Research To Help Your Business Grow
When thinking about business growth, research isn’t typically the first thing that comes to mind. But smart use of customer research can uncover some great growth opportunities.
Research is frequently neglected in business, especially in small or mid-sized companies. But it really shouldn’t be if you’re looking to grow. Quality research – that’s research that provides valuable insights into your business – helps you to understand what your business does well and where it needs to improve. This in turn, gives you clear areas to work on that will ultimately lead to increase sales and profitability in your business. But not all research is created equal.
Five forms of research to consider for your business
There are many forms of research your business could undertake. We’ve narrowed down to the five key types of research that you should most consider.
1. Customer Satisfaction
Different from customer satisfaction surveys, customer feedback is usually undertaken close to the time of purchase and, is often only a few short questions. They’re designed to help you keep a pulse on your business and to spot quickly if something is changing for the worse.
2. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
An extension of the customer satisfaction research, NPS has become a standardised way of measuring the likelihood of your business receiving referral business. It’s often over-simplified or used incorrectly, but when done well, it can be a great tool for understanding how highly your customers really regard your business.
3. Customer Feedback
Different from customer satisfaction surveys, customer feedback is usually undertaken close to the time of purchase and, is often only a few short questions. They’re designed to help you keep a pulse on your business and to spot quickly if something is changing for the worse.
4. Product Feedback
Where customer feedback is about an overall understanding of a customer’s experience, product specific feedback is designed to give you quick insights into a specific product. This is especially helpful if you manufacture or have some ability to adapt the products you sell.
5. Service Feedback
Like product feedback, this allows you to identify specific issues that can be addressed in the delivery of a particular service. Again, it’s most useful if you have an ability to make changes to the service should feedback warrant it.
A word about Google Reviews
For While technically not a form of research, Google Reviews (or other online review platforms) provide a good opportunity to identify issues in your business that, once addressed, can support future growth. If you don’t have any other form of customer research in place, this could work as a minimal feedback mechanism for you, but ideally, getting feedback that’s not so public can be a less stressful way to go.
What are you doing with your research results?
Before you embark upon any form of customer, product or service research, it’s important to know what you’re planning to do with the information once you collect it. For many customers, providing feedback is done to help you identify what’s not working – in the hope that you’ll do something to fix it. If you’re not prepared to take on-board the feedback you receive and look at ways of addressing issues your customers face, it may be better to not bother your customers at all.
How do we help with customer research?
We work with our clients to help them structure research questions for their customers that lead to meaningful feedback. Our approach is to help our clients get feedback that they can use to make smarter business decisions, in areas such as; future investment, planned changes, product or service expansion, and many more.
Could smart research help your business grow?
We can help you to structure one-time or ongoing research in your business to help give you better insights for growth. To find out more, arrange a free chat today.