The proximity and personalized treatment allow SMEs to get to know their consumers better.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Large companies allocate large budgets to know their consumers : market research, databases, tests, surveys, product testing, etc., however, these tools are out of the reach of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by the costs that represent them, what can they do then?
A consumer is a person who demands your products or services to satisfy certain needs, if your business manages to do it in the right way it will be laying a pillar for its success, otherwise it will be building its failure.
However, SMEs have two advantages over large corporations with respect to customers. One of them is the proximity with them, so they can know first-hand what their tastes and consumer preferences are and generate a relationship, create links with benefits for each of the parties involved.
The personalized treatment is another advantage since it allows them to know and improve the sales process, closely attend to the needs of the clients, solve problems in a more effective way and have a more direct communication.
These two aspects, proximity and personalized treatment, allow SMEs to get to know their customers better and ensure a product or service that is more in line with the creation of a value relationship and generate long-term loyalty.
There is a lot of information that SMEs can collect from their clients, however, there are ten basic things that they should know:
- The percentage of men and women who consume you
- Where are you? (your geographic location)
- How old are you?
- What is the income they have?
- What is the educational level they handle?
- What is your marital status? (Single, married, divorced, family lifestyle and number of children)
- Why do they prefer your products to those of the competition?
- How do they see your competition?
- How loyal are they?
- What are your consumption patterns? (What products they consume, the frequency, are sensitive to price variations, offers, with what type of offers they react as well as the means of payment, etc.).
This data can be stored in a CRM program, for analysis to later create an offer more focused on your tastes and preferences, and even for the customization of offers.
You should never lose sight of the fact that information is the key to everything. Knowing who your consumers are will allow you to adapt your product, focus marketing efforts but above all optimize resources and save money by focusing only on the market segment that is of interest to your business.