Customer Research
The single most important factor to profitable organic growth is the relative value of your products and services
Delivering superior customer value boosts business profitability in two ways. In the near term, superior value supports premium pricing, yielding higher sales margins over the lifespan of operational investments. Over the longer term, having a reputation for superior value has proven to be a highly effective way to expand into related markets or gain market share in the core business.
We help firms in a range of industries re-connect with important customers to update, or in some cases, expand the business definition of value. Using a proven two-step approch, we enagage directly with key customers and management to understand the few, important aspects of product or service usage that strongly influence the purchase decision.
Our approach begins with a qualitative research approach we call ART, or affinity research technique. This step entails gathering customer feedback, clustering common themes, and ultimately mapping the key issues that shape the environments, and decisions, of your most important customers.
Next, we refine key issues into topics that correspond closely with your product or service development criteria. This step begins with meeting your key management to understand the skill sets and technologies being used to service customer needs. We use this understanding to refine key qualitative findings into a quantitative survey pertaining to a set of development objectives. We then submit the questionnaire to your existing and potential customer base, and employ statistical sampling and analysis methods to ensure the integrity of findings.
Our clients consider the two-stage approach to be an insightful way of defining future needs in the language of their customers and their business leadership. We consider it the right approach to frame their organic growth opportunities.