market research customer needs

What is a customer needs analysis?

Last updated

16 September 2023

Reviewed by

Miroslav Damyanov

Understanding and meeting your customers’ needs is the cornerstone of business success, regardless of your industry or size.

Hard data is one of the best ways to deeply understand your customers’ needs so that you can align your offerings with them.

A customer needs analysis is a data-based evaluation of a customer’s need for a product, service, or solution. Data for this analysis can come from various sources, including in-person or online surveys, market research , focus groups , customer feedback, or product usage trends over time. Once collected, this data allows customer service and product teams to tailor their offerings to meet specific customer needs.

A customer needs analysis can help a business learn more about its customers and lead directly to revenue growth, customer retention , more conversions, and happier clients.

What are customer needs?

Customer needs encompass all the factors that influence a purchasing decision, ranging from tangible attributes like price and product quality to more abstract factors. For example, if a customer is in alignment with a brand’s vocalized vision or a particular set of values, the brand’s products might fulfill the customer’s needs.

Customer needs can be very complex. They can also vary a lot, even between target groups in the same business. Additionally, many customers don’t explicitly state their needs upfront. That’s why research is often needed to determine why a customer connects with a certain product or solution, or what would help build that connection.

Types of customer needs

There are several categories of customer needs, including functional, emotional, and social. While your analysis might reveal more needs in one category than another, it will likely show many customers have needs in every area.

Functional needs

Your product or service will need several basic functional uses to establish value for your customers.

Functionality is one of the most important types of customer needs. If your customer can’t figure out how to use your product, it won’t solve any of their needs.

Usability, such as an intuitive, user-friendly design, is another important factor, along with product performance and efficiency.

Price is another functional need you should consider. Your product or service might not be accessible to the target group you are trying to reach if it’s too expensive.

Social needs

When a customer interacts with your business on any level, they will come away with an impression of how you can bring value to their lives.

Often, their needs in this category revolve around your customer service department’s accessibility and friendliness. Most customers want to be able to get in touch with a business easily, without lengthy wait times or complicated email chains.

Transparency is another type of customer service need, with many customers wanting businesses to offer honest explanations for topics like pricing and product availability.

Emotional needs

Every customer has certain emotional needs that have to be met to build and maintain a strong relationship with a business. Customers need to feel empowered when they make contact with your company, whether they are speaking to a member of the customer service team or the sales department.

Information should be easily accessible on your website, and customer service teams should be trained in how to interact with anyone who reaches out, whether by phone or email.

Friendliness is another important customer need that you should always prioritize. A friendly attitude helps ensure good brand recognition and fosters better relationships with the customers you serve.

Conducting a customer needs analysis in six steps

Performing a customer needs analysis can give you insight into all of the areas above, informing your business decisions and directly impacting your bottom line.

Here’s how to conduct a thorough customer needs analysis in six steps:

1. Identify the customer journey

Before you start collecting data, break down every step of the customer journey and examine each one. By understanding each step of the customer journey and the various ways that clients interact with your business, you will be better prepared to address individual pain points and identify needs that you haven’t yet thought of.

2. Collect data through user segmentation

Once you have defined your target audience, it’s time to segment your customers. This allows you to get a more granular view of customer needs and improve the overall experience of various customer segments .

If you’re unsure about which determining factor to use when segmenting data, consider creating one group of users who haven’t yet engaged with a core feature and another with those who are further along in their journey with your company.

3. Conduct primary research

There are several ways to conduct primary research , but some common methods include:

Customer need surveys (online, postal, or in-person)

Interviews (telephone or in-person)

Focus groups

User needs assessments

Ethnographic studies

3. Curate in-app customer feedback

Many businesses make the mistake of only collecting data once or twice a year, through focus groups or specific surveys. However, collecting customer feedback throughout the year via embedded app tools allows you to collect a goldmine of expressed customer needs.

You can do this by implementing small surveys at different stages of the customer journey, with two or more questions that can reveal your customers’ primary goals.

4. Examine data using appropriate tools

Visualizing your data through a powerful web tool can help you spot trends and better analyze specific customer needs.

Work with your product and development teams to find and implement a report or interface that works for your needs. Then, curate your customer data accordingly. Ideally, look for a solution that enables you to view the usage of a specific feature and gives an overall view of appropriate customer journeys by the target group.

5. Analyze your findings to determine customer expectations

If your customer needs analysis questions were created thoughtfully, combing through the collected data should reveal lots of helpful information about your customers’ needs and wants.

You can see what’s working well in your organization as well as what changes might be needed to better serve your customers and fulfill their unique needs.

If you need some assistance analyzing and interpreting the data you collect, consider partnering with a business that offers custom analysis and deep data insights. This will enable you to uncover patterns and spend more time getting to the core of your customers’ needs.

6. Align your processes with customer needs

After collecting and analyzing the data, it’s time to act on the new information you’ve gleaned from your customers. Work with your product and service teams to interpret the data to better understand customers’ specific needs and start making a plan for actioning changes.

Don’t overcorrect at this stage. It’s best to make small, actionable changes instead of large ones to understand what’s actually working and how you can address customer needs more appropriately.

Done correctly, a customer needs analysis should demonstrate your business’s strengths while revealing the areas where it can improve.

Examples of customer needs analysis questions

As you prepare for your customer needs analysis, consider including questions for both passive and active customers. Segmentation allows you to obtain feedback from both groups.

Here are some example questions to include in your research for active customers:

How easy or difficult is it to use the product?

How well did our product meet your needs?

What is one thing you would improve about our product?

For passive customers, consider including the following:

What made you stop using our products?

What first encouraged you to become our customer?

What can we do to improve your experience?

Put time and thought into these questions, as they form the core of the customer needs analysis. It’s a good idea to run them by the appropriate team members. Ask if they have any suggested changes or want to make any additions.

What is the purpose of a customer needs analysis?

The purpose of a customer needs analysis is to understand the needs and wants of a business’s target customer group. It can serve to increase revenue, improve customer retention, and enhance customer service efforts.

How do you determine a customer’s need for a product or service?

To determine a customer’s need for a specific product or service, you should conduct research through survey questions, feedback forms, in-depth interviews, or focus groups. A customer needs analysis can reveal whether your target customer might be interested in purchasing your product or service.

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Latest articles

Customer Research: The Key to Meeting Customer Needs

Learn how to conduct market research that provides insights into your customers' behaviors, preferences, and pain points.

Digital marketing isn’t just ads and social media posts. Your digital marketing efforts will require you to deeply understand the wants, needs, and preferences of your customers. If you don’t understand your target audience, then your marketing and sales activities will probably suffer exponentially.

Every stage of marketing has something to do with customer research and meeting customer needs. For these and many other reasons, customer research should hold key importance in any marketing or sales effort you intend to embark on now and in the future.

While it’s important to know your customer inside and out, you may have to start from the beginning to figure things out.

For example, it’s a good idea to start with an ideal customer or customer persona that fits the goals of your business, but you might find through your marketing efforts and data collection that the people who gravitate to your brand are nothing like what you assumed.

For these and many, many other reasons, customer research is of the utmost importance. But what does customer research mean for a business? It’s far more than just the sum of the words. Here is a deeper look at customer research and how it forms the key to meeting customer needs.

What is customer research?

The term itself tells you what customer research entails. However, to formalize it, you can consider target market research as gathering and analyzing data about your target market or audience with the goal of learning:

The needs of your potential customers
What your customers prefer
Behavior patterns of your customers
Common customer problems and pain points

Armed with this information, your business can create effective marketing and sales strategies that target the right people, have a higher level of conversions, and generate far more sales.

No matter the goals of your brand, customer research will help you obtain them faster, more efficiently, and with less required trial and error to do so.

Customer or market research

Customer research and marketing research both help businesses understand their target audience and create effective marketing strategies. You may come across the terms customer research and market research used interchangeably. These are, in fact, two different things.

Customer research (also called target market research) focuses on gathering data about customers' needs, preferences, behavior, and pain points. Marketing research covers a broader area of research and includes customer research under its umbrella.

When researching a market, you will gather data about trends, competition, and various other factors, along with your customer research. That information will also factor into your marketing, sales, and growth strategies.

Benefits of customer research in marketing

Customer research comes along with several benefits, many of them absolutely crucial to your digital marketing or any other type of marketing effort. This is especially true for a new business, product, or service.

Identifying target audience. You will come to know precisely who your brand should target as customer research will help you learn the demographics, interests, pain points, and behaviors of those people who your brand can benefit most.
Understanding customer behavior. You will learn the habits and patterns of your ideal customer. What they do, where they hang out online, and what kind of activity they engage in.
Creating relevant content. Knowing more about your customer will allow you to create marketing materials and content that speaks directly to them.
Improving customer experience. Customer research allows for greater personalization, which increases the customer experience.
Increasing conversion rates. Of course, all the benefits of target market research create more qualified leads and better conversions.

Every benefit of customer research creates and builds another benefit of customer research. You may not even know who your customers might be at the start, which is what makes this type of research an excellent place to start.

No matter the size of the business, initiative, or group, there are always benefits associated with customer research and continuing target market research.

Why is quantitative research key to building a business strategy?

Customer research forms a cornerstone of all business, marketing, and sales strategies. If you don’t know who to target, then your campaigns won’t work as intended, or won’t work at all.

Each of the previously mentioned benefits of customer research point to exactly why you should look at this research as key to building a business strategy.

Helps businesses understand customer needs

What does your ideal customer need? And, can your brand provide them with that need? These important questions can help you form the blueprint of your entire business or brand strategy . Understanding the needs of your ideal customer will help you deliver to them precisely what they’re looking for.

Knowing customer needs will also help you craft highly effective campaigns that do far more for your brand or business in both the short and long term.

Delivers insights for improving products and services

As you form your business strategy around the insights gained through your own market research, you can improve your products and services to cater to your ideal customer. This also applies to new products or services as well.

For example, you may find you have an underperforming content marketing strategy. Your customer research insights might inform you that the reason the strategy underperforms is that you’re using generic content, or it’s not speaking to anyone specifically.

Now that you know who your customers are, what they want, and how they consume content, you transform that underperforming content into content that actively engages and converts the potential leads your business needs the most.

Assists businesses to make informed decisions

Business strategy forms based on a series of decisions. If your decisions aren’t backed by data and analysis, then it might not work quite as well as you would like. Primary research insights can help to inform business decisions at every level.

Yes, you can use customer research data to create excellent marketing funnels, but you can also use that data to create full business plans, goals, and growth strategies for the entirety of your organization. This is the type of thing that large corporations do routinely.

A small business or even a single person with a marketable skill can use primary market research data to figure out in which direction they should point the overall efforts of their business.

Increases customer satisfaction and loyalty

People love to feel catered to. Consumer research helps you to facilitate that feeling in people by providing them with solutions to problems and giving them content that speaks directly to them. This process will give your brand satisfied and loyal customers.

Keep in mind that customer satisfaction and loyalty also lead to:

Repeat business and increased lifetime value
Cheerleading and positive word of mouth
Increased reputation

Loyal customers become repeat customers , as they tend to return to brands they trust when it’s time to purchase again. They may stick around for a long time, which can lead to more customers with higher customer lifetime values ( CLV ).

That satisfaction and loyalty will also prompt customers, especially modern-day customers, to write reviews, cheerlead, and spread the good word about your brand or its offerings. Word-of-mouth is actually a viable form of marketing, a powerful one, and one you can passively receive benefits from.

Provides a competitive advantage

Customer research that informs business decisions will help you stay ahead of your competition. You can use consumer research to find more potential leads, but you can also use it to find new opportunities.

For example, your data may point to gaps in the market or underserved segments of people. While your competitors focus on what’s right in front of them, you can start making efforts to capture segments that can often go overlooked. Compare your potential results from these ventures against your competitors and you might see how you can outdistance them in one or more ways.

Enables businesses to establish long-term relationships with customers

As a brand or business, you want customers who will stay with you for the long term. Customer retention starts with a brand understanding their customer. Under most circumstances, people will not stick with a brand they feel doesn’t get them. Identifying needs and offering solutions to problems isn’t something that stays static.

Customer research will help you stay in step with your audience and they, in turn, will stay loyal to your brand. You can only achieve that kind of synergistic relationship through ongoing consumer research.

How to conduct target market research

You can perform customer market research in many ways. At a basic level, practically any effort you take that leads to greater customer insight counts as quantitative research. However, you’ll want to use methods that offer you more quantifiable data that you can use to make actionable decisions.

1. Define the research objectives and target audience

Start with a clear objective and define a target audience. Make a statement that defines why you’re conducting this customer research. What do you hope to accomplish with your research?

As indicated, if you don’t have data of your own to figure out who to target while conducting customer research, you can look to various sources to learn more about the people who may have pain points your brand can soothe.

2. Choose the research method and develop the research questions

With an objective and target audience defined, you can then look at the methods available to you for gathering customer insights.

You can break customer research methods down into several types. Primary research basically means research you conduct directly with your targets. Having a target audience also allows you to choose the type of research method that will serve you and them best. Interviews, surveys, and focus groups represent some types of primary research.

Secondary research comes from third parties. When you dig through the data compiled by and offered by others, you’re conducting secondary research. You should strive to conduct customer research in as many ways as you comfortably can. In this way, you can gain both quantitative and qualitative research data with which to conduct further research and create business strategies.

You may notice that most customer research methods have to do with answering questions. It's important to make your research questions specific and to the point. You want answers you can compare directly between research methods. Craft questions that directly tell you something about the customer.

Some examples include:

What solutions did you try before you tried our service?
How can we improve our product?
What information do you feel our website is missing?
What kind of promotion featuring our service would you have the most interest in?

Keep your questions focused and use your stated goal or objective to help you figure out which questions to ask and what information to seek from customers.

3. Collect, analyze, and interpret data

Once you have data, you need to analyze and interpret it to see exactly what it all means for your business marketing or sales strategies. Continue to collect and analyze data so that you can build one or more potential solutions for your brand. Look for patterns and common themes in the data and dig out the key insights you can leverage the most.

4. Use the research findings

You have the data; you have the insights, you’ve crunched numbers, identified trends, and know everything you need to know about your target audience. It’s time for implementation.

How that implementation looks will vary from business to business, but, at this point, you’ll want to look at marketing techniques and sales strategies that will work best with what you now know about your target audience.

Also, use your insights for your brand or business as well. Customer research data doesn’t just reveal things about your customers or potential customers, it can also reveal a lot about your business. If you find areas where you can and should improve, then use your data to work on those areas.

What are some customer research best practices?

Customer research will work differently between businesses, but there are a few things every brand or business can do to make the most of customer research.

Use more than one method to conduct target market research

Gain as much information as you can by running different customer research methods. Not all methods work best for all businesses, so it’s a good idea to try more than one method, regardless.

As you’ll want both quantitative and qualitative research data, it’s always more beneficial to conduct research geared toward one or the other. Then, you can combine the data. In addition, you may not know which methods actually work best for you, so you’ll want to test these methods until you find the ones that offer you the most benefit.

Always define your research goals and objectives

Before beginning your research, have a goal or objective. Defining what you want to achieve will always help you choose the research methods and research questions that will best serve your goal. Keep your customer research focused. Without a goal or objective, you can garner poor data, waste time, and waste valuable resources for very little gain.

Use professional tools and resources whenever possible

Many tools, services, and professionals exist specifically for helping brands to conduct customer research and other types of market research. When possible, you should always use those professional and polished assets.

For example, you’ll find a tremendous number of survey and quiz providers you can use for research, but you’ll quickly discover they’re not all built to scale. Some services will certainly have the tools you absolutely need, and some may even already have insight into the types of questions your business should ask the survey participants.

Look for knowledge and expertise when you’re looking for customer research solutions.

Follow up and repeat

Your customers will grow and change. Your customer research efforts will also need to grow in change. Your target market may age out of your product or service, while the new generation that fits that demographic may have no interest. Consider ongoing customer research as an absolute necessity for your brand.

Choose a service with customer research tools that can scale along with your brand while also staying with the times. When looking into how to do market research, you’ll probably notice just how many services you might need to involve.

