The internet and modern technology have brought a lot of positive changes to the world of business, and one of them is the quantity and quality of customer data that businesses can acquire. Through data collection, companies can find answers to many important questions and improve their operations.
Data collection and analytics isn’t just a passing trend, and the big data analytics market is set to reach $103 billion by 2023. But collecting customer data can sometimes be complicated, and there are different methods you can use, depending on what you want to find out.
Surveys
Companies send out surveys when they want to gather information and data from a sample population so they can generalize the results to a much larger population. They can be carried out in different ways, have many purposes, and gather information based on characteristics, behaviors, and opinions.
Survey participants may be asked to provide yes/no answers or answers on a rating scale (usually from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10). Some surveys also have open-ended questions where the participants write their own answers and opinions.
This method is excellent to use when you’re looking to collect simple feedback quickly and want to use that feedback for analysis and presenting statistics. For example, you can use surveys to determine if responders are satisfied with your customer service efforts.
Surveys are user-friendly, can be sent out to potentially thousands of people, and are quick to complete. And since you can send out them via email, distribution and collection will be a breeze.
Another benefit of using emails to send out and receive surveys is that you can use a simple browser extension to parse emails with ease. This will allow you to export all the data from the emails you receive to Excel, CSV, or Google sheets where you will have easier access to your data, which will be neatly organized.
Use the right tools
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You can use many methods to collect precious customer data, but you shouldn’t allow yourself to only depend on these methods without using tools to analyze that data. So if you’re interested in customer data collection, you should also look into business intelligence tools.
More and more businesses are using business intelligence tools as there are many ways to use business intelligence tools to grow your company.
However, it’s important to note that there are many different BI tools, and it can be hard to pick the right one. For many years, most businesses opted for ZoomInfo because it’s a well-made and reliable tool, but it has become much more expensive recently. If you want something that works similarly but won’t break your budget, you should find a ZoomInfo alternative to help you make sense of all of the data you collect, but for less money.
Interviews
Interviews work similarly to surveys, and they consist of asking people questions and receiving the answers. However, while surveys are always done in a written format, interviews are performed in person or via a phone/video call.
Interviews are best suited for businesses who are performing market research and approaching their target customers to hear their opinion about a product or service.
This method is an excellent source of customer data because it has a high level of responsiveness, and the data is available to the interviewer immediately. Another added bonus is that the respondents can ask for clarification on any questions they might not understand, which isn’t the case for surveys.
However, if you choose to interview your customers to collect data, keep in mind that the process will be time-consuming, and you may have an issue with the “interviewer effect.” This is a term used when respondents aren’t entirely truthful because the interviewer is present.
Focus groups
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All of the methods we discussed so far are examples of quantitative research, which involves data based on numbers and statistics. On the other hand, focus groups focus on qualitative research, meaning they want to find out the opinions and feelings of the respondents.
While they aren’t used as much as they were in the past, companies shouldn’t give up on focus groups. It’s best to use them when launching a new product so you can determine how well it’s going to be received by the target audience.
They also provide you with a great opportunity to get honest answers about what you should change before the product launch.
Focus groups usually consist of groups of five to ten people who are presented with open-ended questions and asked to provide an honest opinion. As you probably can see, focus groups work similarly to interviews, but they’re much more cost-effective and require more detailed discussion.
When inviting people to your focus group, it’s essential to make sure it’s all-inclusive and that you can hear the opinion of different people. Don’t allow a few vocal people to drown out the rest of the group, but make sure everyone’s opinion is heard.
Final thoughts
Customer data is one of the most valuable resources you have, and you shouldn’t allow it to slip through your fingers. You will have to work hard to collect and analyze that data, but there won’t be any issues if you know the best ways to do so.
