Learning about your customers should be an active process for your business. If you aren’t keeping tabs on how your customers evolve, you might miss an opportunity to engage or retain them. With many business owners focusing on acquiring new customers, it might seem counter-intuitive to devote resources to researching the customers you already have.
The reality is, however, that your existing customers are one of your most valuable assets. The more you can learn about who they are and what drew them to your business in the first place, the more you can inform the future decisions you make within your business. If you talk to your customers regularly, they can help you to stay on the edge of industry trends and help you to find more prospects just like them. If you don’t talk to your customers, you might realize too late that what you thought was the right choice for your business was actually off the mark.
To avoid falling out of touch, you have to stay in touch. Consider doing the following:
- Deploy a customer survey
- Evaluate your web and social media analytics
- Interview your best customers
The more you engage the customers you have, the better equipped you’ll be to find new ones.