The success of your business is largely dependent on many factors and one of the most important is knowing your customers and your industry intimately. The more you know about your customers, what they desire and how they move within your industry, the better you will be able to serve their needs which can result in stable company growth, year after year.
What is market research and why is it important to business success?
Market research can go as deep as you want, but it generally involves research of your target market, industry, and competitors. It helps you understand, at a deeper level, what the market thinks of you and your products. It also shows you what products and services are in demand and how well your customers will respond to your existing products or new products you are creating.
Getting this feedback is vital because running a business without conducting viable market research is similar to moving your business forward blindfolded. Unless you get to know your market and customers, you will be blind to what will work and what will fail. Without removing that blindfold, you will never know for sure what your customers want and you will be subject to hoping for sustained growth instead of being in control of your business and its future growth.
Market research is typically conducted at the beginning stages of business creation; however, successful companies conduct ongoing research to stay abreast of the changing markets and their customers’ needs.
Market research is valuable in the following instances:
- Starting a new business
- Changing a product or service
- Improving a product or service
- Changing a price point
- Developing a new product or service
- Ongoing maintenance – yearly check-ins
By undergoing continuous research, you can remain relevant and improve on your products to meet your customers’ needs, solidifying your future. Conducting market research can also help you be more proactive with eliminating potential risk while also uncovering potential future problems and/or opportunities you would not have noticed otherwise.
How to Conduct Market Research
Your customers hold the keys to unlock your business success. And to drive your business success, you need to do whatever it takes to understand them and their deep needs and what types of solutions they are looking for.
One way to conduct this type of market research is to set up phone surveys using interactive voice response. With interactive voice response (IVR), you can poll your customers via a voice call and collect the responses. Your customers can answer the questions with a simple key press on their phones, resulting in a seamless experience. Depending on the interactive voice response provider you use, you can also track your customers’ responses, analyze and export the data.
To learn more about how you can use interactive voice response to grow your business by conducting important phone surveys, sign up for a free account today.