Mailchimp offers a wide variety of professional audience management and marketing tools, including customer journey roadmaps and professional surveys. If you want to start or elevate a customer research strategy, then MailChimp can give you the tools and resources to give you the results you need.

MARKET RESEARCH

Customer Needs Research

Customer Needs Research, sometimes synonymous with Habits & Practice (H&P) research, helps researchers and product developers understand the needs, wants, and expectations of customers.

Identify important unmet needs of the customer
Disprove false assumptions and correct mistaken internal beliefs
Refine segmentation
Prioritise future product development initiatives
Drive growth via customer adoption, loyalty, and advocacy
Improve ROI

Customer needs research vs. consumer needs research

How customer needs research works

Customer Research Methods: Key Strategies for Market Insights in 2024

Customer surveys : Survey tools such as Survicate are essential for conducting quantitative and qualitative research across various customer touchpoints and improving digital CX
Diverse research methods : Employ a mix of customer research methods like different types of surveys , interviews, focus groups, observational studies, and usability testing to gain comprehensive insights into customer behavior and product interaction.
Importance of continuous feedback : Establishing feedback loop mechanisms is crucial for ongoing improvement, ensuring that products and services evolve in response to customer needs .
Data analysis : Systematic data collection followed by thorough analysis using appropriate customer research tools is key to identifying trends and making informed decisions. ‍
Actionable feedback : Prioritize and strategize based on research findings to create actionable insights that drive measurable improvements in customer experience management and business processes.

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Cutting through the chatter to hear your customers' true opinions is no small feat.

Tailored for business owners and marketers, this article zeroes in on how to conduct customer research . We'll highlight the strategies that directly connect you to your audience's preferences and pain points. By tapping into these insights, you'll be equipped to make informed, impactful business decisions.

Dive in to transform customer feedback into a clear direction for your brand's growth and success.

What is customer research?

Customer research is an essential practice focused on collecting data about your customers to understand their characteristics, needs, and behaviors.

Why is customer research important?

Informed Decision-Making: You gain actionable insights into customer preferences and satisfaction, empowering you to make data-driven decisions.
Enhanced Customer Experience: Understanding what your customers value guides your efforts to improve their experiences with your product or service.
Strategic Focus: Tailoring your business strategy becomes more focused as you identify key demographics and market segments.
Product Development: Product features and improvements align better with customer expectations when informed by customer research.
Competitive Edge: Detailed knowledge about your customers can give you a competitive advantage by identifying opportunities and gaps in the market.

Customer research vs. market research

Customer research and market research serve distinct purposes in understanding buyers and the competitive environment.

Customer research dives deep into your existing or potential customers' behaviors, needs, and preferences . It aims to create a detailed understanding of the customer journey , from awareness to purchase and is often qualitative in nature.

On the other hand, market research takes a broader approach, examining the market as a whole, including industry trends, competitor analysis, and market share.

While customer research is about the 'who' and 'why' behind purchasing decisions, conducting market research addresses the 'what' and 'how' of market conditions and opportunities.

Both types of research are crucial for informed decision-making but focus on different aspects of the business landscape. Customer research is about improving the customer experience and tailoring products or services to consumer needs. Market research is about understanding the market landscape to strategize and position offerings effectively.

Primary research vs. secondary research

In customer research, understanding the distinction between primary research and secondary research is crucial for choosing the right approach to obtain your insights.

Primary research

Primary research involves collecting data firsthand for your specific research goal. This data is original and gathered through methods directly controlled by you. Examples include:

Surveys and questionnaires : Deploying custom surveys to collect customer feedback on a new product or service.
Interviews : Conducting one-on-one dialogues to dive deep into customer opinions and experiences.
Focus groups : Facilitated group discussions to obtain a range of perspectives on a particular topic.

Secondary research

Secondary research methods rely on data previously collected by others. It's an evaluation of existing information that may include:

Industry Reports : Analyzing market research findings related to your sector.
Academic Journals : Reviewing studies and papers for trends and outcomes that align with your interests.
Market Analysis : Assessing competitor data and market summaries to inform your strategies.

Types of customer data

Before diving into specific categories, understand that customer data is essential to personalize your marketing strategies and enhance customer experiences. This data comes in two core types: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative data

Qualitative research gathers non-numeric information that captures your customers' opinions, motivations, and attitudes. This data often comes from:

Interviews , direct conversations that provide in-depth insights.
Open-ended survey responses allow customers to express their thoughts in their own words.

Quantitative data

Quantitative research collects numerical data and can be measured and analyzed statistically. Key sources include:

Transaction records : Sales data showing purchasing patterns.
Website analytics : Metrics like page views and click-through rates representing user behavior.

Best customer research methods

When conducting customer research, you need to select the right methodology to gain valuable insights. Various research methods cater to different needs, from understanding user behavior to gauging customer satisfaction.

Customer surveys and questionnaires

Deploy online surveys and questionnaires to quickly gather quantitative and qualitative data from a large audience. For example, a survey tool such as Survicate offers a variety of different distribution channels:

surveys embedded in emails
website pop-up surveys
mobile app surveys
link surveys
in-product surveys

Surveys are a cost-effective way to gather market research insights from the entire customer digital journey . If you use them as a part of a feedback loop, they can help you improve the CX considerably.

widely via email, websites, or social media platforms. Ensure your questions are direct and easy to understand to maximize response rates.

Conduct interviews to collect in-depth qualitative data. One-on-one interviews allow for a deep dive into customer opinions, beliefs, and experiences. Record these sessions, if possible, to ensure that none of the details are lost.

Focus groups

Utilize focus groups to explore customer attitudes and behaviors in a group setting. This method sparks conversation and can uncover insights that might not surface in one-on-one interactions. Be wary of group dynamics such as conformity, which can influence individual responses.

Observational studies

Observational studies involve watching how users interact with your product in their natural environment. This method provides unfiltered, real-world user behavior that can be invaluable in understanding how your product is used.

Usability testing

Usability testing is imperative for evaluating the functionality and design of your product. Recruit participants to complete specific tasks while observers note where they encounter issues or experience confusion.

Field trials

Conduct field trials by providing users a prototype or beta version of your product for a certain period. This hands-on approach yields feedback on your product's performance in real-life scenarios.

Review mining

Lastly, review mining involves analyzing customer feedback found in online reviews and forums. This passive method is particularly useful for identifying common pain points and areas for improvement without the need for direct interaction.

Types of customer research

Customer research encompasses various methodologies aimed at understanding your market and clientele. Tailoring these approaches helps you stay informed and make data-driven decisions.

Competitive research

You analyze your competitors to benchmark your products, services, and customer satisfaction levels against them. This helps in identifying industry standards and areas for improvement.

Customer journey mapping

Journey mapping involves charting the steps your customers take, from discovering your brand to making a purchase and beyond. It's a strategic approach to understanding customer interactions with your brand.

Buyer persona research

You create detailed profiles of your typical customers based on demographic and psychographic data. These personas help in crafting targeted marketing strategies.

Customer experience research

You assess customers' overall experience with your brand, from the usability of your website to customer service interactions, to optimize every touchpoint.

Customer segmentation research

Market segmentation divides your customer base into distinct groups based on common characteristics to provide more personalized products and services.

Customer needs research

You investigate your customers' underlying needs and desires to develop products that solve specific problems or enhance their lives.

Customer satisfaction research

You measure how your products and services meet, exceed, or fall short of customer expectations, often using surveys, feedback forms, and follow-up interviews.

Pricing research

You evaluate customers' responses to pricing changes and their perception of your product's value to establish an optimal pricing strategy.

Brand perception research

You gauge how customers perceive your brand to ensure your messaging aligns with their beliefs and your company values.

Designing a research plan

Precision and structure are pivotal for gathering actionable insights in constructing a customer research plan. These steps will guide you through creating an effective framework for your research efforts.

Set objectives

Identify what you want to achieve with your research. For instance, you may aim to understand customer satisfaction , identify buying patterns, or test product concepts. These objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) to ensure clarity and focus.

Identify target audience

Determine who your customers are by segmenting the market. To accurately represent your overall market, include demographics, psychographics, and behaviors in your segmentation. Knowing your audience can tailor your research to yield more relevant data.

Recruit participants

Once you know who to target, select participants who best represent your customer base. Employ strategies such as customer databases, social media outreach, or third-party panels to gather a varied group that reflects your target audience's diversity.

Choose appropriate methods

Your objectives will dictate the methods you choose. Qualitative approaches like interviews afford depth, while quantitative methods like surveys provide breadth. Select the right blend of methods to gain a multidimensional view of customer sentiments.

Sampling techniques

Employ sampling techniques to generalize your findings. Random sampling ensures everyone has an equal chance of selection, while stratified sampling involves dividing your audience into subgroups and sampling from these categories to ensure all segments are represented.

Build a continuous process with feedback loops

Establish ongoing mechanisms to capture customer feedback regularly. This could involve periodic surveys or real-time feedback systems. Make sure you continuously iterate your product or service based on this input, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.

Data collection and analysis

Effective customer research hinges on the systematic collection and meticulous analysis of data to decipher patterns, understand behaviors, and make informed decisions.

Gather data systematically and analyze it to uncover patterns and trends. Use analytical tools that can handle your data type and amount. Look for relationships between variables and compare these findings against your goals.

Quantitative data analysis

You'll handle numerical data that can be measured and compared in a straightforward manner. Quantitative analysis often employs statistical tools to interpret data sets and deduce meaningful insights. Common techniques include:

Descriptive Statistics: Summarize your data through means, medians, and modes.
Inferential Statistics: Make predictions and infer trends from your sample data.
Regression Analysis: Determine the relationship between variables.

Qualitative data assessment

With qualitative data, your focus is on interpretative analysis of non-numerical information, such as customer interviews or open-ended survey responses. Key approaches involve:

Thematic Analysis: Identify patterns or themes within qualitative data.
Content Analysis: Categorize text to understand the frequency and relationships of words or concepts.
Narrative Analysis: Explore the structure and content of stories to gain insights into customer perspectives.

Mixing methods

Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis can provide a holistic view of your customer research. Employ a 'mixed methods' strategy to:

Validate findings across different data types.
Gain a richer, more nuanced understanding of research questions.
Balance the depth of qualitative assessment with the generalizability of quantitative analysis.

Interpreting and reporting results

Turn your data into action by using insights to inform business decisions. Whether it is refining product features or adjusting marketing strategies, use the research to create value for your customers and your business.

Drawing conclusions

When you are ready to draw conclusions from your customer research, begin by assessing the data's significance. Look for patterns and trends in the feedback and quantifiable data. Tabulate your findings when possible, as this makes comparisons clearer:

Quantitative Data : Calculate averages, frequencies, and percentages. A table showing the response distribution for each question can clarify these statistics.
Qualitative Data : Group feedback into themes. For instance, list common descriptors used by customers when discussing a product feature.

Conclusions should directly relate to the research objectives you set before the study.

Creating actionable insights

After drawing conclusions, it's crucial to translate them into actionable insights:

Prioritize : Determine which findings substantially impact your objectives or pose the biggest challenge to your CX.
Strategize : For each priority area, brainstorm potential strategies. This may involve a simple list or a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for complex decisions.

Always ensure that your insights are actionable; they should inform decisions and lead to measurable improvement in consumer experience or business processes. Communicate these insights with clear, straightforward language to the relevant stakeholders in your organization.

Emerging trends in customer research

Conduct market research with ai.

Customer research is adapting to leverage cutting-edge technologies. You'll notice a significant shift towards harnessing data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to derive deeper insights into customer behavior.

You can leverage Survciate AI-powered features as well. Try the AI survey creator that will design your customer or market research survey in under a minute after you describe your needs and objectives.

After you collect feedback, you can use the AI Topics feature to speed up getting qualitative insights. It will automatically categorize and summarize answers to your open-ended questions. Worth trying, isn't it?

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Social listening

Social listening tools are another trend on the rise. They enable you to monitor your brand's social media presence and gather direct feedback from conversations about your products or services. Mobile ethnography also offers a way to observe customer interactions in a natural setting, providing contextually rich data.

Predicting customer behavior

Lastly, as the emphasis on personalization grows, predictive analytics are being adopted to tailor customer experiences. These techniques analyze past behavior to anticipate future needs, enhancing your ability to meet customer expectations preemptively.

Remember, these methods involve collecting various forms of customer data, so being vigilant about privacy and ethical data use is crucial. Follow regulations and best practices to ethically manage the information you gather.

Survicate for your market and customer research

As we've explored, the key to thriving in the current market is to truly understand your customers. The challenge, however, lies in efficiently gathering and interpreting their feedback to inform your business strategies.

With its user-friendly interface, Survicate allows you to create targeted surveys, collect real-time feedback, and analyze the data with ease, ensuring that every customer voice is heard and accounted for.

Survicate's suite of features simplifies the process of connecting with customers and extracting the insights you need to make data-driven decisions. Whether it's through NPS , customer satisfaction surveys, or user experience research, Survicate provides the clarity and direction required to adapt and excel in a fast-paced market.

For those ready to elevate their customer research, consider giving Survicate a try. Start your journey to clearer insights today with a free 10-day trial of the Business Plan , and experience the full potential of focused customer feedback. Take the step today, and transform the way you connect with your audience.

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How to Do Market Research: The Complete Guide

Learn how to do market research with this step-by-step guide, complete with templates, tools and real-world examples.

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What are your customers’ needs? How does your product compare to the competition? What are the emerging trends and opportunities in your industry? If these questions keep you up at night, it’s time to conduct market research.

Market research plays a pivotal role in your ability to stay competitive and relevant, helping you anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and industry dynamics. It involves gathering these insights using a wide range of techniques, from surveys and interviews to data analysis and observational studies.

In this guide, we’ll explore why market research is crucial, the various types of market research, the methods used in data collection, and how to effectively conduct market research to drive informed decision-making and success.

What is market research?

Market research is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a specific market or industry. The purpose of market research is to offer valuable insight into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience, and anticipate shifts in market trends and the competitive landscape. This information helps you make data-driven decisions, develop effective strategies for your business, and maximize your chances of long-term growth.

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Why is market research important?

By understanding the significance of market research, you can make sure you’re asking the right questions and using the process to your advantage. Some of the benefits of market research include:

Informed decision-making: Market research provides you with the data and insights you need to make smart decisions for your business. It helps you identify opportunities, assess risks and tailor your strategies to meet the demands of the market. Without market research, decisions are often based on assumptions or guesswork, leading to costly mistakes.
Customer-centric approach: A cornerstone of market research involves developing a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. This gives you valuable insights into your target audience, helping you develop products, services and marketing campaigns that resonate with your customers.
Competitive advantage: By conducting market research, you’ll gain a competitive edge. You’ll be able to identify gaps in the market, analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses, and position your business strategically. This enables you to create unique value propositions, differentiate yourself from competitors, and seize opportunities that others may overlook.
Risk mitigation: Market research helps you anticipate market shifts and potential challenges. By identifying threats early, you can proactively adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond effectively to changing circumstances. This proactive approach is particularly valuable in volatile industries.
Resource optimization: Conducting market research allows organizations to allocate their time, money and resources more efficiently. It ensures that investments are made in areas with the highest potential return on investment, reducing wasted resources and improving overall business performance.
Adaptation to market trends: Markets evolve rapidly, driven by technological advancements, cultural shifts and changing consumer attitudes. Market research ensures that you stay ahead of these trends and adapt your offerings accordingly so you can avoid becoming obsolete.

As you can see, market research empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, cater to customer needs, outperform competitors, mitigate risks, optimize resources and stay agile in a dynamic marketplace. These benefits make it a huge industry; the global market research services market is expected to grow from $76.37 billion in 2021 to $108.57 billion in 2026 . Now, let’s dig into the different types of market research that can help you achieve these benefits.

