Using Customer’s Ideas For Your Strategic Growth
By Debbie Allen, All Rights Reserved

An effective way to gather information about your customer base is to gather customers’ ideas during a well thought-out focus group.  Your customers can help you in the strategy development process of your business.  Listening to the results of a focus group will afford you rich insight into your customers’ preferences, perceptions, attitudes, and ideas.  Market research companies offer complete, turnkey packages that include selecting and inviting participants, developing surveys, moderating the group, and writing reports.  Or you may organize a focus group yourself to keep costs to a minimum. Here’s how to go about it.

Steps to Creating Your Focus Group

1. Select 20 or more participants for your focus group.  Be sure to draw from a range of ages, sizes, tastes, etc.  Take approximately half of the attendees from your regular clientele, one-fourth from newer clientele who have been doing business with you for one year or less, and one fourth from customers who no longer use your business.  Keep in mind that only about 50 percent of the people you invite will attend, so send out twice as many invitations.  Twelve to fifteen people with group diversity are a good size.
   
   To ensure the diversity of your focus group, select customers that have done little or no business with your company and others that are repeat loyal customers.  Take a few bargain shopper customers along with your best customers that care more about service and quality.   Select customers from different generations as well from seniors and boomers to gen X and Y.  If your client’s age does not reach that far, diversify the age range as much as possible.  The same goes for gender and race. 
2. Send out invitations to the event.  Include benefits to attend such as a nice lunch or dinner along with a gift certificate for your business or a special gift valued at around $25.   Also enclose a cover letter that advises prospective guests that the meeting will take approximately 90 minutes and that all information will be confidential.  Let your focus group know that you will be implementing their valuable ideas, needs, and concerns to improve upon your business. 
3. You may want to hold the function over lunch or dinner at a nice restaurant with a private dining area.  Budget the cost as a marketing expense.  Not only are you investing in your customers, you are telling them how much you appreciate their opinions.  You are showing them that you value them as an important part your business.  Think of your focus group expense as an investment in your target market.  It will come back to you many times over.
4. Select a facilitator who has great communication skills and good working knowledge of your industry and the competition.  The facilitator’s ability to create a positive group dynamic is key to your success.  Owners, managers, and store personnel should not be present, or the participants may not feel free to speak honestly.  It may be most effective to have an owner or manager welcome guests and then turn the meeting over to the facilitator.  Make it clear that you, the owner or manager, are not attending. 
5. Create a list of questions for your facilitator.  Be as specific as possible, but leave the questions open-ended.  

Here are some examples:

• What products and/or services do you purchase?
• What services do you like and dislike?
• How can our customer service be improved?
• What can we do to make your overall shopping experience better?
• What makes you return to our business?  
• Which of our competitors do you also patronize?
• How do you feel that we rate compared to the competition?  
• If you do not shop at the competition, why do you shop with us instead?
• Do you refer your friends, relatives, and business associates to our business?  If so, why?
• Is our location convenient for you?  
• If we opened a second store, where would you suggest as a convenient location?
• What hours of operation are most convenient for you?  

Have the facilitator ask these questions of the audience.  Tape this part of the session if permitted by all attendees. You must inform them that you are taping the session. If one of the participants objects to being taped, have someone take details notes of the session.  

6. As the facilitator leads the discussion he or she will take detailed notes on the customers’ comments or even record the session.  He or she will also compile the questionnaires, and combined with the notes, create a detailed report for you.  
7. At the end of the meeting, come back into the room and thank the participants.  Use this opportunity to suggest that they visit your business more often and refer others.  
8. Most important of all examine the report, the notes, and the questionnaires and listen to the session.  Really listen to what these customers are saying, then create an action plan based on these findings.  Listening and responding to your customer base is an extremely effective way to grow your business.
   
   Take action to implement the new ideas and changes within a matter of months. After improvements have been put into place, make follow-up phone calls to attendees.  During your conversation tell them of your improvements.  Thank them again for helping you focus your business more on their needs and improve your customer service.  You will reap the rewards from your efforts by the continuous flow of referrals that happy customers send your way.  

How Are We Doing?
Another way to find out what your customers think of your business is to compose a HOW ARE WE DOING questionnaire or postcard and leave it by your registration desk or check out counter.  You could also include it in your next billing statement or group mailer.  Include a pre-stamped return.  If customers include their names and addresses be sure to acknowledge receipt of the card with a thank you. Give them a benefit for filling out the information, such as a free gift or inclusion in a drawing.  Gifts could include dinner for two at a fine restaurant, a weekend trip for two, gift certificates for your business, or another highly valued coupon.  

Ask key questions, and keep the whole thing short and simple.  

• What do you like about us?
• What can we do better?
• What products or services are of interest to you?
• Tell us about your latest experience in our business.

Each individual customer’s perception of your business will be a little different.  Let them know how much you value their opinions and appreciate their business.  

What’s the Mystery?
Mystery shopping and evaluation programs are offered by a number of companies to study how your business is perceived to the public.  An anonymous shopper comes into your business and evaluates your image and customer service.  A mystery shopper is experienced in what to look for that most affects your customers’ experience.

Mystery shopping and evaluation programs can help you focus on your customer satisfaction goals.  Their findings can uncover valuable information about your customers’ experiences when they visit your business. You can also evaluate your staff and their effectiveness.  You will find mystery shoppers or evaluators in your area’s Yellow Pages.

Mystery shopping has additional benefits for you as a staff manager.  When you get your evaluation, be sure to reward an employee who performed well in the shop.  A small bonus, gift certificate, or special lunch will show your appreciation and keep them motivated.  For those employees who showed room for improvement, use the shop reports as an opportunity for you to help them improve their customer service.  The great thing about shops is that the criticism does not come from you but from an outside–and unknown–source.  You are just helping them to get better. 

Times Have Changed! 
"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise."   ~ Robert Fritz

Customers love businesses that take the time to listen to them and to show they care.  Unfortunately for customers, there are so few out there these days.  There is no better way to show you care than to implement customers’ ideas on improving your service.  Be open-minded to making the changes and services that your customers value even if they seem unreasonable or impossible to accomplish.  Don’t ever compromise your service by limiting yourself to your own “internal business” ideas.  You don’t have all the answers on how to improve your business.  Customers are out there just waiting to be asked.

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Bio: Debbie Allen is one of the world’s leading authorities on sales and marketing.  She is the author of five books including Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters and Skyrocketing Sales.  Debbie has helped thousands of people around the world attract customers like crazy with her innovative, no-cost marketing strategies and secrets to sales success.  Her expertise has been featured in Entrepreneur, Selling Power and Sales & Marketing Excellence.  Sign up for her FREE 6-week e-Course Business Success Secrets Revealed ($97 value) and take the online business card quiz to rate your marketing online now at www.DebbieAllen.com.