Big companies spend kazillions running focus groups, test-marketing their products and figuring out what their customers are thinking. For private business with fewer resources and an advantageous relationship with their customers, I recommend interviewing your customers to gather critical marketing information about their needs, preferences, buying process and product utilization.

To demonstrate the customer interview process, I’ve recruited my daughters Anastasia (age 13) and Julia (“almost 12”). Their reward was an ice cream drumstick treat (I paid them in advance). So far, so good.

The questions: What are your favorite stores and what do you like about them?

Julia

“My favorite stores are Garage Clothing (for young women) and iTunes.”

What do you like about Garage?

• “They have excellent service, they always help you different sizes and styles and put together outfits for you that you may like, and they’re really nice.”
• “Their clothes are super-cute.”
• “They have a large variety of clothes, accessories and basic make-up.”
• “Their prices are fairly reasonable.”

What do you like about iTunes?

• “I can buy songs and apps for my iPod and can download games on my Dad’s iPad.”
• “They have new songs, they have a large selection of everything such as apps, songs and games, and some are free.”
• “It’s pretty easy to use and I like how you can search things and find the newest and coolest apps and songs.”

Anastasia

“I like Chapters (book store) and One Tooth (they sell yoga and athletic wear).”

What do you like about Chapters?

• “They have so much on different series of books that you’re looking for.”
• “They have different genres.”
• “The staff is very helpful to find different books and making suggestions that I might like based on other books I’ve bought. They know what they’re talking about.”

What do you like about One Tooth?

• “Their clothes are really cute and comfortable, especially for dancers (like my sister and me).”
• “We only go once a year during dance competitions in Moose Jaw so it’s a special trip and a treat. We get to buy a whole outfit every year.”
• “The staff is very helpful and friendly and find different sizes and bring them to your change room.”
• “The clothes are so comfortable.”

Lessons from these young customers:

1. Have a clear strategy and focus. Sell and service a specific range of products (quality, price points, style) for a certain demographic. All the stores mentioned above have ‘product supply’ as their strategy driver, although iTunes is also a distributor using technology. What is your strategy driver? It isn’t price!
2. Make sure that your staff are properly trained how to serve customers, proactively make suggestions, find inventory, and make it easy and fun for the customers to try clothes on, for example, or peruse alternate choices in books. Which staff are your best salespeople? Can they demonstrate successful behaviours and train the others?
3. Provide free samples to keep your customers coming back to see what’s new and to eventually upgrade to the paid versions. Book stores could email sample chapters from authors. Clothing stores could send gift certificates or coupons to increase store traffic during slower periods. What could you give away for free that would increase sales?
4. All the stores have a unique culture and strong level of quality. Even though you can buy everything at Wal-Mart and probably for less (although you may not get the brand equity and prestige), we, as parents, will spend extra because of the higher quality, improved customer service and savings in time. In other words, we trust these retailers. Your customers trust you! How can you help them buy even more?

Thanks, Anastasia and Julia.

If you want real market data, then interview your customers.

Copyright 2011 Phil Symchych. All rights reserved.