Many companies go through great time and expense hiring marketing firms to help connect with, engage and spur customers to buy their products or services. These firms often conduct competitive research within the brand’s industry and by polling key stakeholders and employees. While this information is insightful, the simple (and more cost effective) solution to find out why customers do or do not use your product or service is to simply ask them–after all, a brand is not what you or your employees think it is, it is what your customers say it is.
By “asking” customers about your brand, we don’t recommend holding formal roundtable discussions or focus groups. Instead, a scripted five- to ten-minute phone call with fewer than ten current and former customers will allow you to obtain a much better, and more honest sampling of customer insights.
Even though most people will agree to an interview, their time is valuable so you should treat it as such; ask no more than 5-6 questions, and be sure to record each conversation for transcription purposes. Ask open-ended questions about theirexperience with your brand. This will not only provide insight into their true thoughts, feelings, and motivations, it will help spur further discussion.
Some questions that might be asked of your most loyal customers include the following:
“What is the first thing that you think of when you think of Brand XYZ?”
“What are the reasons why you use, or chose to use, Brand XYZ?”
“If you could change one thing about Brand XYZ, what would it be and why?”
“If Brand XYZ ceased to exist, what would you miss most?”
Some questions that might be asked of former customers might include the following.
Remember, having an impartial interviewer asking these questions will provide more honest responses:
“How did your perceptions of Brand XYZ change over time?”
“Why did you choose to stop using Brand XYZ?”
“What does Brand XYZ’s closest competitor do better?”
“Was there anything that could have prevented you from leaving Brand XYZ?”
Interviews may be conducted by either an employee or an outside consultant–just be mindful that you might not get the “whole truth” if customers know they are speaking with a company insider. And although this approach might not be considered a quantitative or scientific method for research, it is not supposed to be. Instead, is meant to be anecdotal, insightful, and most of all, honest. A brand that is not authentic to its customers simply cannot be successful.
By: Ryan Hembree, Principal of Creative and Brand Strategy, Indicia