Types of market research

Qualitative research
Quantitative research
Exploratory research
Descriptive research
Causal research
Cross-sectional research
Longitudinal research

Despite its advantages, 23% of organizations don’t have a clear market research strategy. Part of developing a strategy involves choosing the right type of market research for your business goals. The most commonly used approaches include:

1. Qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding the underlying motivations, attitudes and perceptions of individuals or groups. It is typically conducted through techniques like in-depth interviews, focus groups and content analysis — methods we’ll discuss further in the sections below. Qualitative research provides rich, nuanced insights that can inform product development, marketing strategies and brand positioning.

2. Quantitative research

Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative research, involves the collection and analysis of numerical data, often through surveys, experiments and structured questionnaires. This approach allows for statistical analysis and the measurement of trends, making it suitable for large-scale market studies and hypothesis testing. While it’s worthwhile using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research, most businesses prioritize the latter because it is scientific, measurable and easily replicated across different experiments.

3. Exploratory research

Whether you’re conducting qualitative or quantitative research or a mix of both, exploratory research is often the first step. Its primary goal is to help you understand a market or problem so you can gain insights and identify potential issues or opportunities. This type of market research is less structured and is typically conducted through open-ended interviews, focus groups or secondary data analysis. Exploratory research is valuable when entering new markets or exploring new product ideas.

4. Descriptive research

As its name implies, descriptive research seeks to describe a market, population or phenomenon in detail. It involves collecting and summarizing data to answer questions about audience demographics and behaviors, market size, and current trends. Surveys, observational studies and content analysis are common methods used in descriptive research.

5. Causal research

Causal research aims to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. It investigates whether changes in one variable result in changes in another. Experimental designs, A/B testing and regression analysis are common causal research methods. This sheds light on how specific marketing strategies or product changes impact consumer behavior.

6. Cross-sectional research

Cross-sectional market research involves collecting data from a sample of the population at a single point in time. It is used to analyze differences, relationships or trends among various groups within a population. Cross-sectional studies are helpful for market segmentation, identifying target audiences and assessing market trends at a specific moment.

7. Longitudinal research

Longitudinal research, in contrast to cross-sectional research, collects data from the same subjects over an extended period. This allows for the analysis of trends, changes and developments over time. Longitudinal studies are useful for tracking long-term developments in consumer preferences, brand loyalty and market dynamics.

Each type of market research has its strengths and weaknesses, and the method you choose depends on your specific research goals and the depth of understanding you’re aiming to achieve. In the following sections, we’ll delve into primary and secondary research approaches and specific research methods.

Primary vs. secondary market research

Market research of all types can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: primary research and secondary research. By understanding the differences between these approaches, you can better determine the most appropriate research method for your specific goals.

Primary market research

Primary research involves the collection of original data straight from the source. Typically, this involves communicating directly with your target audience — through surveys, interviews, focus groups and more — to gather information. Here are some key attributes of primary market research:

Customized data: Primary research provides data that is tailored to your research needs. You design a custom research study and gather information specific to your goals.
Up-to-date insights: Because primary research involves communicating with customers, the data you collect reflects the most current market conditions and consumer behaviors.
Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Despite its advantages, primary research can be labor-intensive and costly, especially when dealing with large sample sizes or complex study designs. Whether you hire a market research consultant, agency or use an in-house team, primary research studies consume a large amount of resources and time.

Secondary market research

Secondary research, on the other hand, involves analyzing data that has already been compiled by third-party sources, such as online research tools, databases, news sites, industry reports and academic studies.

Here are the main characteristics of secondary market research:

Cost-effective: Secondary research is generally more cost-effective than primary research since it doesn’t require building a research plan from scratch. You and your team can look at databases, websites and publications on an ongoing basis, without needing to design a custom experiment or hire a consultant.
Leverages multiple sources: Data tools and software extract data from multiple places across the web, and then consolidate that information within a single platform. This means you’ll get a greater amount of data and a wider scope from secondary research.
Quick to access: You can access a wide range of information rapidly — often in seconds — if you’re using online research tools and databases. Because of this, you can act on insights sooner, rather than taking the time to develop an experiment.

So, when should you use primary vs. secondary research? In practice, many market research projects incorporate both primary and secondary research to take advantage of the strengths of each approach.

One rule of thumb is to focus on secondary research to obtain background information, market trends or industry benchmarks. It is especially valuable for conducting preliminary research, competitor analysis, or when time and budget constraints are tight. Then, if you still have knowledge gaps or need to answer specific questions unique to your business model, use primary research to create a custom experiment.

Market research methods

Surveys and questionnaires
Focus groups
Observational research
Online research tools
Experiments
Content analysis
Ethnographic research

How do primary and secondary research approaches translate into specific research methods? Let’s take a look at the different ways you can gather data:

1. Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are popular methods for collecting structured data from a large number of respondents. They involve a set of predetermined questions that participants answer. Surveys can be conducted through various channels, including online tools, telephone interviews and in-person or online questionnaires. They are useful for gathering quantitative data and assessing customer demographics, opinions, preferences and needs. On average, customer surveys have a 33% response rate , so keep that in mind as you consider your sample size.

2. Interviews

Interviews are in-depth conversations with individuals or groups to gather qualitative insights. They can be structured (with predefined questions) or unstructured (with open-ended discussions). Interviews are valuable for exploring complex topics, uncovering motivations and obtaining detailed feedback.

3. Focus groups

The most common primary research methods are in-depth webcam interviews and focus groups. Focus groups are a small gathering of participants who discuss a specific topic or product under the guidance of a moderator. These discussions are valuable for primary market research because they reveal insights into consumer attitudes, perceptions and emotions. Focus groups are especially useful for idea generation, concept testing and understanding group dynamics within your target audience.

4. Observational research

Observational research involves observing and recording participant behavior in a natural setting. This method is particularly valuable when studying consumer behavior in physical spaces, such as retail stores or public places. In some types of observational research, participants are aware you’re watching them; in other cases, you discreetly watch consumers without their knowledge, as they use your product. Either way, observational research provides firsthand insights into how people interact with products or environments.

5. Online research tools

You and your team can do your own secondary market research using online tools. These tools include data prospecting platforms and databases, as well as online surveys, social media listening, web analytics and sentiment analysis platforms. They help you gather data from online sources, monitor industry trends, track competitors, understand consumer preferences and keep tabs on online behavior. We’ll talk more about choosing the right market research tools in the sections that follow.

6. Experiments

Market research experiments are controlled tests of variables to determine causal relationships. While experiments are often associated with scientific research, they are also used in market research to assess the impact of specific marketing strategies, product features, or pricing and packaging changes.

7. Content analysis

Content analysis involves the systematic examination of textual, visual or audio content to identify patterns, themes and trends. It’s commonly applied to customer reviews, social media posts and other forms of online content to analyze consumer opinions and sentiments.

8. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research immerses researchers into the daily lives of consumers to understand their behavior and culture. This method is particularly valuable when studying niche markets or exploring the cultural context of consumer choices.

How to do market research

Set clear objectives
Identify your target audience
Choose your research methods
Use the right market research tools
Collect data
Analyze data
Interpret your findings
Identify opportunities and challenges
Make informed business decisions
Monitor and adapt

Now that you have gained insights into the various market research methods at your disposal, let’s delve into the practical aspects of how to conduct market research effectively. Here’s a quick step-by-step overview, from defining objectives to monitoring market shifts.

1. Set clear objectives

When you set clear and specific goals, you’re essentially creating a compass to guide your research questions and methodology. Start by precisely defining what you want to achieve. Are you launching a new product and want to understand its viability in the market? Are you evaluating customer satisfaction with a product redesign?

Start by creating SMART goals — objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Not only will this clarify your research focus from the outset, but it will also help you track progress and benchmark your success throughout the process.

You should also consult with key stakeholders and team members to ensure alignment on your research objectives before diving into data collecting. This will help you gain diverse perspectives and insights that will shape your research approach.

2. Identify your target audience

Next, you’ll need to pinpoint your target audience to determine who should be included in your research. Begin by creating detailed buyer personas or stakeholder profiles. Consider demographic factors like age, gender, income and location, but also delve into psychographics, such as interests, values and pain points.

The more specific your target audience, the more accurate and actionable your research will be. Additionally, segment your audience if your research objectives involve studying different groups, such as current customers and potential leads.

If you already have existing customers, you can also hold conversations with them to better understand your target market. From there, you can refine your buyer personas and tailor your research methods accordingly.

3. Choose your research methods

Selecting the right research methods is crucial for gathering high-quality data. Start by considering the nature of your research objectives. If you’re exploring consumer preferences, surveys and interviews can provide valuable insights. For in-depth understanding, focus groups or observational research might be suitable. Consider using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a well-rounded perspective.

You’ll also need to consider your budget. Think about what you can realistically achieve using the time and resources available to you. If you have a fairly generous budget, you may want to try a mix of primary and secondary research approaches. If you’re doing market research for a startup , on the other hand, chances are your budget is somewhat limited. If that’s the case, try addressing your goals with secondary research tools before investing time and effort in a primary research study.

4. Use the right market research tools

Whether you’re conducting primary or secondary research, you’ll need to choose the right tools. These can help you do anything from sending surveys to customers to monitoring trends and analyzing data. Here are some examples of popular market research tools:

Market research software: Crunchbase is a platform that provides best-in-class company data, making it valuable for market research on growing companies and industries. You can use Crunchbase to access trusted, first-party funding data, revenue data, news and firmographics, enabling you to monitor industry trends and understand customer needs.

Survey and questionnaire tools: SurveyMonkey is a widely used online survey platform that allows you to create, distribute and analyze surveys. Google Forms is a free tool that lets you create surveys and collect responses through Google Drive.
Data analysis software: Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are useful for conducting statistical analyses. SPSS is a powerful statistical analysis software used for data processing, analysis and reporting.
Social listening tools: Brandwatch is a social listening and analytics platform that helps you monitor social media conversations, track sentiment and analyze trends. Mention is a media monitoring tool that allows you to track mentions of your brand, competitors and keywords across various online sources.
Data visualization platforms: Tableau is a data visualization tool that helps you create interactive and shareable dashboards and reports. Power BI by Microsoft is a business analytics tool for creating interactive visualizations and reports.

5. Collect data

There’s an infinite amount of data you could be collecting using these tools, so you’ll need to be intentional about going after the data that aligns with your research goals. Implement your chosen research methods, whether it’s distributing surveys, conducting interviews or pulling from secondary research platforms. Pay close attention to data quality and accuracy, and stick to a standardized process to streamline data capture and reduce errors.

6. Analyze data

Once data is collected, you’ll need to analyze it systematically. Use statistical software or analysis tools to identify patterns, trends and correlations. For qualitative data, employ thematic analysis to extract common themes and insights. Visualize your findings with charts, graphs and tables to make complex data more understandable.

If you’re not proficient in data analysis, consider outsourcing or collaborating with a data analyst who can assist in processing and interpreting your data accurately.

7. Interpret your findings

Interpreting your market research findings involves understanding what the data means in the context of your objectives. Are there significant trends that uncover the answers to your initial research questions? Consider the implications of your findings on your business strategy. It’s essential to move beyond raw data and extract actionable insights that inform decision-making.

Hold a cross-functional meeting or workshop with relevant team members to collectively interpret the findings. Different perspectives can lead to more comprehensive insights and innovative solutions.

8. Identify opportunities and challenges

Use your research findings to identify potential growth opportunities and challenges within your market. What segments of your audience are underserved or overlooked? Are there emerging trends you can capitalize on? Conversely, what obstacles or competitors could hinder your progress?

Lay out this information in a clear and organized way by conducting a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Jot down notes for each of these areas to provide a structured overview of gaps and hurdles in the market.

9. Make informed business decisions

Market research is only valuable if it leads to informed decisions for your company. Based on your insights, devise actionable strategies and initiatives that align with your research objectives. Whether it’s refining your product, targeting new customer segments or adjusting pricing, ensure your decisions are rooted in the data.

At this point, it’s also crucial to keep your team aligned and accountable. Create an action plan that outlines specific steps, responsibilities and timelines for implementing the recommendations derived from your research.

10. Monitor and adapt

Market research isn’t a one-time activity; it’s an ongoing process. Continuously monitor market conditions, customer behaviors and industry trends. Set up mechanisms to collect real-time data and feedback. As you gather new information, be prepared to adapt your strategies and tactics accordingly. Regularly revisiting your research ensures your business remains agile and reflects changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.

Online market research sources

As you go through the steps above, you’ll want to turn to trusted, reputable sources to gather your data. Here’s a list to get you started:

Crunchbase: As mentioned above, Crunchbase is an online platform with an extensive dataset, allowing you to access in-depth insights on market trends, consumer behavior and competitive analysis. You can also customize your search options to tailor your research to specific industries, geographic regions or customer personas.

Product Image Advanced Search CRMConnected

Academic databases: Academic databases, such as ProQuest and JSTOR , are treasure troves of scholarly research papers, studies and academic journals. They offer in-depth analyses of various subjects, including market trends, consumer preferences and industry-specific insights. Researchers can access a wealth of peer-reviewed publications to gain a deeper understanding of their research topics.
Government and NGO databases: Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other institutions frequently maintain databases containing valuable economic, demographic and industry-related data. These sources offer credible statistics and reports on a wide range of topics, making them essential for market researchers. Examples include the U.S. Census Bureau , the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center .
Industry reports: Industry reports and market studies are comprehensive documents prepared by research firms, industry associations and consulting companies. They provide in-depth insights into specific markets, including market size, trends, competitive analysis and consumer behavior. You can find this information by looking at relevant industry association databases; examples include the American Marketing Association and the National Retail Federation .
Social media and online communities: Social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter (X) , forums such as Reddit and Quora , and review platforms such as G2 can provide real-time insights into consumer sentiment, opinions and trends.

Market research examples

At this point, you have market research tools and data sources — but how do you act on the data you gather? Let’s go over some real-world examples that illustrate the practical application of market research across various industries. These examples showcase how market research can lead to smart decision-making and successful business decisions.

Example 1: Apple’s iPhone launch

Apple ’s iconic iPhone launch in 2007 serves as a prime example of market research driving product innovation in tech. Before the iPhone’s release, Apple conducted extensive market research to understand consumer preferences, pain points and unmet needs in the mobile phone industry. This research led to the development of a touchscreen smartphone with a user-friendly interface, addressing consumer demands for a more intuitive and versatile device. The result was a revolutionary product that disrupted the market and redefined the smartphone industry.

Example 2: McDonald’s global expansion

McDonald’s successful global expansion strategy demonstrates the importance of market research when expanding into new territories. Before entering a new market, McDonald’s conducts thorough research to understand local tastes, preferences and cultural nuances. This research informs menu customization, marketing strategies and store design. For instance, in India, McDonald’s offers a menu tailored to local preferences, including vegetarian options. This market-specific approach has enabled McDonald’s to adapt and thrive in diverse global markets.

Example 3: Organic and sustainable farming

The shift toward organic and sustainable farming practices in the food industry is driven by market research that indicates increased consumer demand for healthier and environmentally friendly food options. As a result, food producers and retailers invest in sustainable sourcing and organic product lines — such as with these sustainable seafood startups — to align with this shift in consumer values.

The bottom line? Market research has multiple use cases and is a critical practice for any industry. Whether it’s launching groundbreaking products, entering new markets or responding to changing consumer preferences, you can use market research to shape successful strategies and outcomes.

Market research templates

You finally have a strong understanding of how to do market research and apply it in the real world. Before we wrap up, here are some market research templates that you can use as a starting point for your projects:

Smartsheet competitive analysis templates : These spreadsheets can serve as a framework for gathering information about the competitive landscape and obtaining valuable lessons to apply to your business strategy.
SurveyMonkey product survey template : Customize the questions on this survey based on what you want to learn from your target customers.
HubSpot templates : HubSpot offers a wide range of free templates you can use for market research, business planning and more.
SCORE templates : SCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides templates for business plans, market analysis and financial projections.
SBA.gov : The U.S. Small Business Administration offers templates for every aspect of your business, including market research, and is particularly valuable for new startups.

Strengthen your business with market research

When conducted effectively, market research is like a guiding star. Equipped with the right tools and techniques, you can uncover valuable insights, stay competitive, foster innovation and navigate the complexities of your industry.

