When it comes to understanding your market segments, government statistics are among the best available sources of information. For example, the publication Statistical and Metropolitan Area Data Book provides useful data on metropolitan areas, central [Read More]

Customer research is to a growing business what a power cord is to an electrical appliance — a necessity. Without a thorough understanding of your market segments and how your products or services differ from [Read More]

Surveying customers after they’ve made a purchase — or signed a service engagement or support contact — is one of the best ways to identify which customers you might be in danger of losing. Using [Read More]

Competitive intelligence from public sources, customers, and third parties can help businesses anticipate market opportunities, trends, and competitive strengths and weaknesses. However, intelligence gathering must be done in an ethical and reasonable way. These guidelines [Read More]

An overlooked benefit of customer satisfaction 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 [Read More]

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 [Read More]

Drawing their conclusions from an unprecedented study of 200,000 managers and employees over a 10–year period, the authors found that, while salary is a factor in attracting and maintaining top–flight people, it is less important [Read More]

If you think people are too jaded to pay much attention to customer testimonials, PlanetHospital’s success might make you change your mind. According to Rudy Rupak, founder of the Calabasas, Calif.–based company, which helps travelers [Read More]

I still remember spending Thursday nights as a kid watching Kung Fu, a popular 1970s television series about a Chinese-American Shaolin priest, Kwai Chang Caine, who roamed the plains of the American West looking for [Read More]

In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell describes how the adaptive unconscious works and shows its importance in problem solving. Here’s how those lessons can be applied to the business [Read More]