Tuning into what people think about your small business is a vital task.

By Henry Brown

When you run a business, what everyone else thinks about it is very important. If people don’t like what they see from your business, then that could explain your poor sales figures. And it could explain why people buy from you once and don’t come back. Even if things are going well for your business, it can be a very good idea to monitor what people are saying and thinking about your business.

So, how do you go about doing this? It’s not always easy, but it can be done. There are three key methods of discovering what people think of your business and its products. Find out more about them below.

Focus groups

Focus are best for finding out what people think of your products and services. What your business is offering is its bread and butter. If people don’t like the products or services that you trade, then they’re not going to become customers. Testing your products with focus groups is something that should be done before they actually reach the market for the best outcomes.

You can then think about what the focus group told you. There are many focus group companies out there that can organize a group for you. They will select people who are generally representative of your target market. That way, you can be sure that your products or services appeal to the right kinds of people before they actually go on sale.

Monitor mentions and reviews

When your products are out there, and customers are interacting with your business, stronger opinions will start to form. You want to know what people are saying, and, thanks to social media, this is now easy to get this information. You can use a company like Chatmeter to track social mentions on all the top social media platforms. This is where people discuss your brand these days, so it’s an important indicator.

Reviews are important, too. There are many different types of review out there. Some reviews are carried out by known media outlets. But bloggers and Youtube vloggers also have huge influence in the digital environment, so it’s worth following what they say. There are also customer review sites where people can leave posts about their experiences with businesses.

Collect post-purchase feedback

After a specific customer buys from your company, they will have time to think about their purchase. Whether it’s a product or service, they will generate an opinion of it before long. And they will also have thoughts relating to the customer service experience they received from you. You need to go directly to the customers and ask for feedback from then to uncover these thoughts.

There are many ways of collecting this kind of feedback. These days, many companies just send out an email a couple of weeks after the purchase asking for feedback. This normally comes in the form of questionnaires with multiple choice questions laid out in an easy to understand way. You need to make it as quick and easy for customers to leave feedback if you want them to engage with it.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.