Throughout this guide, we’ve discussed the definition of market research, different research methods, and how to conduct it effectively. We’ve also explored various types of market research and shared practical insights and templates for getting started.

Now, it’s time to start the research process. Trust in data, listen to the market and make informed decisions that guide your company toward lasting success.

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How to Use Market Research for Identifying Customer Needs

by Kyle SoloRio , on October 10, 2012

Market research can be used in identifying customer needs , as well as who they are. You have to ask the right questions though. If you don’t really know your customers you will not retain them leaving you constantly chasing after new ones. Don’t just follow your instincts as many companies do. Use market research reports, focus groups and market surveys. Take the time too really get to know them. Ask the right questions; get the facts; and discover how to motivate your customers.

We are motivated by two things, praise or reward. It’s kind of funny, whether you are 3 years old or 43 years old, it’s the same. I can make my son do chores or homework without a fight simply by offering him ice cream. I know I am willing to go the extra mile for an adult version of ice cream (for me that’s the latest teckie gadget). Oh heck… who am I kidding? Real ice cream still works for me too. The point is how do you motivate your customers?

For example:

How do you define which customers to talk to?
How do you decide on a format for your research?
How do you know what type of questions to ask to get to know your customers?
What attributes or demographics are important in getting to know your customers?
How do you use the data once it is collected?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of a few strategies to really get to know your customers:

Surveys are the staple of market research, however you have to know how and when to use the three types of questions: Opened-Ended, Closed-Ended and Strategic.

Opened-ended questions can provide a lot of information, but often they do not provide all the detail you need.

The short answers you get from Closed-Ended questions can often grind a conversation to a halt.

Strategic questions tend to treat the customer as the expert and lead to a deeper conversation which in turn helps you really know how you can help that customer. Giving the customer more freedom in answering your question lets them provide you with their agenda (not yours).

All three types of questions serve a purpose and are helpful. An experienced researcher knows how to use them all to help you gather the best information about your customer.

Some things to avoid in surveys are leading questions. This type of question drives customers to answer in a very specific or biased way which doesn’t actually allow them to tell you how they really feel. Also keep in mind that surveys are really good at gathering data such as how much or how often, but they fail to convey your customer’s feelings and emotions.

Of course you don’t want to ask the wrong questions on your survey either. Figuring out the right questions may require some research of its own.

2. Focus Groups

Focus Groups are also an essential part of market research and here too it is important to use researchers that are well skilled in moderating and interpreting conversations. You will find that experienced focus group facilitators have developed a sort of sixth sense about what’s up when watching or talking to a participant. Focus groups are great because they can really help you understand how your customer interacts with your product.

Look out for dominators in a focus group. You really don’t want the most talkative person to mask the voices of the others in the group. A skilled moderator will be able to hear all the voices in the group and prevent the most extroverted participants from forcing the less talkative to feel like they have to agree with them.

Just like with surveys, be careful not to lead members of the group to an answer. You want their unbiased opinions.

3. Ethnographic Studies

Ethnographic Studies are in depth interviews with your customers. They have some major advantages over surveys and focus groups in terms of understanding consumers for the simple reason that they allow liberal variations and follow up questions.

With this type of research the company actually observes the participant, which gives you 1st hand knowledge about your customer.

This type of data gathering is tricky as it takes someone with great skill to correctly interpret the ethnographic data. If the analysis is incorrect, you’ll find you haven’t learned much about your customer or even worse what do you learn may be misleading.

Now, for the cherry on top of the ice cream, you simply have to analyze the data. Easy, right! As long as you have skilled researchers that know how to interpret the data correctly you will find that through market research you can know everything you need to know about your customers. If you know your customers, you will know how to motivate them towards your end goal!

To learn more about how market research can help your company achieve success, download our free eBook .

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16 Types of Customer Needs (and How to Solve for Them)

Published: March 24, 2023

Companies want to stay relevant and innovative and often look at other successful companies, hot industry trends, or new shiny products for inspiration.

However, a vital component to growth is at every business's fingertips — it's customers. Honing in on customer needs can improve the longevity and progress of your business. Happy customers result in higher retention rates, lifetime value, and brand reach as they spread the word in their social circles.

The first step toward creating the types of customer experiences that result in happy customers is by understanding and meeting customer needs.

In this article, you'll learn:

The Definition of Customer Needs
The Types of Customer Needs

How to Identify Customer Needs

What a Customer Needs Analysis Is
How to Solve for Your Customers' Needs

Types of Customer Service

What are customer needs.

A customer need is a motive that prompts a customer to buy a product or service. Ultimately, the need is the driver of the customer's purchase decision. Companies often look at the customer need as an opportunity to resolve or contribute surplus value back to the original motive.

An example of customer need takes place every day around 12:00 p.m. This is when people begin to experience hunger (need) and decide to purchase lunch. The type of food, the location of the restaurant, and the amount of time the service will take are all factors to how individuals decide to satisfy the need.

Customer-centric companies know that solving for customer needs and exceeding expectations along the way is how to drive healthy business growth and foster good relationships with the people your company serves.

Although customer centricity is not a new concept, the right steps to achieve a customer service focus are still hazy.

Why are customer needs important?

Anticipating customer needs will help you cater to customers before they feel the need to put in a request for a new feature, product, or solution for you. If companies can begin to make changes before their customers' needs aren't fulfilled, this can ultimately lead to growth, innovation, and retention.

Creating a customer-centric company that truly listens to customer needs can be daunting, and there's a steep learning curve if you haven't paid close attention to customers before.

Below are the most common types of customer needs — most of which work in tandem with one another to drive a purchasing decision.

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Fill out the form to better understand your customer needs., 16 most common types of customer needs.

The types of product needs can be split into two categories: product and service.

Product Needs

1. functionality.

Customers need your product or service to function the way they need in order to solve their problem or desire.

Customers have unique budgets with which they can purchase a product or service.

3. Convenience

Your product or service needs to be a convenient solution to the function your customers are trying to meet.

4. Experience

The experience using your product or service needs to be easy — or at least clear — so as not to create more work for your customers.

Along the lines of experience, the product or service needs a slick design to make it relatively easy and intuitive to use.

6. Reliability

The product or service needs to reliably function as advertised every time the customer wants to use it.

7. Performance

The product or service needs to perform correctly so the customer can achieve their goals.

8. Efficiency

The product or service needs to be efficient for the customer by streamlining an otherwise time-consuming process.

9. Compatibility

The product or service needs to be compatible with other products your customer is already using.

Service Needs

10. empathy.

When your customers get in touch with customer service, they want empathy and understanding from the people assisting them.

11. Fairness

From pricing to terms of service to contract length, customers expect fairness from a company.

12. Transparency

Customers expect transparency from a company they're doing business with. Service outages, pricing changes, and things breaking happen, and customers deserve openness from the businesses they give money to.

13. Control

Customers need to feel like they're in control of the business interaction from start to finish and beyond, and customer empowerment shouldn't end with the sale. Make it easy for them to return products, change subscriptions, adjust terms, etc.

14. Options

Customers need options when they're getting ready to make a purchase from a company. Offer a variety of product, subscription, and payment options to provide that freedom of choice.

15. Information

Customers need information, from the moment they start interacting with your brand to days and months after making a purchase. Businesses should invest in educational blog content, instructional knowledge base content, and regular communication so customers have the information they need to successfully use a product or service.

16. Accessibility

Customers need to be able to access your service and support teams. This means providing multiple channels for customer service. We'll talk a little more about these options later.

With so many types of customer needs, how do you understand which ones apply to your customers specifically? Next, we'll dig into how to identify them.

Use Existing Data
Solicit Customer Feedback
Customer Journey Mapping
Input from Service Team
Study Competitors
Social Media Listening
Keyword Research

"You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology," Steve Jobs notably stated . "You cannot start with the technology and try to figure out where you are going to sell it."

Whether you sell technology or some other product or service, the underlying message he's saying here rings true.

This means understanding where they're coming from when they've chosen to make a purchase, what expectations they're bringing to the table, and what bumps they'll encounter along the way.

Identifying Customer Needs

You can gain more knowledge about what your customers want using a few different strategies.

1. Use Existing Data

Most likely you have some customer data already, especially if you’re using a CRM. This is the best place to start your search. Are there pain points or issues you can glean from just looking at this customer data? Are there any patterns you can identify? Taking note of who your current customers are and their past interactions with your brand to get a better idea of where customers are coming from and if you’re meeting their needs.

2. Solicit Customer Feedback

When trying to identify consumer needs, go straight to the source. This can be done using surveys that live on your site, or sent via email. Additionally you could conduct focus groups to gain more in depth insight to customer needs and their overall experience with your product or service.

3. Customer Journey Mapping

To better understand and assist customers, you’ll need to first know what phase of the customer journey they are in and what they’re looking for. This is where customer journey mapping can help, giving a visual representation of how customers interact with your brand. This exercise will help you create a more proactive customer service approach and improve retention.

Featured Resource: Customer Journey Map Templates

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4. Input from Service Team

In addition to getting customer feedback, it’s important to consult those who work with them most — your service team. They’ll often have insights you may not be privy to and can help you anticipate the needs of your customers as well as solve existing issues. They’ll also be able to explain how customers are currently using your product or service and can identify any hiccups in the process.

5. Study Competitors

It’s common to study competitors when conducting market research, but you should also consider them when identifying customer needs. There might be overlap in your target audience, meaning your brand could benefit from reviewing any issues competitors are experiencing and gain insight on how they went about fixing it. You might find that some of their strategies would be worth implementing at your company, or discover gaps in service that your company can fill.

10 Free Competitive Analysis Templates

Track and analyze your competitors with these ten free planning templates.

SWOT Analysis
Battle Cards
Feature Comparison
Strategic Overview

6. Use Social Media

Chances are, your customers use a variety of social media platforms in their day to day. Take advantage of that by using it as a way to listen in on what customers are saying about your products and your competitors. Are people asking questions under your posts? What sorts of comments are they making? Are they giving praise, asking for assistance, or do they want new features? Using a social media monitoring tool like Hootsuite will help you identify trends, mentions, and hashtags relevant to your brand to better inform your strategy.

7. Keyword Research

People turn to the internet for most things, so Google is an excellent resource for figuring out customer needs. How are customers finding your brand online and what are they typing into the search box to find it? Doing keyword research can give you a broad overview of what your customers need based on search data. Keyword research will also help you optimize your site for search engines by aligning the content of your site with what customers are searching for.

If you design your process with these things in mind, you'll be able to uncover consumer needs at any stage of their lifecycle. You can take a deeper dive into their needs by conducting a customer needs analysis.

What is a customer needs analysis?

A customer needs analysis is used in product development and branding to provide an in-depth analysis of the customer to ensure that the product or message offers the benefits, attributes, and features needed to provide the customer with value.

To conduct a customer needs analysis successfully, you need to do the following:

1. Customer Needs Analysis Survey

The customer needs analysis is typically conducted by running surveys that help companies figure out their position in their respective competitive markets and how they stack up in terms of meeting their target customers' needs.

The survey should primarily ask questions about your brand and competitors, as well as customers' product awareness and brand attitudes in general.

Questions can include:

Questions about positive and negative word associations with your brand
Questions asking customers to group your brand in with similar and/or competing brands
Questions comparing and sorting brands according to their preferences for usage

You can learn more about which questions to ask in this survey in our guide and this guide from dummies.

2. Means-End Analysis

Once you've conducted the customer needs analysis survey, you can use the answers to get a fuller picture of the reasons why your customers purchase from you, and what makes your product or service stand apart from your competitors.

A means-end analysis analyzes those answers to determine the primary reasons why a customer would buy your product. Those buyer reasons can be divided into three main groups:

1. Features: A customer buys a product or service because of the features included in the purchase. If the customer were buying a computer, for example, they might buy it because it's smaller and more lightweight than other options.

2. Benefits: A customer buys a product or service because of a benefit, real or perceived, they believe it will offer them. The customer might also buy the computer because it syncs easily with their other devices wirelessly.

3. Values: A customer buys a product or service for unique, individual values, real or perceived, they believe it will help them fulfill. The customer might think the computer will help them to be more creative or artistic and unlock other personal or professional artistic opportunities.

As you might imagine, these reasons for purchasing something can vary from customer to customer, so it's important to conduct these customer surveys, collect the answers, and group them into these three categories. From there, you can identify which of those motivating factors you're solving for, and which you can improve on to make your product or service even more competitive in the market.

3. Customer Feedback

If you want to know what your customers think about the experience of working with your company, ask them. Interviewing your customers and members of your service team can contribute to a customer needs analysis and improvements to your customer lifecycle .

As you gather data from your customer needs analysis, it's important to identify the points of friction that your customers experience and the moments in their journey that provide unexpected delight.

What can your company change?
What are the elements that you can build from?
What parts of the experience needs to be worked on?

Asking these questions can lead you to valuable insights as you work to solve for your customers.

How to Solve for Customer Needs

The first step to solving for your customers is to put yourself in their shoes: If you were the customer when we purchase your goods, use your technology, or sign up for your services, what would prevent you from achieving ultimate value?

Your customer needs analysis is a good starting point for getting in the mind of your customer, especially when it comes to identifying common pain points. From there, you can build a proactive plan to implement your customer-first values throughout the customer lifecycle. Here are some tips for doing so:

1. Offer consistent company-wide messaging.

Too often customers get caught up in the "he said, she said" game of being told a product can do one thing from sales and another from support and product. Ultimately, customers become confused and are left with the perception that the company is disorganized.

Consistent internal communications across all departments is one of the best steps toward a customer-focused mindset. If the entire company understands its goals, values, product, and service capabilities, then the messages will easily translate to meet the customers’ needs.

To get everyone on the same page, organize sales and customer service meetings, send out new product emails, provide robust new employee onboarding, and require quarterly training and seminars or staff-hosted webinars to share important projects.

2. Provide instructions for easy adoption.

Customers purchase a product because they believe it will meet their needs and solve their problem. However, adoption setup stages are not always clear. If best practices aren't specified at the start and they don't see value right away, it's an uphill battle to gain back their trust and undo bad habits.

A well-thought-out post-purchase strategy will enable your products or services to be usable and useful.

One way companies gain their customers' attention is providing in-product and email walkthroughs and instructions as soon as the customer receives a payment confirmation. This limits the confusion, technical questions, and distractions from the immediate post-purchase euphoria.

A customer education guide or knowledge base is essential to deliver proper customer adoption and avoid the ‘floundering effect' when customers are stuck. Other companies provide new customer onboarding services, host live demos and webinars and include events and promotions in their email signatures .

3. Build feedback loops into every stage of the process.

Lean into customer complaints and suggestions, and it will change the way you operate your business. Criticism often has negative connotations. However, if you flip problems to opportunities you can easily improve your business to fit the customer's needs.

Just as you solicited customer feedback in your needs analysis, you can keep a pulse on how your customers feel at scale with customer satisfaction scores , customer surveys , exploration customer interviews, social media polls, or personal customer feedback emails.

If you're able to incorporate this into a repeatable process, you'll never be in the dark about the state of the customer experience in your organization, and you'll be enabled to continue improving it.

Take customer suggestions seriously and act on those recommendations to improve design, product, and system glitches. Most customer support success metrics are paramount to the customer experience and this mentality should trickle down to every aspect of the organization.

4. Nurture customer relationships.

When a customer buys a product or service, they want to use it right away and fulfill their immediate need. Whether they are delighted within the first hour, week, or a month, it's important to constantly think about their future needs.

Proactive relationship-building is essential to prevent customers from losing their post-purchase excitement and ultimately churning. If customers stop hearing from you and you don't hear from them this can be a bad sign that they are about to churn .

Companies solve for customer relationships with a combination of customer service structure and communication strategies. Solve for the long-term customer need and create a customer service team dedicated to check-ins and customer retention , show appreciation with rewards and gifts to loyal customers, host local events, highlight employees that go above and beyond and communicate product updates and new features.

5. Solve for the right customer needs.

Excluding customers from your cohort of business can seem counterintuitive to solve for your customers' needs. However, understanding whose needs you can fulfill and whose you cannot is a major step toward solving the right problems. All customers' needs can't be treated equally and a company must recognize which problems they can solve and ones that aren't aligned with their vision.

