Listening to the Customer

Venture for America CourseJuly 2, 2012

July 2, 2012 2

Outline• Identifying the target customer• How do you listen to the customer?• What is the “pain point” or opportunity that

your product or service is solving for them?• Market Research tools– Informal surveys– Focus groups – live or virtual– Quantitative research – Survey Monkey

• Case Studies – brands built on listening

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Identifying the Target Customer

• Who is your core customer?• Do you know and understand why they buy your

product or service?• How did you find them? How did they find you?• Are they growing or shrinking?• Are there others like them to grow the market?• Are they passionate about your product or

service? If so, how do you harness that?

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How do you listen to the customer

• Ideas?

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How do you listen to the customer

• Reactive– Customer Calls– Emails– Comments/Suggestions– Retail interaction– Social media “buzz”

• Proactive– Soliciting feedback– Market Research

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What is the “pain point”?

• From Best Customer Experience Companies.• From Worst Customer Experience Companies.

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What is the “pain point”?

• Zappos – finding the right shoes.• Comcast – waiting for a cable repairman.• Colgate-Palmolive – are the clothes really

clean – how does that reflect upon me as a mother?

• P&G and Betty Crocker – add an egg to the pancake mix

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Case Study – 1800Flowers.com• Extensive qualitative, quantitative, and

behavioral customer analysis done.• From listening, understanding key target

customer – “Tina”.• Changing brand positioning – her need to give.• Execution with Mother’s Day – Spot a Mom

campaign.• Results - +9% versus projection, despite the

recession.

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Case Study – Solvate

• B2B Freelance talent marketplace.• Focus groups with Small Business owners.• Confidence key pain point.• Repositioning – 5 hour guarantee, “Talent you

can Trust”.• Business pivot – changed to a subscription

model.• Results – Record Revenue in the quarter after

the new positioning was launched.

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Market Research Tools• Qualitative - Informal Survey – class exercise –

how was the presentation this morning?

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Informal Survey Results

• # who learned a lot from this morning’s survey – 24/40 – 60%

• # who didn’t learn a lot – 0 – 0%• # who are confident that they understand the

components of customer experience – 31/40 – 77.5%

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Market Research Tools• Qualitative - Informal Survey – Anecdotal, dangerous

to make business decisions from this• Qualitative - Focus Groups• Data Analysis of customer behavior – purchase

history, Google Analytics• Quantitative Survey – Survey Monkey – all of you fill

out feedback on the workshop this morning and we’ll review the results

• https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ventureforamerica

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Survey Monkey Results

• Enjoyed presentation 44% top 2 box• Learned about the importance of Customer

Experience – 40% top box, 96% top 2 box• Good understanding of Customer Experience –

90%• Good measures of Customer Satisfaction• Net Promoter Score - -51%

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Questions?