As a business owner, you most likely developed a target audience when you first established your business so that you know who your ideal clients and customers are and how you could advertise your services to them and meet their needs. However, much like your business will continue to grow and evolve over time, so will the needs of your clients and customers.
If you do not become well-acquainted with these needs and understand your audience as they continue to follow you and your services, you may not retain as many customers as you would like. To prevent this from happening and to grow your business with your customers, you need to keep up with your customer base. However, new business owners may not know how to better understand their consumers. Here are some methods you can use to learn more about your target audience.
Figure out your demographic
If you haven’t already, figuring out your demographic is a great way to learn more about who your work is attracting and what type of people are looking for your services. Fortunately, there are a variety of different tools out there that can analyze the different characteristics of your customer base such as gender, age, location, income, and other such factors that help you learn more about who your services are appealing to. With this information, you can better understand what type of people are after your services and you can then adjust your product or services to better suit this demographic.
Give customers an anonymous survey
Most likely, your newer or infrequent customers do not tend to be upfront with personal information and they may feel too shy to approach you with opinions of your services or products. However, this is exactly the type of information that will allow you to create products and services that are suited for their needs specifically.
For customers who aren’t as forthcoming with information, you may want to create an anonymous survey. An anonymous survey will give your customers the ability to speak their minds without fear of being identified as these surveys will not require names or other personal information that would give you a clue as to who they are. Overall, if you’re trying to truly understand what a customer wants, an anonymous survey is the way to go.
Speak with your customers/clients on a personal level
Some businesses may have a model that allows them to work one-on-one with their customers or clients and other businesses may have repeat customers who truly understand the product and services that are being offered. If you have the means and the permission from the customer or client in question, reach out and ask them what they like about your products and services and what they feel like could use some work. This type of information from those who have constantly purchased goods or services from you is invaluable and can give you a clearer picture of what you need to do to better serve the rest of your audience.
Without knowledge of what customers are looking for, you could easily lose business continuing to offer the same goods and services. Figure out what your audience is looking for using the tips above and you are guaranteed to keep your business strong.
