Knowing Your Customers Action Guide Copyright AgeInPlace.com and Empowering the Mature Mind 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from AgeInPlace.com and Empowering the Mature Mind is strictly prohibited.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is of a general nature only. It is not meant to be comprehensive and does not constitute financial, legal, business or other professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. This document is produced by AgeInPlace.com and Empowering the Mature Mind. Whilst every care has been taken in preparing this document, neither AgeInPlace.com or Empowering the Mature Mind makes any guarantee, representation or warranty (express or implied) as to its accuracy or completeness, and under no circumstances will AgeInPlace.com or Empowering the Mature Mind be liable for any loss caused by reliance on any opinion or statement made in this document. Except as specifically indicated, the expressions of opinion are those of AgeInPlace.com and Empowering the Mature Minda only and are subject to change without notice.
Thanks for downloading the Knowing Your Customers Action Guide. This resource will help you start down the road of learning how your customers see your company, their expectations, where you re doing great and where you might need to improve. It is step by step what we covered in the podcast series. If you haven t listened to the Knowing Your Customer series, here are the links: Part 1 & Part 2. Part 3 will be posted next week. The entire goal of this exercise is to learn the above, then act on it. Later in our podcasts, we re going to cover which actions you might need to take later in our podcasts, but you should find out some of this information first before making any changes to how you do things. Knowing more about your customer will give you the information you need to make good decisions about your business, products and service. This is one of the first steps to an incredible opportunity for you. The ability to improve (and, maybe even fix) some things in your company and doing it based on the people you serve. More than that, it is a chance for you to learn information that is going to inspire ideas on how to do what you re doing better so you can get more rabid fans for your company. that means more referrals and repeat business. Don t be self conscious about asking your customers for input. Every one of them is going to appreciate you asking, and it will help inspire trust for you when you do it more than once. They ll know you care. We wish you all the best in this. If you run into problems or have any questions, send us a Tweet @ageinplacepros or drop us a note at smallbusiness@ageinplace.com. ~ Mark & Aaron BOOMING! Your Bottom Line podcast AgeInPlace.com Small Business
Step 1 : Research When you re doing research, especially online, the majority of the information you are going to get is going to be generalized, which, is fine to start. The question you are trying to get answered first is, What are most of the people in the older consumer market like? In other words, which characteristics do they share and what information about them as a group can be gathered. Along the way, you re probably going to discover tons of information about things that affect some of them. (I.e. Statistically, a percentage will suffer from a certain health condition, might be told by a doctor to no longer drive, etc.) This is great information, and you should note things like that to help build out the picture of your customers. Where to research National research (general/statistical research) There is a wealth of information online about this demographic in general. Here are a few links to get you started. US Census website. Population Estimates and Projections Metropolitan Areas. Table 22. Metropolitan Statistical Areas Population by Age: 2010 Excel Administration for Community Living has some great resources based on census projections. Profile of Older Americans Also at the U.S. Census: The Baby Boom Cohort in the United States: 2012 to 2060. The report goes into more detail about how the aging Boomers will affect change in the States. PDF City or town specific research (less generalized research) Finding information about older consumers in your particular area might be easier than you think. There are a host of resources you may not know about in your town. For instance:
Chamber of Commerce Economic Development groups City or county Planning Departments Businesses that do mailing lists locally / nationally. These companies may have have data on population in certain zip codes. Step 2 : Talking with customers Every customer is a potential treasure trove of information; even the ones you know well. As a matter of fact, talking to ones you know well may be a great place to start, since it might be easier for you. There are several ways you find out information from your customer. Here are some of the most common and a few tips on how to set yourself up for success. Be polite and humble. Ask in a way that shows you care about them and you re interested in what they have to say. When you re talking with them, make sure you make eye contact. Take notes, too. Not just so you don t forget, but so they ll know you re serious. You can do your asking face to face iin your place of business, while doing deliveries or service calls, or when you re out in the community at local events. You can call customers or use surveys in mailings, on your website or sent out to your newsletter list. You can do all of these over time to continue asking your customers questions. About the people you ll talk to Chances are when you re asking your customers about your company, you re going to get people that fall into one of three categories: 1. They don t really want to answer and maybe won t other than it was fine. They may not want to take the time, may be self conscious or don t want to tell you something negative. You might be able to gently pry some information out of them. 2. They re happy to provide an answer but don t really give you any meat. Asking leading and follow up questions, or doing a little prodding, will probably get you some really good information. Most people will fall into this category. 3. These folks will tell you everything; even stuff you don t care about. Just be patient. Most people like this have a need to be heard. You can ask clarifying questions to find out more about something that piques your interest.
