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Customer Satisfaction & Lifecycle: All Customers Aren't Created Equal

As companies move toward better understand their customers by collecting and utilizing transactional sales and survey research data, they often have to take a step back and ask themselves if they are collecting the right information from the right customers at the right times. Recently, many larger companies are moving toward surveying customers throughout the customer lifecycle. Rather than spending all of their resources on current customers, many companies are starting to focus on various customer segments at different points in their lifecycle, such as:

  • Prospective Customers (new market or competitive customers)

  • New Customers (early life customers)

  • Current Customers (traditionally surveyed, i.e. customer satisfaction)

  • Vulnerable Customers (customers at risk of leaving)

  • Lost Customers (where did they go and why)

  • Internal Customers (employees being your most important customers)

  • Shareholders (making sure their interests are being served)

Depending on your business environment and business strategy, all customers are definitely NOT created equal when it comes to marketing research. Prevent any potential oversights by always completely thinking and rethinking your project strategy and be sure to take your project through the Six Steps of Market Research. Ask plenty of questions and get as many high-level managers involved in the process as you can. While time consuming and sometimes painful, the payoff can come in the form of higher productivity and profits.


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