According to The New York Times' Jay Goltz "customers have a better understanding than the owners" of things that work or don't work in a small business organization. Goltz column earlier this year outlined several causes for small business failures, among which was an inadequate understanding of business strengths and weaknesses. Customers of course hold the key to future business success, but it is surprising how many organizations remain oblivious to important customer opinions.
In the internet world, customer feedback is perhaps even more important.All too frequently, companies that rely upon online sales or internet marketing fail to adequately interact with the ones that have the power to make an enterprise a success or a failure. Real, live customers provide insight into what makes a small business successful. Online business entrepreneurs that listen to their customers and ask insightful questions can apply what is learned to help their online marketing effort.
Why did you purchase from us? Many small businesses fail to ask this simple question of customers in relation to why they chose a particular merchant or vendor. A live customer response usually reveals certain 'key words' or descriptions that summarize the purchaser's decision. These words and phrases are clues to not only why the customer selected a given enterprise with which to do business but it can (and should) influence how future customers might be attracted to the company web page when searching for information about the product or service.
No detail is too small in researching keywords with live customers. Really listening and understanding what makes customers return is hugely important to ongoing business, but also in attracting new business. When listening to the customer explain her or his reasons for using a particular company, listen for words that may be applied as 'keywords' in blog posts, web page titles or web content. These keywords generally summarize the 'need' being fulfilled by purchase of the product or service.
Of course, one has to take the time to do this. Budgeting proper time to interact with live customers either over the phone or preferably in-person, is a sacrifice of management time as well as a significant investment of analytical time. Organizations that conduct business online will frequently reach out to purchasers via the old fashioned telephone to gather these opinions. The information that comes out of such an effort is 'gold' as the entire online internet and SEO strategy can be formed around the terms used by happy customers.
There are many selection criteria for choosing keywords upon which to base the business web page SEO and internet strategy. There are also a great many 'standard' methods for selecting the words themselves, including a variety of online keyword selection tools. The important feature of keyword research though is that the resulting descriptions are both accurate and descriptive. If keywords accurately describe the business, good internet traffic may result. Poorly selected keywords frequently result from ideas the owner ship team brought to the company without benefit of research or a small business marketing plan.
So in addition to asking the simple question 'why' a customer chose a particular business, here are some other useful questions to discuss with buyers that a business owner should ask each customer.
"How would you (the customer) describe the business?"
"Have you purchased from us before? Why?
"What made you place the order or visit us for this purchase?"
"How did you find us?"
Of course there are many other questions that may be relevant to a specific business type, but it is important to be extremely respectful of the customer's time. Some successful entrepreneurs have a list of several questions, but only ask one at any time. Documenting results is also important, taking care to write the customer's answer. Later examination can reveal words and phrases that can be effectively used in the company SEO keyword strategy. In the end, direct customer interaction can provide feedback that guides future business growth.
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