To find the right customer priorities, create buyer personas and uncover consumer trends, look at customer's long-term retention patterns, establish a clear company vision, provide premier customer service to valuable customers and communicate with your ideal customer in their preferred social media space to capture questions, comments, and suggestions.

Successful startups, brick-and-mortar shops, and Fortune 500 companies solve and prioritize customer needs to stay ahead and establish industry trends.

6. Provide great customer service.

If a problem arises, your customers want to get it resolved and feel heard in the process. This starts with being able to meet their needs with empathy, but along the way, the process for obtaining support should be easy and on a channel that's convenient for them.

Some customer needs are time-sensitive and require immediate interaction via phone or chat. Others are less critical and can be resolved at a more casual pace. Let's break down the types of customer service and how each optimizes your team's ability to fulfill customer needs.

Social Media
Call Back Service
Customer Self-Service
Interactive Virtual Assistant
Integrated Customer Service

Email is one of the most fundamental forms of customer service. It allows customers to fully describe their problems, and it automatically records the conversation into a resourceful thread. Customers only have to explain their issue once, while reps can reference important case details without having to request additional information.

Email is best used with customer needs that don't need to be resolved right away. Customers can ask their question, go back to work, and return to the case once the service rep has found a solution. Unlike phones or chat, they don't have to wait idly while a rep finds them an answer.

One limitation of email is the potential lack of clarity. Some customers have trouble describing their problem, and some service reps struggle to explain solutions. This creates time-consuming roadblocks when the issue is overly complex. To be safe, use email for simple problems that require a brief explanation or solution.

When customers have problems that need to be answered immediately, phones are the best medium to use. Phones connect customers directly to reps and create a human interaction between the customer and the business. Both parties hear each other's tone and can gauge the severity of the situation. This human element is a major factor in creating delightful customer experiences.

Phones come in handy most when there's a frustrated or angry customer. These customers are most likely to churn and require your team to provide a personalized solution. Your team can use soft communication skills to appease the customer and prevent costly escalations. These responses appear more genuine on the phone because reps have less time to formulate an answer.

The most common flaw with phone support is the wait time. Strive for shorter wait times as 33% of customers are frustrated by being waiting on hold. Customers hate being put on hold, and it's a determining factor for customer churn .

Chat is one of the most flexible customer service channels. It can solve a high volume of simple problems or provide detailed support for complex ones. Businesses continue to adopt chat because of its versatility as well as the improvement in efficiency it provides for customer service reps.

When it comes to solving customer needs, chat can be used to solve almost any problem. Simple and common questions can be answered with chatbots that automate the customer service process. For more advanced roadblocks, reps can integrate customer service tools into their chat software to help them diagnose and resolve issues.

The limitations of chat are similar to those of email. However, since the interaction is live, any lack of clarity between the two parties can drastically impact troubleshooting. As a former chat rep, there were plenty of times where I struggled to get on the same page as my customer. Even though we resolved the issue, that miscommunication negatively impacted the customer's experience.

4. Social Media

Social media is a relatively new customer service channel. While it's been around for over a decade, businesses are now beginning to adopt it as a viable service option. That's because social media lets customers immediately report an issue. And since that report is public, customer service teams are more motivated to resolve the customer's problem.

Social media is an excellent channel for mass communication, which is particularly useful during a business crisis. When a crisis occurs, your customers' product and service needs become the primary concern of your organization. Social media is an effective tool for communicating with your customers in bulk. With a social media crisis management plan , your team can continue to fulfill customer needs during critical situations.

Social media is different from other types of customer service because it empowers the customer the most. Customers tend to have more urgent needs and expect instant responses from your accounts. While this type of service presents an enormous opportunity, it also places tremendous pressure on your reps to fulfill customer demand. Be sure your team is equipped with proper social media management tools before you offer routine support.

5. In Person

As the oldest form of customer service, you're probably familiar with working in person with customers. Brands who have brick-and-mortar stores must offer this service for customers living near their locations. This fulfills a convenience need as customers can purchase and return a product without having to ship it back to the company through an online service.

In-person customer service is great for businesses with strong service personnel. Without dedicated employees, your customer service team won't be able to fulfill your customers' product or service needs. Successful teams have reps who are determined to provide above-and-beyond customer service .

5. Call Back Service

Sometimes it's not about how quickly your business can provide a solution, but rather how efficient you can make the service experience. For example, say a customer has a simple question about pricing that should only take a few minutes to answer, but their expected wait time for phone service is over 15 minutes. Rather than making this customer spend more time on hold than actually speaking with a representative, you can offer a call back service where your team reaches out to the customer as soon as the next rep is available.

Another situation where this type of service comes in handy is with text-based mediums like email and live chat. In some cases, these channels aren't ideal for troubleshooting and can lead to friction if the case isn't transferred to another platform. Having a call back service available allows customers to schedule time to speak directly with reps, particularly when they feel like they aren't gaining progress on their case. Instead of having to create a completely new support ticket , call backs seamlessly transition the conversation to a more effective channel.

6. Customer Self-Service

Self-service teaches your customers how to solve problems independently from your support team. Rather than calling or emailing your business whenever they need assistance, customers can navigate to your knowledge base and access resources that help them troubleshoot issues on their own. Not only does this get customers faster solutions, but it also saves them from having to open a ticket with your team. This makes the experience feel much less like a formal support case and more like a quick roadblock that your customers can handle on their own.

Self-service is advantageous for your team's productivity as well. If more customers use your knowledge base, less will call or email your team for help. This will free your reps up more to focus on complex service cases that require a longer time commitment.

7. Interactive Virtual Assistant

Chatbots are no longer novelties that customer service teams use to show off their technological prowess. Now, they're integral pieces of support strategies as they act more like interactive virtual assistants than simple, question-and-answer bots. Today's chatbots are powered by innovative AI technology that interprets customer needs and can walk people through step-by-step solutions.

customer needs: interactive virtual assistant for car

Image Source

The image above shows a perfect example of how useful today's virtual assistants can be. In this situation, the customer is learning how to use their new car — a product that typically offers a lot of unique features and an extensive operator's manual. To help new users navigate the car's basic features, this brand offers an augmented reality tour hosted by a virtual assistant. The user simply has to scroll their camera over different parts of the car and the chatbot will tell them everything they need to know.

Interactive features like this show that you're investing in more than just product development. You're thinking about how you'll support customers and what services you can adopt that will make their lives easier. Customers pay attention to this type of customer service and it can often be a reason why many will return to your business.

8. Integrated Customer Service

Integrated service can be described as all of the little things your brand does to remove pain points from the customer experience. Some of this is proactive, like sending customers an automated newsletter that informs them about major updates or announcements, and some of it is reactive, like pinging a customer success manager whenever someone submits negative feedback to your team.

Even though these pain points may seem small, they add up over time if left unchecked. The best way to remove most of these points of friction is to adopt automation as you grow your customer base. Automated customer service tools like ticketing systems, help desks, and workflows help your team keep pace with increasing customer demand. This technology lets you maintain that same level of personalized customer service even as more people reach out to your business for support.

There's no "best" type of customer service. Each medium complements the other and optimizes your overall performance when used together. This creates an omni-channel experience for your customers which will keep them coming back for more.

What do customers want from a typical customer service situation?

It’s important to note that customer service is reactive. That said, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure you’re providing excellent customer service.

Listen : While it’s normal to want to quickly get customers in and out of your service queue, it’s important to actually listen to what their issue is before giving them a solution. They may have a more nuanced issue that a boilerplate response can’t provide. There’s nothing more frustrating than providing customers with a canned response that doesn’t actually solve their issue. Automation is great, but just ensure that it is helping customers.
Don’t Make Customers Repeat Information: No one wants to answer or submit the same questions repeatedly . Not only is it inconvenient, it shows the customer that no one is listening or paying attention. If you have a ticketing system, review the customer’s history or profile to get familiar with their situation before responding.
Be Pleasant: Tone is much harder to convey over written communication and can unintentionally come across as cold. To convey some warmth you could introduce phrases like “I’d be happy to help with that,” or “Hope your day/week is going well.”
Be Responsive : Not only do customers want their problem solved, but they prefer it’s resolved quickly. If you can’t solve their issue easily when they first contact you, set expectations around when it will be resolved (24hrs, 2 business days?) and keep them in the loop. Don’t ghost them.

What Customers Want

Simple Solutions
Personalization
Transparency
Accessibility

Each customer has their own unique needs, but there are a few that are universal.

1. Simple Solutions

While your product or service may run using a complex set of algorithms and procedures, customers don’t need to know that. They simply want a solution that resolves their issue with as little fuss as possible. Keep your messaging simple and focus on how your brand will solve the customer’s problem.

2. Personalization

Treat your customers like people and not numbers on a spreadsheet. Zendesk found that 54% of customers expect all experiences to be personalized. Use their name in communications and tailor your messaging to the buyer persona they most closely align with. Adding a personal touch when it comes to marketing lets customers know that their needs are at the forefront of your brand’s mission.

Does your product or service outperform the competition or provide a more cost effective solution for consumers? If so, drive that point home in your messaging. Explain how and why they should choose your product or service over others on the market. How will customers benefit when they choose your brand?

4. Transparency

One of the easiest ways to build trust with consumers is to be transparent. No one wants to feel duped by disingenuous, bait-and-switch advertising. Be honest about your product or service’s capabilities and pricing whenever possible.

5. Accessibility

While it is always encouraged to empower customers to help themselves with features like a knowledge base, getting extra assistance when they need it shouldn’t be difficult. Whether it’s phone, email, or chat support, it’s important to be responsive to consumer needs. At the beginning of this article we identified accessibility as one of the most common types of customer needs. If your team is unresponsive to their needs, customers will trade your brand in for a competitor that fills the gap.

Understanding Customer Needs and Expectations

One of the best things you can do is continue learning based on the types of issues that come up so that you can proactively address consumer needs and continue improving on the experience.

While the process requires quite a bit of legwork, the results will be instrumental in the success of your brand. Once you understand customer needs and expectations, you can work towards delighting them with your product.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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How to Analyze Customer Needs and Improve Your Approach Accordingly

10 min read

Want to analyze customer needs in a way that will benefit your business?

In this article, we feature the nitty-gritty of customer needs — from the fundamental meaning and types of customer needs to the most efficient method for conducting a customer needs analysis and acting on customer data for business growth .

Keep reading to uncover your product growth possibilities!

Customer needs stand for the reasons that influence buying decisions. Examples include customer pain points, brand image, product features and functionality, price, and user-friendly experiences.

When you analyze customer needs, you need to get valuable insights from various customer data sources such as customer feedback , market research, focus groups, and product usage trends.
Identifying customer needs allows you to build a product that meets customer requirements, which leads to better retention and, as a result, increased sales and customer loyalty.
Three types of customer needs exist—product, customer service, and emotional customer needs.
Product substitution, product usage, and user sentiment analyses are the means to conduct to analyze customer needs.
Here are the essential steps of a customer needs analysis: 1. Identify the customer journey 2. Segment your customer base to collect data more contextually 3. Gather in-app customer feedback 4. Visualize customer data 5. Analyze the data and align it with your business needs
Create contextual onboarding processes and shift toward a customer-centric approach to fulfill product needs.
Use Userpilot to analyze user sentiment, gauge in-app engagement , and deliver tailored in-app experiences .

What are customer needs?

Companies analyze customer needs to understand customers better and fulfill their expectations toward the product.

What is customer needs analysis?

A customer needs analysis is an assessment of a customer’s needs for a product or service. The process involves getting valuable insights from various customer data sources such as customer feedback , market research, focus groups, product usage trends, and more.

This enables product and customer service teams to create authentic, tailored customer experiences that impact conversions, retention , and revenue growth.

Why should you always analyze customer needs?

Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the center of every successful SaaS company. Think of it as a heart of a business that pumps its growth. Why? The answer is quite simple.

Identifying customer needs allows you to build a product that meets customer requirements, which leads to better retention and, as a result, increased sales and customer loyalty .

Customer needs contribute to every stage of the customer journey as well as fuel marketing acquisition and retention strategies .

Let’s learn more about it.

The most common types of customer needs

Let’s get familiar with the most common customer needs and how they factor into product growth .

Product needs

Price : there is a wide range of budgets with which customers can purchase a product or service. You should find the right balance between satisfying your customers’ needs and making the company profitable.
Functionality: one of the vital parts of the product needs that must resolve the customer’s jobs to be done .
Usability : this factor can become your competitive advantage. User-friendly interfaces and intuitive in-app experiences enable users to save time while performing tasks. Likewise, a tangled UX leads to frustration and churn.
Product performance: users are ready to pay for a stable product with no bugs , glitches, or other pitfalls.
Efficiency: customers need a fast, efficient product or service that eliminates time-consuming activities.

Customer service needs

Reliability: whenever users deal with service outages, or bugs, that cause friction your product is viewed as a less reliable solution for their needs.
Transparency: companies that sell products or services should be transparent about their pricing . Customers expect companies to provide honest explanations when prices change or products crash.
Accessibility: customers expect to access your product/service from their preferred device. So make sure your website is optimized and mobile-friendly.
Useful information: your customer service team should provide users with actionable insights to help customers get their jobs done.
On-demand support team: providing customers with on-demand support is a great way to establish customer loyalty and positive brand perception.

Emotional customer needs

Time: customers want you to respond quickly to their requests and promptly address them. They also want to be able to figure out everything on their own with self-service support .
Friendliness: depending on your tone of voice, brand attitudes, and comprehensiveness of customer support, user form positive and negative associations with your company. Friendliness ensures good brand recognition and contributes to an increased customer lifecycle.
Empathy: your customers expect empathy, patience, and understanding from your customer service representatives.
Control: it’s vital for customers to feel empowered from start to finish when interacting with your business. They want to have control over returning products, canceling subscriptions, etc. So make this information accessible on your website.

Identify customer needs with these types of user analysis

Now that you’ve learned the main types of customer needs let’s find out how to identify them. Below, you’ll find three easy ways to do so.

Product or brand substitution analysis

A substitution analysis highlights weak product areas that undermine user experiences, resulting in drop-offs.

The analysis gives insights into how easy and why customers would give up on the current product and switch to another.

Executives and product owners act on such data to refine the product roadmap and fix unmet customer needs or unfulfilled expectations.

Sentiment analysis

Customer sentiment analysis is a set of methods that allow you to determine the emotions of your product’s users.

Product teams use it to understand customer feedback on new products, features, or even in-app experiences such as a newly introduced onboarding flow, etc.

In a nutshell, customer sentiment analysis helps you identify customer needs, optimize customer experience, and enhance customer service.

Sentiment-Analysis-analyze-customer-needs

Product usage analysis

Product usage is the data that represents how and when your customers are using your product. Particular tools like Userpilot and Hotjar capture in-app users’ actions, hovers, clicks, and much more.

Owning this data helps you determine which product features different user segments engage with the most. Product usage context also uncovers product frictions to resolve.

Make data-driven decisions to improve product performance and stickiness by understanding feature usage .

If you work with Userpilot, use feature tagging to tag any UI element and track user engagement in your product.

How to conduct a customer needs analysis?

Here’s a 6-step process on how to analyze customer needs. Let’s dive right in!

Step 1 – Identify the customer journey

Break down the user journey into stages to carefully examine each. Different customer needs lie from the primary onboarding to the tertiary onboarding stages.

Knowing the pain points of each customer journey stage allows you to improve the customer experience accordingly.

For example, users need more guidance in the primary onboarding process , while secondary onboarding implies the usage of native tooltips to show them features that they haven’t discovered yet.

Step 2 – Segment your users to collect data more contextually

Different usage patterns appear in different user segments . That’s why your next step is to analyze customer needs in various segments in great detail.

That’ll help you to understand customers’ needs and how to improve the overall experience with your product across customer segments.

You can group customers by a low NPS score, web session duration, un/completed goals in the user journey, company’s industry, users that haven’t engaged with a core feature, etc.

segmentation-userpilot-analyze-customer-needs

Step 3 – Gather in-app customer feedback

Customer feedback is a gold mine for understanding customer needs. It’s applicable for all stages of the user journey and all user segments.

