Have you done any customer research lately? Have you ever done customer research? If not, you may be missing out on a great way to increase sales, innovation, and— most importantly—profits. It’s fairly simple and requires some discipline and consistency, but the results will be well worth the effort.
Customer research can be as simple as conducting a survey within the store or as elaborate as focus group sessions. In the case of tobacco outlets and the limited funds and manpower available, customer intercepts and checkout surveys are a terrific start.
Customer Intercepts
As I mentioned earlier, getting the most out of customer research requires some discipline and consistency. Set up a calendar in your office in which you pick one day a month to be out in the store environment to mingle with customers and ask questions. During that day, make it a point to speak with 15 to 20 customers and ask general questions about the store, the merchandise and tobacco products offered, and any suggestions for improvements. Some sample questions could be:
• Is there something you are looking for that we do not offer?
• Is the store easy to navigate?
• Would you take advantage of weekly or monthly specials?
•Would you be interested in receiving emails about product promotions or in-store events?
The key is to engage with the customer for a couple of minutes and listen to what they have to say. When finished, recap your conversation in a notebook for future reference.
CheckOut Survey
Another easy-to-implement form of customer research is a checkout survey. At the point of payment, you can ask the customer to quickly fill out a short survey about their experience at the store. Did they find what they were looking for? Is there something that they would buy consistently if it were stocked? If they don’t have the time, a couple of quick questions can be asked while cashing them out. Again, this requires some discipline and consistency to record what was learned.
What to do with the Information?
After a couple of months, you might be able to see some patterns of information. For example, customers are looking for smoke odor eliminator candles that you have never stocked. Or, they would like to try other products, but can’t afford to buy them separately. To capitalize on that opportunity, you could put together sample baskets for people to try a number of different products and so on.
Customer information is invaluable. It takes a lot more money and effort to attract new customers than it does to retain existing customers. And those customers that have a positive experience tell their friends and business associates. Get a leg up on competition. Make customer research a necessary part of your annual business plan.
If your company hasn’t done any customer research lately, you also may be missing out on a great way to foster product innovation. Asking your customers questions costs you nothing, but can yield some great ideas about new products to stock or services to offer that will keep your customers coming back. And that’s a payoff you can’t afford not to pursue. •