How to Get to Know Your Customers

Customers make your business successful. A strong marketing strategy is to develop a relationship with your customers and get to know them so that you can better serve their needs. You won't have return customers if you can't meet their needs and you can't meet their needs if you don't know anything about their lives. Below are steps to help you get to know your customers so your business will succeed.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Establish who the ideal customer for your business--your target market. Determine the needs your product/service can meet and who has those needs.
2. Spot repeat customers. Consumers buy from you once or twice, but customers come back on a regular basis and are typically loyal to your business. These are the customers you want to get to know better.
3. Ask repeat customers to fill out a questionnaire so that you can provide for their needs better. The questionnaire should include a request for contact information, their hobbies and interests, information about family and work dynamics and what they like/dislike about your company.
4. Develop a profile for each customer. Quite literally, you should keep notes from conversations with your repeat customers about their lives. The more you know, the better you can serve them.
5. Survey customer satisfaction on a regular basis. After every transaction, ask the customer if she was satisfied with the product/service and how your business took care of them. Every single experience for each individual customer is different and you need to know where your business is succeeding and/or lacking with each transaction.
6. Determine the needs for each customer based upon steps one through five. Once you know what his needs are in regard to your business, you will be able to provide for those needs in the best way possible, which leads to your business' continued success.

Tips & Warnings

• Your business' target market will change as your business grows and develops. Continually update the profile for your ideal customer and compare that to the profiles you establish for individual customers to make sure you are meeting their needs.