How to get to know your customers!

It’s often been pondered by great thinkers, “Can you really get to know anyone?” Although this is a deep question, this particular article isn’t about being philosophical. Getting to know your customers is a process that anyone can do. If you want to bring your business to the next level you need to fully understand your customers and start to understand them.  Grasp the important information about your clients and use it to help define them and improve your sales. Only when you understand your customers can you find more of them. So maybe this topic is a little more philosophical than originally thought. Here are 5 tips to get to know your customer better and start succeeding on whole new level.

Why does one decide to take your services over another?  If you don’t start to take action and learn what makes your customers chose you, you will never find out how to improve your business.  It’s time to get organized and invest in a Customer Relationship Management System, also known as a CRM. Some examples of products in the market include SalesForce, Unfusionsoft, Hubspot, FreeAgent CRM, Thryv, NetSuite, amoCRM, and Claritysoft. Having a client management system in place is ideal when dealing with hundreds of client contacts.  Having an electronic source that is searchable, sort-able and able to upload files will make tracking data and connecting with your clients easier.   Tracking data will give you the analytics to improve your website, ad campaigns, content and other marketing devices your business uses.  It will also give you the power to contact any client or group of clients with professionally designed emails or any other communications.

Now that you have a method to track and gather your customers, it’s time to analyze the activity and data of visitors to your website. Tools like Google Analytics can track the traffic to your website, origin, search terms used, keywords and a lot more.  The possibilities and tools are endless to track this data. Whatever you choose this analysis must be done.  Not only will you learn how your customers are exploring and using your site you can make improvements to their experience which will increase the chance they pick your business over another.  Tracking and analyzing your website data and the data from your CRM will create a good analytical view of your customers.  And every month when you review the data you will see patterns start to grow.  You will be able to recognize what is working and what is not.  Adapting your methods is crucial to stay relevant and successful.

Data can tell you a lot about your customers but it can’t give you everything.  Social Media is a great world to find insight into what your customers are up to.  What do they like?  How do they spend their time? What are they sharing and liking?  This type of information used to be gathered through many cold calls or networking events, where you establish your trust to get this type of info.  Now you can browse Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn to see how customers live, buy and share.  You may find things that you don’t want to know but the more information you can get on your own will help clarify the picture of your customers and what they want from you.  Delivering what your clients what will strengthen your relationship and keep them coming back and even promote your business to others.

Ask Questions

Is time to suck it up and pick up the phone? Not everyone is comfortable on the phone but if you are a business owner it is an essential skill that you will have to practice.  If you want to know your customers simply ask them questions.  Ask them what they want, how they are doing, or ask them anything.  Starting a conversation with your customer builds your relationship even further.  Not everyone will want to talk to you over the phone but the ones who do will answer any questions you have and happily do it. Plan this call out and have some general questions about your company written down.  Having a few questions ready to go will show them you are prepared and not just wasting their time.  It is the perfect moment to find out what they need, and what they dislike and then fix it.  If you can’t get them on the phone send them a survey through email or even snail mail. This can provide useful information on how to make your business better.

My last tip also sounds a little philosophical, so bare with me.  You can’t understand anyone if you don’t understand yourself.  You must be able to define your product and service to anyone anywhere.  You need to be able to explain every complex aspect of what you do so a 5-year-old can understand.  You can learn all you want about your customers but it won’t do you any good unless you truly know what you are about and what you want to accomplish.  Take a moment and write it down, a definite aim or a business plan.  Creating your own definition for your business and its goals will give you a clear understanding of what you want your customers to know and how to use the information you gather.

Let’s a get a little closer and learn more about each other.  Success has to be worked at over time it is not an instant snap of the finger action but rather an ever-growing library of knowledge.

Please let me know some of the methods you use to get to know your customers better.