Does your company fully benefit from market research?

Market research is crucial to your business. You need to know things about your customers in order to target them and keep them returning. Three questions to ask yourself include: "Who is my customer? What do they want?" and "Why did they buy my product?" Here are some tips to fully benefit from market research.

Who is my customer?

Well-conducted research is vital to knowing who your customer is and can be an eye-opening experience. This strategy is also great for start-up companies if done properly. Some questions to ask your customers include:

• What are your needs?
• What constitutes excellent customer service?
• What other services would you like to see?
• What can we do to make your experience better?

Targeted research that matches your company's products and services can greatly benefit your customers. Knowing who your customer is, where they're located, what makes them tick is key to excellent customer service.

What does my customer want?

Sometimes, customers don't know what they want until they see it advertised on TV, online, mobile devices, or in newspapers and magazines. You, as a business, need to utilize these tools to know what your customer wants.In-store demonstrations are included in the tips to fully benefit from market research, and are a great way to discover what your customers want, even if they don't directly tell you. Observe their expressions and their actions, whether they stop and are anxiously engaged or if they just walk away without stopping. Placing customer satisfaction or feedback drop boxes can help determine what your customer wants.

Why did the customer buy my product?

This question may take a bit of sleuthing around because people sometimes impulse buy, particularly if the product is new or on sale. They may walk into a store for one or two things, but walk out with much more, just because their impulse to buy was great; it could have been a sale they couldn't pass up, a well-placed item, in-store demonstrations, or other reasons.No matter why they bought your product, they did, and you should consider them a customer, which means targeting them as such. Another one of the tips to fully benefit from market research is targeted location. For example, if your company sells ski equipment, target locations that produce snow, specifically those with ski resorts. If your company sells water skis, focus on targeting customers in the summer, unless you live in places like Arizona, Southern California, Florida, and Hawaii, where the weather is warm all year long.If your customer has their own business, it's wise to have an excellent working relationship with them. Business to business customers are, perhaps, one of the keys to growing your business. Being available to them can create lasting relationships.