In a weak economy, it’s especially important to get closer to your most loyal and profitable customers. Allocating dollars to research is one of the best ways to uncover what your customers want and what they really think about your business. Too often, though, companies go about customer satisfaction research the wrong way or they pooh-pooh results that are less than favorable. Here are four powerful ways to get the most value from your next round of customer research:

1. Show customers they matter. An overlooked benefit of research is the opportunity to let customers know their input is critically important and impacts your product offerings, delivery channels, and other activities. “When you solicit information, tell customers their feedback will be heard,” says Michelle van Schouwen, president of van Schouwen Associates, LLC, an integrated marketing communications firm in Longmeadow, Mass. “When you implement change, emphasize in all strategic communications that customers inspired the improvements.”

2. Go beyond marketing. Too often, customer research extends only to issues important to sales and marketing, says David A. Fields, managing director of Ascendant Consulting in Ridgefield, Conn. Expand the focus to operations, finance, human resources, and other functions that impact customers in important ways they might not immediately notice.

3. Think like a customer. When the owner of a small movie theater went to catch a flick over vacation, he wanted to know if the establishment had fresh popcorn, clean floors, and convenient parking. That customer-centric perspective helped shape a survey for his own customers, says Chris Stiehl, coauthor of Pain Killer Marketing. As a result of the research, the owner now pops a new batch of popcorn every 10 minutes. “In this way, customers coming into the theater see, hear, and smell fresh popcorn as they walk in,” Stiehl notes.

4. Convert your research into a story. “Storytelling is a superb tool that’s being used by many organizations as a competitive advantage,” says Sandy Gluckman, president of the Gluckman Group, a consulting firm in Plano, Texas. “People relate to and retain a story more easily than a bunch of facts.” Consider UPS’ whiteboard ads: the story is compelling and commercially relevant — in other words, it educates the consumer about UPS’ services within an unforgettable emotional context.

For more tips on improving customer satisfaction research, download the August issue of FuelNet Monthly, an 8-page newsletter designed to help owners and managers of companies of every size maximize their marketing opportunities and grow their business. Other issue highlights include:

• 5 brand-positioning no-no’s
• The secrets to creating a great slogan
• Ways to get customers to find you online
• How to partner with your customers
• Why face-to-face trumps mass marketing

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