Knowing your customers and what matters to them is the only way to succeed in business. You need to understand what makes them tick and you need to recognise their problems so that you can pitch products that solve their problems. It seems obvious, right? But many people do struggle to understand their customers.

Customer research is often overlooked as many people see it as a trivial activity. However, it is essential if you want to make more money. You need to know what drives your customers to purchase, you know exactly how to tap into their problems and close more sales, so how do you do this?

Ask for Feedback

Don’t just ask for it, offer an incentive to entice your customers to tell you about their experience; they are not just going to give you their time and their data for nothing. You need to give them something in return. Make them a compelling offer for helping you out. A free gift, a gift card, an entry into a fabulous competition, something to make it worth their while.

Implement Live Chat

Live chat systems used to be known as the worst experience you could offer your customers, however, thanks to some improved technology, that has all changed and today they are some of the greatest lead-generation tools going. You can use them to collect data and leads, engage your users with targeted messages and CTAs, and interact with them at every stage. On top of that, you can use them to understand your customer better.

Pay Attention to Customer Reviews

Asking customers for reviews should be an essential tool in your marketing strategy for providing social proof and knowing how you solve customer problems. You can inspect individual reviews from different review sites to start assessing trends and patterns in the data.

What benefits are they getting? What are the most common reasons why they find your product or service useful?

Get the Professionals In

Running a business is, so if you feel you’re too busy to do this essential part of your marketing strategy, then you could hire someone to do it for you. PRWD conducts moderated user research which consists of 1-1 sessions with members of your target audience and can be performed with eye-tracking technology, to provide an additional layer of quantitative data. They then provide you with an in-depth report detailing critical insights from the sessions and recommendations for improvement.

Ultimately to make money, you need to know what drives your customers to purchase, why they are they using or viewing your product and what is it about your product that will enhance their lives and solve a pain point? Knowing the exact answers to these critical questions is the only way to grow your business. You need to genuinely understand your customers to give them the experience they need to keep coming back for more. If you can do these things and start to understand what drives your customers to purchase, you will make their lives easier and drive more sales fast.