The best user journey stage to begin collecting feedback is from the beginning. Implement surveys during the signup process (or in the welcome flow ) to find out the user’s main goals, job title, company size, etc.

Act on this data by building relevant onboarding flows tied to user needs and creating effective marketing campaigns for target customers.

Learn how Asana has embedded an 8-step welcome flow to gauge important information about its users and move them down the user journey.

asana_onboading_flow_analyze_customer_needs

Also, gather customer feedback continuously to have better context into what customers are saying. Understand what customers cherish you for and what your areas for improvement are.

See an example of a feedback modal by Slack.

Step 4 – Visualize customer data with the right tools

Visualizing customer data will help you better analyze customer needs and spot trends. With NPS dashboards , for instance, you can understand the percentage of promoters and detractors at first glance. You’ll also identify where the problem lies (i.e., features, customer support, bugs, and so on).

Likewise, access reports that represent feature usage or in-app events’ occurrences. This way, you’ll detect gaps and understand how often particular user segments engage with predefined events.

event-trend-overview-analyze-customer-needs

Step 5 – Analyze data to understand what customers expect

Conduct user sentiment analysis on customer feedback by grouping responses by positive or negative emotions. Use Userpilot’s tagging feature to do so.

Now, you can understand what changes need to be made in order to improve customer satisfaction . You’ll also determine your strongest sides. For example, users appreciate good support and UX in the image below.

tag-NPS-responses-analyze-customer-needs

Step 6 – Align your business processes with customer needs

Once you gather enough customer data, it’s time to act on it.

For example, you might notice that your product is hard to understand for new customers. It doesn’t mean you need to reinvent the wheel to simplify the onboarding process.

It might be enough to build in-app onboarding checklists for each user segment to prompt them to engage with the relevant features for their needs. This will speed up product adoption and reduce drop-offs.

You can use interactive walkthroughs to guide users toward completing each task and getting value.

Best practices to meet customer needs

Here we’ve compiled 5 best practices to meet customer needs at different levels of engagement with a company. Ready to see some golden nuggets?

Deliver good customer service

Good customer service doesn’t end in friendly on-demand support via support chat. Customers want access to a comprehensive knowledge base where they can find answers to their requests anytime, without contacting your team.

You can fulfill this typical customer need by implementing help centers in your product.

Create contextual onboarding processes

The contextual onboarding process drives in-app engagement and gets users to the “Aha” moment faster.

Instead of long product tours, use progressive onboarding to guide users step-by-step and make them more involved with your product.

Contextual onboarding also improves customer experience and boosts retention.

Collect data at different touchpoints

Gather data throughout the customer journey with goal tracking.

Goal tracking (or goal setting) stands for creating milestones (goals) for users to complete at different stages of the user path. Examples can be completing a checklist or more complex tasks with several steps.

Product teams use these analytics to identify drop-off points and gauge feature adoption rates.

You can set and track custom goals with an eponymous feature Goals in Userpilot .

goals-dashboard-userpilot-analyze-customer-needs

Measure customer satisfaction and customer experience regularly

Measuring customer satisfaction will help you identify areas for improvement, nurture customer relationships, and fulfill customer needs.

Use CSAT surveys ( customer satisfaction surveys ) to understand what customers feel toward specific features, their experience, or the company. Tie up CSAT surveys to UI patterns/events and gather contextual feedback.

Check out an example of a CSAT survey by HubSpot.

Shift toward a customer-centric approach

SaaS companies can easily fall into the trap of praising product-centric approaches and rewarding their teams for building the best product out there from a technical standpoint.

But your business will benefit more by preaching the customer-centric approach , which means building the best solution for your target audience.

In a nutshell, customer-centric companies target customers’ needs which ultimately leads to acquiring more customers and revenue growth.

product-centric-vs-customer-centric-analyze-customer-needs

Best tools for analyzing customer needs

You need product analytics tools to carry out a customer needs analysis. Let’s get familiar with the 3 best solutions to do so.

Build surveys and in-app guidance with Userpilot

Userpilot is best known for solutions to analyze user sentiment, gauge in-app engagement, and deliver tailored in-app experiences. The tool includes features such as:

NPS surveys and response tagging
Feature tagging
Goals tracking
Advanced user segmentation
A set of solutions for creating interactive walkthroughs , such as modals, tooltips, and more.

You can access all these features in one product and basically close a need for a product analytics tool for customer needs analysis.

Baremetrics

Baremetrics segmentation is more about financial analytics. The tool pulls all your revenue data in one place and ties it up to different customer segments. This helps you identify the most profitable customer groups and perform a simple health check.

The Trial Insights feature will help you to find trials with the highest value. With API analytics, you can connect Userpilot and Baremetrics data to see how different customer groups contribute to business growth.

baremetrics-dashboard-analyze-customer-needs

Track user interactions and create funnels with Fullstory

Fullstory provides access to user interaction analytics and helps create funnels. You’ll also get access to session replays and heatmaps that are imperative for a comprehensive user behavior analysis.

These features will uncover product frictions and complement a customer needs analysis with real-time information about what users do inside your product.

Customer needs analysis is what drives success for SaaS companies. In doing so, you can get eye-opening insights into what product customers really want and fulfill these needs.

Get a Userpilot Demo and start collecting customer data for customer needs analysis right away.

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Customer Needs Assessment

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Below you will learn the keys to conducting a customer needs assessment.

What Is a Customer Needs Assessment?

A customer needs analysis or assessment is a process through which you gain a detailed understanding of the precise wants and needs of your current and/or prospective customers. This allows you to understand whether a market exists for current/future products and services and how to best attract your target audience or customer base.

How to Conduct a Customer Needs Assessment

In order to successfully serve customers, businesses must have an acute understanding of customers’ needs. Through primary and/or secondary market research , you can uncover the precise customer needs, how these needs are currently being fulfilled, and what is required to improve your customer satisfaction and the overall experience for your customers.

1. Define Your Target Market

Start by defining exactly which customers the company is serving. This requires specificity. For instance, rather than saying that a company serves small businesses, it may be more appropriate to identify and assess its more precise market, perhaps, small businesses with 5-25 employees in large metropolitan areas.

2. Identify Your Customer Segments

Once you have defined your target market, it’s time to segment your customers. This means grouping them together based on shared characteristics, which can include demographics (age, gender, income, etc.), psychographics (personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles), geographic (location), or behavior (purchasing patterns, usage, loyalty, etc.).

Assess the customers’ needs by answering questions such as:

What is the average revenues/income of these customers?
Where are these customers geographically based?
What products or services are these customers currently purchasing to fulfill their needs?
What factors drive the decision-making of these customers (e.g., price, service, reliability)?
How do these customers make purchase decisions (e.g., multiple decision-makers, multiple bids)?
What is the customer journey from awareness to purchase?
What are the specific customer needs that our products/services could address?
How satisfied are these customers with their current solutions?
What is our company’s competitive position within this market?

3. Conduct Primary Research

Now that you have a good idea of who your customers are and what they want/need, it’s time to start conducting primary research. This research will help you to validate your assumptions about the market and uncover any unmet customer needs that you may be able to address.

There are a number of ways to conduct primary research, but some common methods include customer need surveys (online, mail, in-person), interviews (telephone, in-person), focus groups, a user needs assessment and ethnographic studies.

Conducting customer interviews is perhaps the best way to uncover detailed information about customers’ needs. However, customer surveys, focus groups, and/or market analysis can also provide valuable insights.

4. Conduct Secondary Research

In addition to primary research, it’s also important to conduct secondary research. This type of market research will help to provide context for your primary research findings and can be used to support your hypotheses about the market.

Secondary research can be conducted in a number of ways, but some common methods include desk research, online research, and interviews with industry experts.

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5. Analyze Your Findings

Once you have collected and analyzed your data, it’s time to start making sense of it all. This is where you will want to look for trends and patterns in the data that can help you to understand your customers’ needs.

6. Develop Recommendations

Based on your customer needs analysis, you should develop recommendations for how the company can better serve its customers. These recommendations should be specific and actionable, and they should be based on a thorough understanding of the data.

7. Implement Your Recommendations

The final step is to put your recommendations into action. This may require making changes to your products or services, your marketing strategy, your sales process, or the way you deliver customer service. Whatever changes you make, be sure to monitor the results so that you can continue to improve the customer experience.

Conducting a customer needs assessment is an important first step in understanding your customers and ensuring that you are able to meet their needs. By taking the time to understand your customers, you can develop better products and services, improve your marketing and sales efforts, and deliver a better overall customer experience.

By truly understanding customer needs and brand perception, you can better assess the feasibility of a new business opportunity and/or modify it as needed, and create action plans that maximize the probability of market success.

Need Help with Your Customer Needs Assessment?

Would you like Growthink to provide an assessment of your customers’ needs for you? If so, please contact us below.

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Written by Mary Kate Miller | June 1, 2021

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Market research is a cornerstone of all successful, strategic businesses. It can also be daunting for entrepreneurs looking to launch a startup or start a side hustle . What is market research, anyway? And how do you…do it?

We’ll walk you through absolutely everything you need to know about the market research process so that by the end of this guide, you’ll be an expert in market research too. And what’s more important: you’ll have actionable steps you can take to start collecting your own market research.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the organized process of gathering information about your target customers and market. Market research can help you better understand customer behavior and competitor strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight for the best strategies in launching new businesses and products. There are different ways to approach market research, including primary and secondary research and qualitative and quantitative research. The strongest approaches will include a combination of all four.

“Virtually every business can benefit from conducting some market research,” says Niles Koenigsberg of Real FiG Advertising + Marketing . “Market research can help you piece together your [business’s] strengths and weaknesses, along with your prospective opportunities, so that you can understand where your unique differentiators may lie.” Well-honed market research will help your brand stand out from the competition and help you see what you need to do to lead the market. It can also do so much more.

The Purposes of Market Research

Why do market research? It can help you…

Pinpoint your target market, create buyer personas, and develop a more holistic understanding of your customer base and market.
Understand current market conditions to evaluate risks and anticipate how your product or service will perform.
Validate a concept prior to launch.
Identify gaps in the market that your competitors have created or overlooked.
Solve problems that have been left unresolved by the existing product/brand offerings.
Identify opportunities and solutions for new products or services.
Develop killer marketing strategies .

What Are the Benefits of Market Research?

Strong market research can help your business in many ways. It can…

Strengthen your market position.
Help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Minimize risk.
Center your customers’ experience from the get-go.
Help you create a dynamic strategy based on market conditions and customer needs/demands.

What Are the Basic Methods of Market Research?

The basic methods of market research include surveys, personal interviews, customer observation, and the review of secondary research. In addition to these basic methods, a forward-thinking market research approach incorporates data from the digital landscape like social media analysis, SEO research, gathering feedback via forums, and more. Throughout this guide, we will cover each of the methods commonly used in market research to give you a comprehensive overview.

Primary vs. Secondary Market Research

Primary and secondary are the two main types of market research you can do. The latter relies on research conducted by others. Primary research, on the other hand, refers to the fact-finding efforts you conduct on your own.

This approach is limited, however. It’s likely that the research objectives of these secondary data points differ from your own, and it can be difficult to confirm the veracity of their findings.

Primary Market Research

Primary research is more labor intensive, but it generally yields data that is exponentially more actionable. It can be conducted through interviews, surveys, online research, and your own data collection. Every new business should engage in primary market research prior to launch. It will help you validate that your idea has traction, and it will give you the information you need to help minimize financial risk.

You can hire an agency to conduct this research on your behalf. This brings the benefit of expertise, as you’ll likely work with a market research analyst. The downside is that hiring an agency can be expensive—too expensive for many burgeoning entrepreneurs. That brings us to the second approach. You can also do the market research yourself, which substantially reduces the financial burden of starting a new business .

Secondary Market Research

Secondary research includes resources like government databases and industry-specific data and publications. It can be beneficial to start your market research with secondary sources because it’s widely available and often free-to-access. This information will help you gain a broad overview of the market conditions for your new business.

Identify Your Goals and Your Audience

Before you begin conducting interviews or sending out surveys, you need to set your market research goals. At the end of your market research process, you want to have a clear idea of who your target market is—including demographic information like age, gender, and where they live—but you also want to start with a rough idea of who your audience might be and what you’re trying to achieve with market research.

You can pinpoint your objectives by asking yourself a series of guiding questions:

What are you hoping to discover through your research?
Who are you hoping to serve better because of your findings?
What do you think your market is?
Who are your competitors?
Are you testing the reception of a new product category or do you want to see if your product or service solves the problem left by a current gap in the market?
Are you just…testing the waters to get a sense of how people would react to a new brand?

Once you’ve narrowed down the “what” of your market research goals, you’re ready to move onto how you can best achieve them. Think of it like algebra. Many math problems start with “solve for x.” Once you know what you’re looking for, you can get to work trying to find it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to solve a problem when you know you’re looking for “x” than if you were to say “I’m gonna throw some numbers out there and see if I find a variable.”

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How to Do Market Research

This guide outlines every component of a comprehensive market research effort. Take into consideration the goals you have established for your market research, as they will influence which of these elements you’ll want to include in your market research strategy.

Secondary Data

Secondary data allows you to utilize pre-existing data to garner a sense of market conditions and opportunities. You can rely on published market studies, white papers, and public competitive information to start your market research journey.

Secondary data, while useful, is limited and cannot substitute your own primary data. It’s best used for quantitative data that can provide background to your more specific inquiries.

Find Your Customers Online

Once you’ve identified your target market, you can use online gathering spaces and forums to gain insights and give yourself a competitive advantage. Rebecca McCusker of The Creative Content Shop recommends internet recon as a vital tool for gaining a sense of customer needs and sentiment. “Read their posts and comments on forums, YouTube video comments, Facebook group [comments], and even Amazon/Goodreads book comments to get in their heads and see what people are saying.”

If you’re interested in engaging with your target demographic online, there are some general rules you should follow. First, secure the consent of any group moderators to ensure that you are acting within the group guidelines. Failure to do so could result in your eviction from the group.

Not all comments have the same research value. “Focus on the comments and posts with the most comments and highest engagement,” says McCusker. These high-engagement posts can give you a sense of what is already connecting and gaining traction within the group.

Social media can also be a great avenue for finding interview subjects. “LinkedIn is very useful if your [target customer] has a very specific job or works in a very specific industry or sector. It’s amazing the amount of people that will be willing to help,” explains Miguel González, a marketing executive at Dealers League . “My advice here is BE BRAVE, go to LinkedIn, or even to people you know and ask them, do quick interviews and ask real people that belong to that market and segment and get your buyer persona information first hand.”

Market research interviews can provide direct feedback on your brand, product, or service and give you a better understanding of consumer pain points and interests.

When organizing your market research interviews, you want to pay special attention to the sample group you’re selecting, as it will directly impact the information you receive. According to Tanya Zhang, the co-founder of Nimble Made , you want to first determine whether you want to choose a representative sample—for example, interviewing people who match each of the buyer persona/customer profiles you’ve developed—or a random sample.

“A sampling of your usual persona styles, for example, can validate details that you’ve already established about your product, while a random sampling may [help you] discover a new way people may use your product,” Zhang says.

Market Surveys

Market surveys solicit customer inclinations regarding your potential product or service through a series of open-ended questions. This direct outreach to your target audience can provide information on your customers’ preferences, attitudes, buying potential, and more.

Every expert we asked voiced unanimous support for market surveys as a powerful tool for market research. With the advent of various survey tools with accessible pricing—or free use—it’s never been easier to assemble, disseminate, and gather market surveys. While it should also be noted that surveys shouldn’t replace customer interviews , they can be used to supplement customer interviews to give you feedback from a broader audience.

Who to Include in Market Surveys

Current customers
Past customers
Your existing audience (such as social media/newsletter audiences)

Example Questions to Include in Market Surveys

While the exact questions will vary for each business, here are some common, helpful questions that you may want to consider for your market survey. Demographic Questions: the questions that help you understand, demographically, who your target customers are:

“What is your age?”
“Where do you live?”
“What is your gender identity?”
“What is your household income?”
“What is your household size?”
“What do you do for a living?”
“What is your highest level of education?”

