For Small Businesses, It’s The Small Things That Count
by Leeia Ladipoh on May 9th, 2008
Dell, one of the biggest names in computers today, has started going into the streets asking people what they think about their computers. They are asking customers what they like and don’t like and what they would like them to add.
This helps when it comes to making future computers, because they are finding out what people want and therefore what will sell.
There are several places on the Internet that take surveys like this to find out what people like and don’t like about certain products.
Give ‘Em What They Want
As a small business owner of a product-based company, it is your job to give the people what they want. If yours is like many small businesses, you don’t have the funds needed to have a market research department.
Instead, you can go to some of these survey websites that are free or low cost and see what people are saying about the products that you are selling. Even big companies have steered away from the high cost of market research departments and are using these types of websites.
This saves them money; and in the long run, saves their customers money as well.
Survey Options
Some of the websites that are free or low cost are: Survey Gizmo, and IContact.
These surveys are a way to go out and talk to your customers to find out what they think about your products. What do they like about them? What do they not like about them? How would they recommend improving them?
Once you have the answers to these questions, then you can take all of your findings back to your office and move ahead from there.
Time is Money….
In a small business where every dollar counts, you have to make decision about what areas in your company will get the most money. Most of the time, the market research department gets the least amount of money. That is why it is so good that those websites are available.
Market research is important to the success of any small business. Thankfully, there are cheaper ways of getting the job done without breaking the bank. When you have other things to worry about, like just getting back and forth to work with the price of gas these days, you’re glad to save as many pennies as you can.
I’m not saying you have to be cheap in running your business, but you do have to know how to delegate your money.
You can choose to be like to big companies and go to these websites and get the information you need, or you can go out and talk with your customers about your products and what they think of them.
The most important thing to remember is that in a small business you have to keep moving forward. You cannot stay the same and expect your customers to stick around.
In order to move forward, you have to make changes – and who better to tell you what to do than the people that are actually using your products?