How to conduct 'Champagne' Customer Research on a 'Beer' Budget.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get vital information about your customers. In most cases, you simply need to ask your customers what they think about your service. Following are a few very cost-effective ways to get vital information about your customers and to find out about their expectations and needs.

A) Start a 'MYSTERY SHOPPER' program                   

Many organisations in retailing, hospitality and service industries use this valuable tool for assessing organisational efficiency and staff performance based on set criteria such as their individual Customer Service Standards. To do this, you can employ a professional mystery shopper service or simply write a set of standards that you want for your business and employ someone to 'be a customer'.

For example, if you had a fashion store and 'add-on sales' were lower than you expected, you could get a 'mystery shopper' to visit the store and rate staff on their sales skills. In this case, the staff member serving this 'customer' would be assessed against the standard for your business on how complementary goods are offered to customers.

Say, for example, you were selling swimwear, then the sales assistant would be expected to offer a sarong, beach towel, beach hat or beach bag (depending on your product lines) to go with the original purchase. If it were a men's wear store, you would expect business ties to be offered with the sale of a business shirt.

Getting back to the 'Mystery Shopper' idea - other criteria by which you assess staff might include:
* How long the customer waited to be offered assistance 
* The actual greeting used
* How long the customer was left in the change room before being offered
   further assistance
* Whether further add-on products were offered to the customer 
* Comments at point-of-sale, etc. depending on the business.

The 'Mystery Shopper Customer' then writes a report stating how well the staff member met the organisation's criteria. This information provides a wealth of knowledge about your customer service and can be used positively to motivate staff, by publishing good reports in newsletters and on noticeboards. It also identifies gaps in staff training that you can act upon immediately.

B) Develop CUSTOMER SURVEYS and FEEDBACK FORMS

Develop a Customer Survey Form that can be included with information mailed to your customers or put with customers' purchases. Ensure these are available at the counter so that customers can complete them on the spot and place them in nominated boxes. Some customers may prefer to remain anonymous, so allow them to send the surveys back using a prepaid self-addressed enveloped marked 'Private and Confidential'.

It's easy to get ideas for what to put on your 'Customer Feedback Form'. Simply pop into any major retail store and get a copy of their Feedback Forms. Then, change it to suit your individual needs....Instant Customer Research!

Most customers are techno-savvy, so make sure you have a section on your website that allows interactive communication from customers and enables them to complete Feedback Forms and surveys online. For an example of a company that does this very well, visit Tradelink www.tradelink.com.au. They have an in-depth six page questionnaire that covers stores in a range of geographic areas and assesses performance on products, stock levels, face-to-face service, availability of staff, telephone service, sales and comments. This is vital feedback...and it’s free!

Most important of all - follow up on complaints and suggestions and thank your customers for all of their ideas. We all like to feel 'special' so keep this in mind when dealing with your customers and watch your business take off.

C) Conduct FOCUS GROUPS or CUSTOMER PANELS

Invite your customers into your business to tell you what they think. You'll be amazed at how much you learn - and at how much fun you have in the process. You don't need a big budget to conduct customer research - you just need to think like your customers.

A very successful printing business has the slogan: 'Is our service any good? Ask the customer'. They have these signs all over their stores so you can imagine how good their service is. Would you dare follow this example? You'd have to be pretty good to make such a strong public statement.

Customers often have very valuable suggestions for improving your service, so tap into this wealth of information by asking them to be on customer panels or focus groups to keep you up-to-date with their needs and expectations.It's also a good idea to run focus groups and customer panels for non-customers to establish what they don't like about your business. You'll wonder why you didn't do this before - it's so simple, yet so effective!

Here's the nitty-gritty of how to do the customer research. All you need is a person with strong communication skills to act as a facilitator and put participants at ease. Write a series of questions that you want answered and have the facilitator bring these into the conversation in a relaxed way. Invite eight to ten participants to share their ideas about the business and offer them a small incentive for their time. This could be a monetary reward or gift vouchers to use in your business.

Make the most of the time immediately after the focus group or panel meeting to build relationships with your customers. Provide morning tea and personally thank your customers for their time and willingness to assist you. Guess which organisation they'll be talking about from now on... 

This is so simple! You’ll be amazed at how much information you’ll get that is invaluable for finding out what customers really think about your service, products, staff, premises - you name it - they won't hold back and you'll be in a much better position to make important changes and improve your performance.

D) Use TELEPHONE SURVEYS to get information about your service

Another simple technique is to use telephone surveys to ascertain what customers think of your products and services.

State upfront exactly how long the survey will take and stick to that. Usually, people will be happy to give you five minutes when they know your organisation and that should be all it takes to complete.  You could offer to put everyone who participates in a draw for a prize such as Gift Vouchers for your business. Conduct regular surveys and you'll stay on top of any market trends and meet problems head-on, before they really become problems.

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Information used in this article is covered in the 'Customer Service Magic' Course. A very cost-effective course can be developed to meet your organisation's individual needs and conducted at your own premises. Click this link to find out more...