Product-Based Questions: Whether you’re seeking feedback for an existing brand or an entirely new one, these questions will help you get a sense of how people feel about your business, product, or service:

“How well does/would our product/service meet your needs?”
“How does our product/service compare to similar products/services that you use?”
“How long have you been a customer?” or “What is the likelihood that you would be a customer of our brand?

Personal/Informative Questions: the deeper questions that help you understand how your audience thinks and what they care about.

“What are your biggest challenges?”
“What’s most important to you?”
“What do you do for fun (hobbies, interests, activities)?”
“Where do you seek new information when researching a new product?”
“How do you like to make purchases?”
“What is your preferred method for interacting with a brand?”

Survey Tools

Online survey tools make it easy to distribute surveys and collect responses. The best part is that there are many free tools available. If you’re making your own online survey, you may want to consider SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, or Zoho Survey.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is a breakdown of how your business stacks up against the competition. There are many different ways to conduct this analysis. One of the most popular methods is a SWOT analysis, which stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” This type of analysis is helpful because it gives you a more robust understanding of why a customer might choose a competitor over your business. Seeing how you stack up against the competition can give you the direction you need to carve out your place as a market leader.

Social Media Analysis

Social media has fundamentally changed the market research landscape, making it easier than ever to engage with a wide swath of consumers. Follow your current or potential competitors on social media to see what they’re posting and how their audience is engaging with it. Social media can also give you a lower cost opportunity for testing different messaging and brand positioning.

SEO Analysis and Opportunities

SEO analysis can help you identify the digital competition for getting the word out about your brand, product, or service. You won’t want to overlook this valuable information. Search listening tools offer a novel approach to understanding the market and generating the content strategy that will drive business. Tools like Google Trends and Awario can streamline this process.

Ready to Kick Your Business Into High Gear?

Now that you’ve completed the guide to market research you know you’re ready to put on your researcher hat to give your business the best start. Still not sure how actually… launch the thing? Our free mini-course can run you through the essentials for starting your side hustle .

About Mary Kate Miller

Mary Kate Miller writes about small business, real estate, and finance. In addition to writing for Foundr, her work has been published by The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and more. She lives in Chicago.

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How to Identify an Underserved Need in the Market

Entrepreneur researching market needs on laptop

11 Aug 2020

If you’ve decided to pursue entrepreneurship, coming up with a viable business idea is the first step. It’s not enough for your idea to be interesting—it should also fill a market need in an innovative way.

Think of a few of your favorite products. What needs do they fill that competing products don’t? It’s in this intersection between a market need and competitors’ gaps that your entrepreneurial opportunities lie.

The Importance of Identifying Market Needs

Successful companies thrive due to a deep understanding of their target customers. This knowledge enables them to both craft products that directly fill customers’ needs and effectively tailor their marketing efforts to highlight differentiators.

As a business owner, you can harness this strategy to ensure your product fits available market opportunities in an innovative way.

Discovering underserved markets can also strengthen your marketing strategy by providing a clear picture of the need your product fulfills and what sets it apart from competitors’.

Here are five tips for identifying underserved needs in the market to lay a strong foundation for your business.

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5 Steps to Find a Need in the Market

1. understand the jobs to be done theory.

A good starting place for identifying underserved needs is by examining the market through the lens of the jobs to be done framework.

The framework, centered on the jobs to be done theory developed by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, states that customers don’t purchase products based solely on their attributes, but rather, “hire” products to do “jobs” they need to get done.

The jobs to be done theory states that customers don't simply buy a product--they "hire" it to do a "job."

One example of a job to be done that Christensen presents in the online course Disruptive Strategy features a fast-food chain selling milkshakes. The chain noticed the majority of its milkshakes were sold before 8:30 a.m., and that customers typically didn’t purchase any additional items. Rather than focusing on the attributes of the consumer to explain their buying behaviors (What is it about these people that makes them buy only milkshakes in the morning?), the chain examined the job its milkshakes were being hired to do.

After interviewing several milkshake customers, the job became clear: people needed something to keep them full and entertained during their morning commutes. They were hiring milkshakes to fulfill that purpose.

When thinking of market needs, try not to dwell on what products people want. Instead, focus on jobs that need to be done.

Related: How to Come Up With an Innovative Business Idea

2. Be Introspective

When brainstorming jobs to be done, you can be your first resource.

Identify jobs you try to get done every day. These can range from “pick up my kids from school” to “stop my stir-fry from sticking to the pan” to “pass the time while waiting at the laundromat.” Your list will likely be long—people hire countless products and services to do an enormous number of jobs every day.

Notice what sticks out to you. Is there a job you try to get done, but you aren’t satisfied with the product you’ve hired to do it? For instance, maybe the mattress you’ve hired to help you get a good night’s sleep isn’t doing the job well. Perhaps there’s a job you’ve been avoiding because you haven’t found the right product or service to hire, such as cleaning your gutters.

Asking yourself about personal jobs to be done can lay a foundation for later discovering jobs that others need done.

3. Conduct Interviews

The next step in discovering an unmet market need is interviewing other people. If you have an idea already, you can focus these interviews on your target demographic. If not, talk to people from a range of age, gender, race, socioeconomic, and location demographics to ensure you hear a variety of perspectives and identify potential customers.

Seek to understand your interviewees’ jobs to be done and which of them aren’t being fulfilled as well as they could be. Ask them about their motivations behind certain choices. For instance: Why do they purchase milkshakes before 8:30 a.m. every day?

Your interviews can affirm or deny any hypotheses you came up with during your introspection and serve as litmus tests. Are you the only person whose spatula isn’t stopping stir-fry from sticking to the pan? Are there other parents out there who need a better product to keep their kids occupied in waiting rooms? You won’t know until you ask.

Related: Innovation in a Disrupted World: How to Discover New and Emerging Jobs to Be Done

4. Identify and Examine Competitors

After asking questions of yourself and others, select an idea or two that seems promising. You’ve discovered a job to be done—now it’s time for thorough competitive analysis to determine whether an existing company is meeting it.

Research businesses that are currently offering solutions to the job you’ve identified. Returning to Christensen’s milkshake example, you can confidently list all other fast-food chains that sell milkshakes as competitors.

There’s also a class of often-overlooked competitors: those that can be hired to do the job that aren’t a one-to-one match to your product. For the milkshake example, Christensen lists bananas, doughnuts, coffee, bagels, and candy bars as other products that could be hired to do the job of keeping someone full and entertained during their morning commute. Be sure to approach the job to be done creatively, and come up with a list of alternative items the consumer could hire to get the job done.

Next, research the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor, again focusing on how well they get the job done. For instance, hiring a bagel to eat during your morning commute would keep you full and occupied, but has the potential to get messy quickly, especially if there’s cream cheese involved. You could instead hire a milkshake because it’s served in a cup, leaving your hands clean. This step may require more market research, including interviewing people in your target markets who have purchased rival products or services.

Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors can pay off when the gap they collectively leave is revealed. This is how you know the market need is currently underserved and leaves the door open for your venture to solve it.

5. Be Ever-Observant

As Christensen says in Disruptive Strategy , jobs to be done persist over time. By staying observant, you can adapt your products to evolve with current events and disruptive technological advancements to continue meeting market needs.

Additionally, keep an eye out for emerging jobs to be done that your business could solve. Take, for example, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic . This global event has sparked a set of novel jobs to be done, ranging from the need to engage with others over video to the need for glasses that don’t fog up when wearing a face covering.

Stay observant as technologies shift and new jobs to be done arise so you can continue to serve customer needs.

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Filling the Market’s Need

Christensen’s jobs to be done theory can act as a helpful framework for discovering underserved market needs. By identifying and tailoring your products and services to a job to be done, you can start your entrepreneurial journey on the right track and avoid disruption .

Learn to break into the market and craft winning strategies. Explore our six-week online course Disruptive Strategy to discover how the jobs to be done theory can be applied to your organization.

This post was updated on February 17, 2023. It was originally published on August 11, 2020.

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Understanding Customer Needs: Market Research Techniques for Business Developers

Brian Lobeda

In today's competitive market landscape, understanding customer needs isn't just a courtesy—it's a necessity. At the heart of every successful business strategy lies a profound understanding of what the customer desires, values, and requires. Business development, in its essence, is all about growing and adapting a business to suit these evolving needs. Without a clear grasp of what the customers are looking for, businesses risk stagnating and losing ground to competitors who are more in-tune with their audiences.

Furthermore, having insights into customer needs can lead to more targeted marketing, improved product or service offerings, better customer satisfaction, and, consequently, increased sales and growth. In a digital age where customers have numerous choices available at their fingertips, a deep understanding of their specific needs can be the defining factor that sets a company apart.

The Role of Market Research in Business Development

How market research fits into the business development process.

Market research serves as the foundational pillar in the business development process. At its core, business development is about identifying opportunities for growth, whether that's in new markets, new partnerships, or new product offerings. But how does one determine the viability of these opportunities? The answer lies in robust market research.

Identification of Opportunities: Through market analysis, companies can spot trends, unmet needs, and gaps in the market, offering a clear direction for expansion.

Risk Minimization: Market research provides empirical data, helping businesses to make decisions based on facts rather than assumptions. This reduces the risks associated with launching new products or entering new markets.

Strategic Decision Making: By understanding customer preferences, competitive landscapes, and market conditions, business developers can craft strategies that align with the company's strengths and the market's demand.

Feedback Loop: Market research isn’t a one-off activity. Continuously collecting and analyzing market data ensures that businesses stay relevant and can pivot or adapt based on real-time feedback from the market.

Why Knowing Your Customer is Crucial for Sustainable Growth

Creating Value Propositions: Truly understanding your customer allows businesses to create products, services, and solutions tailored specifically to meet their needs. When customers feel a product resonates with their unique needs, they're more likely to invest.

Building Loyalty: Customers feel valued when businesses anticipate and cater to their needs. This fosters loyalty, leading to repeat business and referrals.

Efficient Resource Allocation: When a business knows precisely what its customers want, it can allocate resources (time, money, manpower) more efficiently, ensuring efforts are directed towards initiatives that offer the most significant potential returns.

Predicting Future Trends: An in-depth knowledge of customers allows businesses to anticipate market shifts and future demands. Companies can innovate proactively rather than reactively, ensuring they're always a step ahead of the competition.

Sustainable growth is intricately tied to how well a business understands its customers. Market research isn’t just about data collection; it's about translating this data into actionable insights, setting the stage for informed decision-making and strategic advancement in the business development process.

Primary Market Research Techniques

Surveys and questionnaires.

Crafting Effective Questions: The power of a survey lies in its questions. Start with clear objectives in mind and ensure each question aligns with those objectives. Use a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions to get both quantitative and qualitative data.

Methods of Distribution: Depending on the target audience, surveys can be distributed through various means such as emails, social media platforms, websites, or even in-person during events or at storefronts. Online tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms can also facilitate distribution and collection.

Analyzing Results: After gathering responses, it's time to analyze. Quantitative data can be interpreted using statistical methods, while qualitative data, though subjective, provides depth and understanding of customer sentiment. Tools like SPSS or Excel can aid in analysis, or qualitative coding techniques for open responses.

One-on-one Discussions: Unlike surveys, interviews allow for a deeper dive into specific topics. They offer an opportunity to explore nuances, motivations, and underlying reasons behind a respondent's answers.

Choosing the Right Candidates: For interviews to be effective, it's essential to select respondents who represent the target demographic or possess a specific insight the business is seeking.

Creating an Interview Script: While interviews should be somewhat flexible, having a script ensures essential points are covered. Open-ended questions should dominate, encouraging interviewees to share freely.

Focus Groups

Assembling a Diverse Group: Diversity ensures a broad range of perspectives. Aim for a mix of demographics relevant to the study—age, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.

Moderating Sessions: Effective moderation is key to focus groups. A moderator should guide the discussion without leading or influencing it, ensuring every participant has a chance to speak.

Advantages of Direct Interaction: Focus groups allow businesses to gauge reactions in real-time, observe non-verbal cues, and encourage interaction between participants, which can lead to more in-depth insights.

Observations

Watching Customers in Natural Settings: This method involves observing customers in their natural environment, such as watching them shop in a store. This can provide genuine insights into behavior, preferences, and patterns that might not emerge in a more structured setting.

Insights that can be Gained: Observational research can uncover unarticulated needs or behaviors that customers themselves might not be aware of. For example, noticing that shoppers frequently compare two specific products could lead to insights about product placement, pricing, or features.

Primary research techniques offer businesses direct and authentic insights from their target audience. By selecting the appropriate method and executing it correctly, businesses can gather data that significantly influences their business development strategies.

Secondary Market Research Techniques

Data mining.

What is Data Mining? At its core, data mining involves extracting meaningful patterns and insights from large sets of data. This could range from customer purchase histories to interaction records with a brand.

Analyzing Existing Databases: Companies often have vast reservoirs of data accumulated over the years. Analyzing this data can unveil trends, customer preferences, and potential areas for growth. For instance, purchase histories might reveal which products often get bought together, suggesting bundling opportunities.

Drawing Conclusions: Data mining can offer actionable insights, but these need to be interpreted in the context of the business. It's essential to differentiate between causation and correlation, ensuring that the actions taken are grounded in solid reasoning.

Competitor Analysis

Understanding Competitor Offerings: Regularly surveying the market to comprehend what competitors are offering can highlight one's own strengths and weaknesses. This includes looking at product features, pricing strategies, marketing campaigns, and more.

Identifying Gaps in the Market: Competitor analysis can also reveal unmet needs in the market. For instance, if most competitors are targeting a particular demographic, there might be an underserved segment waiting to be catered to.

Industry Reports & Studies

The Value of Published Information: Numerous organizations, from industry associations to market research firms, publish reports detailing trends, forecasts, and insights specific to various sectors.

Leveraging for Insights: These reports can offer a wealth of information about customer behavior, market shifts, and emerging trends. For instance, a rise in eco-conscious consumer behavior in an industry report might suggest opportunities for sustainable product development.

Online Analytics

The Power of Web Data: With an increasing number of customer interactions happening online, web data becomes invaluable. It can provide insights into user behaviors, preferences, and conversion roadblocks.

Utilizing Tools Like Google Analytics: Platforms such as Google Analytics offer in-depth insights into user behavior. This includes which pages users visit the most, how long they stay, what paths they take through the site, where they drop off, etc.

Understanding User Behaviors and Preferences: By studying online analytics, businesses can optimize their websites, understand which content resonates most with their audience, and refine their online marketing strategies.

Secondary research methods rely on existing data, providing a broader context for decision-making. These techniques, when combined with primary research, give a comprehensive picture of the market, enabling business developers to make informed strategic decisions.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

Understanding the two types of research.

Quantitative Research: This type of research is rooted in numbers and measurable data. It seeks to quantify a problem, usually through methods like surveys or experiments. The results are generally statistically significant and can be represented through graphs, charts, or percentages.

Characteristics: Structured, large sample sizes, generalizable results, objective.

Examples: Online surveys about product satisfaction with multiple-choice answers, sales data analysis, website traffic statistics.

Qualitative Research: This delves into the underlying motives and reasons behind certain behaviors or opinions. It offers insights into the problem, provides solutions, and helps in formulating ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

Characteristics: Unstructured or semi-structured, smaller sample sizes, subjective, deep insights.

Examples: In-depth interviews, focus groups, open-ended survey questions, observations.

Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Holistic View: While quantitative data can tell you the "what" and "how much," qualitative data often sheds light on the "why" and "how." By utilizing both, businesses can get a well-rounded understanding of customer needs and behaviors.

Phased Approach: Often, businesses begin with qualitative research to explore a problem or a market opportunity. The insights gained here can then shape the design of quantitative research tools, like surveys, to validate and quantify those initial findings on a larger scale.