Be mindful of this when you re talking with them so you can direct them by qualifying your questions or asking new ones. What to ask This is actually the most difficult part. Mainly, because in order to get information you can use, you have to figure out what you need to know. We suggest starting with some basics at first. Once you ve covered a few people with some basic questions, you ll have some good insight into how you re generally doing and probably a few problem situations. Here are a few examples that you can tailor to your specific company and customers. These can be about visits to your place of business, when you were providing services in their home, made a delivery, helped them on the phone, etc. Think about the last few visits to our store. Did anything happen that made you feel uncomfortable, dissatisfied or that we weren t doing our best for you? Follow up their answers with, Tell me more, as applicable. While you were here, were you able to find and get to everything OK? Was there anything you needed that you could not find or is there something you wished we could carry for you? If there was one thing we could change to make doing business with us better for you, what would that be? Are you able to get everything to your car OK or would it help if we had someone available to carry it for out for you? How to ask Asking will probably be a breeze if you ve spent the time to put together good questions. Steps to follow: 1. Introduce yourself, ask how they are, tell them what you are doing and ask if it is OK for you to ask them 3 short questions. (Or, however many you have.) 2. Ask your first question, then pause for their answer.
3. Prod, clarify, qualify, re state or ask follow up. 4. Repeat until your 3 questions are done. 5. Thank them profusely! 6. Tell them your name again and how they can get in contact with someone to help them should they ever need it. Note You probably shouldn t ask a lot of questions each time. Focus on 2 or 3 to start with. (You can ask more later. And, you should.) You want to ease into this effort and you don t want to overwhelm them with questions. They re doing you a favor by answering you. Prepare your questions ahead of time. You can print them on paper, keep it on a tablet device or your phone. Above all else be an active listener. Step 3 : Customer Snapshots I d just like for you to keep in mind that what you re looking at as far as changes go is the how how to make XX problem or situation easier for your customer. The research, customer snapshots and planning exercises are to help you identify the what. And, the why is the whole reason you are here in the first place: Your Customer. More new and repeat customers, more revenue, greater impact and service to your community. All of these mean more security for you, your family, your employees and your company. Before we dive into this next part, you need to understand that what you re about to get is a combination of exercises that marketing professionals use to help focus a company s efforts on identifying and understanding a company s target customers. By having a greater understanding of your target customer, you are able to start identifying products, services and process that better serve those customers. What we ve done is simplified this effort into a series of steps that you can do to recreate this type of work without paying a marketing company a fortune. It is also an incredible learning experience for you. And that, in itself, is worth a mint.
And, by simplified, we mean oversimplified. Not hard work, just work. We ve cut this down to the nuts and bolts so you can do this yourself and gain some incredible insight in the process. The key is to approach it methodically. It doesn t have to be hard. Step 3.1 : From your research Focus on creating a bulleted list to start, then fill in some data about each item. Age ranges Income Marital status Common health concerns Housing & living situations Common situations faced Other general information By doing this, you re going to create a concise list of statistics that are pertinent to the demographic you are targeting. Step 3.2 : Your customer answers After you create this list, you re going to want to start adding in the information you found when talking with your customers. If any of it fits with the stats you found, add them there. If they don t, then list them below the other items. This is the beginning of your customer snapshots. As time goes on and you ask more questions of your customers, you can add to it. Eventually, you ll have talked with enough customers that you can start combining the data into your snapshots. These snapshots represent a type of customer, who has certain qualities: life situations, lifestyles, health concerns, financial status, etc. In the marketing world, these snapshots are called personas. Step 3.3 : Shining the light on your company Now you think about your customers in light of what you know. This is an exercise that you should do on a regular basis. Especially, as you are considering new ways for you to increase your revenue and the service you provide to your customers.
Start thinking about your business, including: How you do things The processes you use What you expect from your customers The products and services you provide Where your customer pain points are How people interact with your company and more Step 3.4 : Identifying areas of improvement Once you have looked at your business in the light of your customers, you start identifying changes you can make. You won t make any changes yet, though. This will take thought and planning. This is all about you generating ideas from the information you now have to solve the problems your customers have better than you were before. These can include anything from introducing (or finding) new products you d like to carry to how your store is laid out to how you can fix a specific pain point they have to renovating your store to make it more accessible. Once you ve got a list of ideas, you ll want to rank them by how much impact they can have on your customer s experience. The higher the ranking; the more important. Then, you ll want to apply a cost to each one. You know; what would it take to make it a reality. What you ll end up with is your initial list to work from to create changes in your business that will really begin to create great customer experiences. Tips to help make this happen for you 1. Eat the elephant You ve heard the old adage about how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You re looking to make progress, not change your company overnight. That s too much pressure. It s also more than you or any of your staff can handle at once. Not to mention the fact that there is no way you could orchestrate such an endeavor and succeed.
Pick your first thing, figure out how to implement the change and then make it a habit. Rinse. Repeat. 2. Focus on the problem you re trying to solve Don t let any noise or obstacle get in your way of fixing it. You are tuning up your business to make it a customer pleasing machine. Don t get distracted or give attention to things that pop up during the process that make you lose sight of accomplishing the current goal. 3. Finally, have fun with it Seriously, you re already doing great work for your customers. And, you ve probably got some awesome people working for you. This is something that will help you all be better and make your customers love you. Sell it to your people like it is pure joy, live that every day and stay excited about it. Thanks again for downloading this resource. We really appreciate you and are humbled that you ve allowed us to provide you information to help your business. If you have any questions, please Tweet us @ageinplacepros or email smallbusiness@ageinplace.com.