How to Get Feedback Data You Can Use

Your customers know what they want and expect from you. They know what your brand stands for, what they expect to find in your catalog and on your Web site, and the average prices for your merchandise. They’re also savvy about the quality and level of customer satisfaction they can expect from you.

Your job, meanwhile, is to determine if you’re retaining your focus in customers’ eyes. Are you still providing the products or customer service they want? Are your copy and graphics lacking in what customers need to know before they make their purchase decisions? Do customers think your prices no longer accurately reflect their perceived value of your merchandise?

As you’ll read in this article, getting customer feedback is the first step to understanding what it takes to retain buyers. Once you have that knowledge, you’ll then need to understand what the data mean, and then translate the information into actionable steps that can make a difference in your business.

Next, you’ll want to repeat your research on an annual or biannual basis to monitor customers’ expectations, attitudes, and perceptions of your catalog and your offerings. In this way, you can detect changes in customer needs and attitudes early enough to divert major retention problems later on.

Research Objectives

Merchants tell us their typical research objectives for client retention include the following:

1. Determine merchandise selection, new product categories and unique products found only in their catalogs or on their Web sites.

2. Look at their catalogs amid their competition. Discuss with staff members the pros and cons of product layout, copy and photography to determine if the catalog accurately reflects what customers say they expect to receive.

Three Research Methodologies

1. Focus groups are the most widely used form of qualitative research today. They allow you to probe specific areas of interest through face-to-face customer feedback. A focus group also is a good way to get reactions to your creative concepts. It allows you to hear directly from your customers in their own words about what’s important to them and what’s not.

I strongly suggest that your focus group concentrate on key areas of your catalog — e.g., creative, merchandise and offers — so you can get immediate reactions. Also, use the focus group as a way to discuss current and potential product lines that may be of interest to your buyers.

For example, have your moderator (the research director asking questions of focus group participants) probe into customers’ interest in possible new products while showing visual depictions of those items. Gather immediate reactions to new products and whether focus group participants would consider buying those items from you. A women’s apparel catalog that’s considering carrying a line of jewelry may ask for customer input regarding variety, styles, pricing and anticipated visual layouts. This is a great example of a business objective translated into a research objective.

In our work, merchants hire us to help them get feedback from their customers. In the catalog customer focus groups we organize, we sometimes ask shoppers to bring with them other catalogs they receive and buy from that are most similar to the catalog we’re investigating (i.e., our catalog client). By examining those competitive catalogs, we can discern much about customers’ purchase decision-making, including from where else they shop, what they buy and why — and it’s all based on real-world examples. This also provides our catalog clients with the strengths and weaknesses of their competing brands.

We then zero in on the catalog in question and ask focus group participants for their reactions. This gives us valuable feedback regarding the creative aspects of the direct mail pieces, and allows us to delve into whether or not the product benefits are clear and if getting the catalog motivates recipients to buy.

Each focus group is comprised of just one segment of participants at a time and lasts roughly two hours. A good research company will design and develop your focus group moderator’s guide and participant screener, as well as conduct the group activities for you.

Focus group participants should provide you with qualitative, directional information regarding your business, such as:
- from where they currently buy product categories that you carry;
- what they need and expect from you;
- other products to consider offering;
- page layout ideas; and
- what they want to see in terms of product copy, especially as it relates to helping buyers determine which products to purchase.

What can you expect to hear from focus groups of your customers? Following are examples of what we sometimes hear from them:
- “There just isn’t anything I want to buy.”
- “I’ve ordered from them before, and the colors aren’t true to what’s in the catalog.”
- “I didn’t expect the fabric to be what it was, based on the description and photos.”

The objective of focus groups is to gather qualitative, directional information. Since they’re qualitative in nature, they’re usually followed up by a form of quantitative research such as the following.

2. Phone surveys offer the opportunity to speak with many customers, get detailed data and control the number of completed surveys by client segment. The latter is important for data analysis from varying customer segments. For this type of quantitative research, we generally request the catalog client give us its best buyers and lapsed customers, whom we then call.

In addition to quantifying the information discovered from focus groups, phone surveys allow us to investigate other issues such as:
- lifecycle of purchases;
- customers’ reasons for buying from the catalog;
- the impact of competitive offers;
- the quality of merchandise and assortment;
- how easy or difficult it was for customers to navigate through and order from the cataloger’s Web site; and
- customer lifestyle and demographic questions.

A good research company will design the telephone questionnaire, conduct the phone surveys, tabulate and analyze the data, and write a final report on its results.

3. Online surveys enable you to get statistically reliable data on which to base business decisions. And they’re excellent means of obtaining immediate responses from your e-mail recipients. Online surveys typically consist of 15 to 20 questions. The process includes sending an e-mail message regarding the survey directly to your customers, and inviting them to log on to a URL where the survey is hosted. An experienced research company will develop the online survey; send the e-mail blasts; tabulate and analyze the data; and write a final report.

Start With the Goal in Mind

The first step to conducting successful research, no matter what type you choose, is to understand what you want. By knowing your goals and research objectives, you can better translate those objectives into questions your customers can answer. This will help ensure that you get results you can use.

For example, if you want to better understand how your company’s customer service affects customers’ perception of your catalog, you could ask during the focus group or surveys a quantitative question such as: “On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate the responsiveness of our customer service reps when you call with a question or problem?”

Point to keep in mind: Survey sample size can vary depending on the affinity your customers have with your title. Plan to have a minimum of 300 responses per customer segment in order to assure statistically valid data. (Response rates for an online survey will vary according to the number of e-mails sent.) If your sample size is large enough, and you get a healthy response rate, you should have a reliable body of data to answer your questions and on which to base business decisions.

Our catalog clients have been able to take the research results that have been analyzed in an unbiased way, and apply the results to each of their research questions. The answers to their questions then are reviewed to determine the impact on the business and what changes, if any, should be made.

By providing products that customers want and including the benefits along with representative visuals at an accurately perceived value price, you will not only retain customers, but you also may see them increase their buying frequency and average order size.

Lilliane LeBel is vice president at Decision Direct Research, a full-service research and consulting company and a division of Millard Group. Decision Direct Research supplies critical research, analysis and strategic consulting to clients to help them expand their businesses. Contact LeBel at (603) 924-9262 or llebel@millard.com.