Data Triangulation: This involves using multiple methods and data sources to study a phenomenon, which can enhance the validity and richness of the results. For instance, a business might conduct interviews (qualitative) to understand why a product isn't selling and then launch a survey (quantitative) to see how widespread the sentiments are.

Balanced Decision-making: Quantitative research can guide decisions with hard data, while qualitative research can offer context and nuance. Together, they ensure that decisions aren't just based on numbers but also on a deep understanding of customer sentiments and motivations.

While quantitative and qualitative research offer different perspectives, they are both vital tools in a business developer's arsenal. Recognizing when to use each method, or a combination of both, can lead to more informed strategies, better product development, and more successful market penetration.

Challenges in Market Research

Potential biases and their mitigation.

Selection Bias: This occurs when the sample is not representative of the population. For instance, surveying only urban customers for a product meant for a broader demographic.

Solution: Ensure that your sample is random and representative. Consider factors like age, gender, location, and other relevant demographics when selecting participants.

Confirmation Bias: Researchers might unconsciously favor information that aligns with their existing beliefs or hypotheses.

Solution: Approach research with an open mind, designing neutral questions and not seeking just to validate preconceived notions. Peer reviews can also help in identifying unintentional biases.

Response Bias: Sometimes, respondents might answer questions in a way they believe is expected or socially acceptable rather than their true feelings.

Solution: Ensure anonymity and confidentiality. Craft unbiased and straightforward questions, and consider indirect questioning methods to capture true sentiments.

Staying Updated with Evolving Customer Needs

Dynamic Markets: Consumer needs, preferences, and behaviors are not static. They evolve with cultural, technological, and market changes.

Solution: Conduct regular market research. Don't rely solely on historical data. Stay attuned to industry trends, technological advancements, and cultural shifts that might affect consumer behavior.

Rapid Technological Changes: In today's digital age, technology and platforms evolve rapidly, influencing customer preferences.

Solution: Continuous learning and adaptation are crucial. Attend seminars, webinars, and workshops. Utilize platforms and tools that provide real-time insights.

Dealing with Inconclusive or Conflicting Data

Varying Data Sources: Different research methods or sources might yield conflicting results, leading to confusion.

Solution: Cross-reference findings. Use data triangulation to validate results from multiple sources.

Overlapping Data: Sometimes, data might provide insights that aren't distinct or clear-cut, making interpretation challenging.

Solution: Delve deeper with further research. Consider qualitative methods to gain clarity on ambiguous quantitative data.

Analysis Paralysis: With a plethora of data available, it might become overwhelming to draw actionable conclusions.

Solution: Stay focused on the research objectives. Use data visualization tools to simplify and highlight essential insights. Seek external expert opinions if necessary.

While market research offers invaluable insights, it's fraught with potential pitfalls. Being aware of these challenges and proactively addressing them ensures that the insights garnered are accurate, relevant, and actionable for business development strategies.

Translating Research Findings into Action

Prioritizing the needs and preferences discovered.

Impact Analysis: Evaluate which customer needs, when addressed, can have the most significant positive impact on sales, loyalty, or other critical metrics.

Feasibility Assessment: While some needs might be high impact, they might also require vast resources or time. It's essential to assess the practicality of addressing each need.

Urgency vs. Importance: Some needs might be immediate, while others are essential in the long run. Develop a matrix to categorize and prioritize these needs.

Strategies to Adjust or Develop Products/Services Based on Findings

Iterative Development: Instead of overhauling a product entirely, consider iterative updates. This allows for testing changes in real-time and reduces risks.

Pilot Programs: Before a full-scale launch of a new feature or product, run pilot programs or beta tests to gather initial feedback.

Customer-Centric Design: Engage end-users in the design and testing phases. This co-creation approach ensures the final product is truly reflective of customer needs.

Feedback Loops: Create mechanisms where customers can continuously provide feedback on newly launched or adjusted products/services, enabling further refinement.

Tailoring Marketing and Sales Pitches to Better Resonate with the Identified Needs

Segmented Marketing: Not all findings will apply uniformly across all customer segments. Customize marketing campaigns to resonate with specific segments based on their distinct needs and preferences.

Value Proposition Refinement: Based on research, redefine the value proposition of your products/services to highlight how they address the most critical customer needs.

Storytelling: Use real examples and narratives to showcase how your products/services have met customer needs in the past. Authentic stories can be compelling and relatable.

Training Sales Teams: Equip your sales teams with research insights. Tailored pitches based on genuine customer needs have a higher likelihood of success.

Utilizing Testimonials: If your adjustments to products or services based on research have led to positive outcomes, use testimonials from satisfied customers in your marketing materials. This provides social proof and builds trust.

The essence of market research lies not just in gathering insights but in translating those insights into actionable strategies. Prioritizing, refining offerings, and tailoring communication based on genuine customer needs ensures that businesses remain relevant, competitive, and successful in the marketplace.

Case Study: Successful Application of Market Research in Business Development

Company: Airbnb

Background: Airbnb, a platform that allows individuals to rent out their homes or rooms to travelers, faced stiff competition and skepticism when it first began. The hotel industry was dominant, and the idea of staying in a stranger's home seemed alien to many.

Challenge: Airbnb wanted to increase its user base and instill trust among potential users. To achieve this, the company needed to understand the reservations people had about using their platform and what would make users prefer Airbnb over traditional hotels.

Market Research Approach:

Primary Research: Airbnb sent teams to major cities to talk to hosts and guests. They conducted in-depth interviews to understand the challenges hosts faced and the apprehensions of the guests.

Observations: Airbnb's founders personally stayed at hosts' properties to experience the service firsthand, leading to valuable firsthand insights.

Surveys: Airbnb sent out comprehensive surveys to its users to gather quantitative data on user preferences, likes, and dislikes.

Competitor Analysis: The company studied the traditional hotel industry to understand what they were offering and where the gaps were.

Guests wanted assurance about the safety of the properties and clear communication with hosts.

Hosts wanted easier listing processes and assurance of property safety.

There was a demand for unique, localized experiences that hotels couldn't offer.

Actions Taken:

Airbnb introduced verified photos, where a professional photographer would come and take photos of the listed property, assuring guests of the property's authenticity.

They improved their communication platform, making interactions between guests and hosts smoother.

The company started "Airbnb Experiences", allowing local hosts to offer unique activities, tapping into the demand for localized experiences.

Outcome: Airbnb saw a tremendous growth in bookings. The platform differentiated itself from competitors by offering unique, local experiences and instilling trust through verifications. Today, Airbnb stands as a testament to how understanding customer needs can revolutionize an industry.

This case study exemplifies how a company, through diligent market research and actionable insights, can pivot its strategies to resonate better with its target audience, leading to transformative success.

In an ever-evolving business landscape, understanding customer needs remains a cornerstone of sustainable success. As markets change, technologies advance, and consumer preferences shift, businesses that anchor their strategies in real-world, current insights are the ones that stand the test of time. The adage, "the customer is always right," might be clichéd, but it holds a profound truth: businesses exist to serve customers, and thus, understanding what they want and need should always be paramount.

Business developers play a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of a company. While it's easy to get caught up in immediate tasks and short-term targets, the long-term vision should always be influenced by the voice of the customer. Therefore, market research shouldn't be viewed as a one-off task or a box to be checked. It's an ongoing commitment, a continuous dialogue with the market that offers invaluable insights.

By making market research a consistent activity, business developers ensure that their strategies, products, and services remain relevant. They can anticipate market shifts, innovate with purpose, and craft offerings that resonate deeply with their target audience.

In conclusion, as we move forward in this digital age, where change is the only constant, businesses that actively listen, understand, and act upon the needs of their customers will lead the way. And for business developers, market research isn't just a tool; it's a compass guiding them towards enduring success.

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How to Use Market Research for Identifying Customer Needs

We are motivated by two things, praise or reward. It’s kind of funny, whether you are 3 years old or 43 years old, it’s the same. The point is how do you motivate your customers?

Achieving this is not just as simple as asking the right questions. There are many details to figure out and it is highly recommended that you use experienced researchers or consultants.

For example:

How do you define which customers to talk to?
How do you decide on a format for your research?
How do you know what type of questions to ask to get to know your customers?
What attributes or demographics are important in getting to know your customers?
How do you use the data once it is collected?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of a few strategies to really get to know your customers:

Surveys are the staple of market research, however you have to know how and when to use the three types of questions: Opened-Ended, Closed-Ended and Strategic.

Opened-ended questions can provide a lot of information, but often they do not provide all the detail you need.

The short answers you get from Closed-Ended questions can often grind a conversation to a halt.

All three types of questions serve a purpose and are helpful. An experienced researcher knows how to use them all to help you gather the best information about your customer.

Of course you don’t want to ask the wrong questions on your survey either. Figuring out the right questions may require some research of its own.

Focus Groups

Just like with surveys, be careful not to lead members of the group to an answer. You want their unbiased opinions.

Ethnographic Studies

With this type of research the company actually observes the participant, which gives you 1st hand knowledge about your customer.

Now, you simply have to analyze the data. Easy, right! As long as you have skilled researchers that know how to interpret the data correctly you will find that through market research you can know everything you need to know about your customers. If you know your customers, you will know how to motivate them towards your end goal!

To learn more about how market research can help your company achieve success, contact us: [email protected]

March 19, 2024
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Customer needs: how to identify and analyze them
Understanding Your Customer: Using Market Research to Ensure and Shape
16 Types of Customer Needs: How to Identify & Meet Them
Understand Customer Needs: 6 Proven Methods
How to do Market Research: Align Your Business with Current Market
Customer Analysis: How to Effectively Target the Market

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COMMENTS

Customer Needs Analysis: Definition & Research Methods
10 min read Customer needs analysis is the process of identifying a customer's requirements for a product or service. It's used in all kinds of product and brand management contexts, including concept development, product development, value analysis, and more. The goal of a customer needs analysis survey is to understand the customers ...
How to Conduct a Comprehensive Customer Needs Analysis
A customer needs analysis is a data-based evaluation of a customer's need for a product, service, or solution. Data for this analysis can come from various sources, including in-person or online surveys, market research, focus groups, customer feedback, or product usage trends over time.Once collected, this data allows customer service and product teams to tailor their offerings to meet ...
Customer Research: The Key to Meeting Customer Needs
Look for patterns and common themes in the data and dig out the key insights you can leverage the most. 4. Use the research findings. You have the data; you have the insights, you've crunched numbers, identified trends, and know everything you need to know about your target audience. It's time for implementation.
The Power of Market Research: Understanding Customer Needs ...
Market research acts as the foundation for developing a customer-centric approach. By conducting comprehensive research, businesses gain insights into their target audience, enabling them to ...
Customer Needs Research: Identify & Prioritise Needs
Request Demo. Customer Needs research should help researchers accomplish the following: Identify important unmet needs of the customer. Disprove false assumptions and correct mistaken internal beliefs. Refine segmentation. Prioritise future product development initiatives. Drive growth via customer adoption, loyalty, and advocacy.
Customer Research Methods: Key Strategies for Market Insights in 2024
Customer segmentation research. Market segmentation divides your customer base into distinct groups based on common characteristics to provide more personalized products and services. Customer needs research. You investigate your customers' underlying needs and desires to develop products that solve specific problems or enhance their lives.
Market Research: A How-To Guide and Template
Download HubSpot's free, editable market research report template here. 1. Five Forces Analysis Template. Use Porter's Five Forces Model to understand an industry by analyzing five different criteria and how high the power, threat, or rivalry in each area is — here are the five criteria: Competitive rivalry.
How to Do Market Research: The Complete Guide
Market research ensures that you stay ahead of these trends and adapt your offerings accordingly so you can avoid becoming obsolete. As you can see, market research empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, cater to customer needs, outperform competitors, mitigate risks, optimize resources and stay agile in a dynamic marketplace.
How to Use Market Research for Identifying Customer Needs
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of a few strategies to really get to know your customers: 1. Surveys. Surveys are the staple of market research, however you have to know how and when to use the three types of questions: Opened-Ended, Closed-Ended and Strategic. Opened-ended questions can provide a lot of information, but often they do ...
Market Research: What It Is and How to Do It
June 3, 2021 28 min read. Market research is a process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about a given market. It takes into account geographic, demographic, and psychographic data about past, current, and potential customers, as well as competitive analysis to evaluate the viability of a product offer.
16 Types of Customer Needs (and How to Solve for Them)
6. Provide great customer service. If a problem arises, your customers want to get it resolved and feel heard in the process. This starts with being able to meet their needs with empathy, but along the way, the process for obtaining support should be easy and on a channel that's convenient for them.
How to Analyze Customer Needs and Improve Your Approach ...
A customer needs analysis is an assessment of a customer's needs for a product or service. The process involves getting valuable insights from various customer data sources such as customer feedback, market research, focus groups, product usage trends, and more.
3 Effective Methods for Assessing Customer Needs
1. Look. The best way to understand customer needs is by studying your audience. Start by collecting data and observations around customers' journeys by placing yourself in their shoes. By considering the perspectives of those you design for, you can understand their pain points and categorize them as explicit or latent.
A 3-step field guide to identifying and analyzing customer needs
How to run a customer need discovery poll with PickFu (+ starter question) #2b. How to analyze your customer research from an open-ended poll. #3. Use social listening programs and Google Trends for supplementary data. Infographic: Discovering and understanding customer needs in 3 steps. TL;DR: Identify customer needs in three straightforward ...
How to Conduct a Customer Needs Assessment [Updated 2024]
Conducting customer interviews is perhaps the best way to uncover detailed information about customers' needs. However, customer surveys, focus groups, and/or market analysis can also provide valuable insights. 4. Conduct Secondary Research. In addition to primary research, it's also important to conduct secondary research.
The Complete Guide to Market Research: What It Is, Why You Need It, and
Market research is the organized process of gathering information about your target customers and market. Market research can help you better understand customer behavior and competitor strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight for the best strategies in launching new businesses and products. There are different ways to approach ...
3 Methods for Identifying Customer Needs
Here are three ways to develop an understanding of your customers' needs so you can better serve them with your products and services. 1. Reflect on Your Experiences. The first method for identifying jobs to be done is to reflect on your own behaviors and experiences, identifying patterns in your decision-making process.
How to Find a Need in the Market
Asking yourself about personal jobs to be done can lay a foundation for later discovering jobs that others need done. 3. Conduct Interviews. The next step in discovering an unmet market need is interviewing other people. If you have an idea already, you can focus these interviews on your target demographic.
Customer Needs: How to Identify and Fulfill Customer Needs
Market research illuminates customer needs, prompting brands to create product features that speak to those needs and influence a customer's purchase decision. Customer-centric companies have a better chance of connecting with buyers and building ties with more loyal customers. Articles. Videos. Instructors. Explore. Articles;
Understanding Customer Needs: Market Research Techniques for Business
Identification of Opportunities: Through market analysis, companies can spot trends, unmet needs, and gaps in the market, offering a clear direction for expansion. Risk Minimization: Market research provides empirical data, helping businesses to make decisions based on facts rather than assumptions. This reduces the risks associated with launching new products or entering new markets.
What is Customer Research? Definition, Types, Examples and Best
It helps organizations understand what customers value, what drives their purchasing decisions, and what features or attributes they desire in a product or service. Customer needs and preferences research can involve surveys, interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic research methods. Customer Experience (CX) Research.
What Are 8 Customer Needs and How to Identify Them?
To meet customer needs and expectations make sure that you: Listen to your customers and their requirements. Understand the functional, social, and emotional needs of your customer base. Identify the needs that are critical to your business and marketing strategy. Adjust your offer to meet the needs of clients.
How to Use Market Research for Identifying Customer Needs
To learn more about how market research can help your company achieve success, contact us: [email protected]. Market research can be used in identifying customer needs, as well as who they are. You have to ask the right questions though. If you don't really know your customers you will not retain them leaving you constantly chasing ...
Topic Modelling of Management Research Assertions to Develop Insights
Payne et al. (, p. 472) define a customer VP as "a strategic tool facilitating communication of an organization's ability to share resources and offer a superior value package to targeted customers". The marketing literature has emphasized the need for firms to articulate benefits and costs relevant to targeted customers as well as ...