If you’re an entrepreneur or planning to join the club, you’ll understand the importance of market research and consumer research. Now, a lot of times these terms are used as synonyms but they are not the same. They surely are siblings but, with their uniqueness and contributions. When you’re still at the planning stage you’ll spend hours and money to research the market, understand the demand and accordingly work on the supply. This is undoubtedly the most crucial part, however, there’s another equally important step and for better results both market and consumer research should be executed simultaneously.
As basic as you may get consumer research is usually defined as understanding the customers and finding the best possible ways to fulfill their expectations. This is not incorrect, but it doesn’t stop just here. There is so much more to consumer research, there are people who have studied consumer psychology to help businesses understand the psyche of customers and to enhance the business owners’ and consumers’ relationship. Understanding consumer’s behavior is vital for customer servicing and to grow sales.
Let’s say your business is doing great, you’ve achieved good sales in the first 2 years of your product launch, however, now in the 3rd year your, sales are ok but there’s a negative word of mouth spreading around and the ratings are not what you were expecting with these sales number. You have a great sales team, your marketing guys are doing a good job and your customer support team is handling their tasks efficiently. So, what’s with the rating and negative comments? What’s missing? You are doing pretty well, but it’s time to get a consumer behaviorist who can solve this puzzle and guide you with the areas that need to be worked on. It could be as minor as less updated feedback to more complex situations which can be understood by reading between the lines of the feedback, sitting with the B2C team to see how they are responding to the queries-the kind of tone they have (verbal and written,) is the customer buying the correct product or is he not aware of the same and needs to be guided and by many other ways. Understanding these subtleties in the customer’s mind can help your business find creative ways to work with customers.
We are all different, but in many instances our brains are prone to react in a similar manner. One area of business where consumer psychology truly shines is customer service. When you have a solid understanding of how your customer thinks and behaves, it’s much easier to provide the service and support that wows them. Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes will go a long way is a phrase which is very commonly used but not so commonly practiced, a consumer psychologist/behaviorist/researcher may help you and your team with this and believed it, this will be nothing but a win-win situation for all.
