to improve sales moving forward.

8. What are the expectations?
You can’t meet customer expectations if you don’t know what they are. By asking customers what they expect of brands, you can create a plan on how your deliver what they expect and create loyal, long-term customers.

9. What is it they don’t like about doing business with your industry?
One of the best-kept secrets to growing your business significantly lies in this one question. When you find out what customers don’t like about working with businesses like yours, you have the power to be different. As they notice you are different, they will tell others, and your business will grow just by making small changes.