How to Create a Customer Profile and Increase Your Sales

Understanding your customers is crucial for business success. A customer profile provides you with detailed information about the people who are buying products and services from your business. This information is extremely valuable for developing effective marketing material, improving your sales rate, gaining customer loyalty and securing new customers. Building an accurate profile of your customers enables you to focus your marketing efforts for maximum impact.

Analyze Existing Customers

Existing customers are a valuable source of useful information. The more you know about your customers, the easier it will be to provide the products and services they really want. You can also use this information to target new customers and generate interest in your products. Purchase records can help to get a general idea of your customers’ needs, but talking directly to your customers is the best way to gather more detailed information.

Customer surveys and questionnaires are simple tools for gathering general information and statistics, while feedback forms allow the customers to add comments about specific aspects of your business. Offering vouchers or free products for customers who take part in longer surveys is often the best strategy for learning about your target audience.

Collecting the Right Information

Choosing the right information to collect will depend on the type of business you are running. If you sell directly to the public, you will want to collect general statistics, such as the age, location, job title and annual income of your customers. Other useful information may include your customers’ hobbies, interest, marital status and spending habits.

Understanding your customers’ values and beliefs can be far more useful than knowing about their general interests, but it can be difficult to gather information about personal beliefs through surveys and questionnaires. Eavesdropping and following conversations on social media can provide greater insight into customer values and beliefs.

If you are selling products to other businesses, you will need to research the individual companies and their business operations. Look at their mission statement, website, blog posts and social media accounts to gather information about their business.

Create a Database

Use the information gathered from previous orders and repeat purchases to create a database of useful statistics about your customers. Look for patterns in their buying habits. Perhaps some products are only popular at specific times, or maybe customers tend to buy a certain product at similar intervals. This information can prove valuable for email marketing. You can also look at your profit margins and marketing costs to see which products are the most profitable.

Listen to Complaints

Customer complaints are a valuable source of information and can help you to improve your services. However, when they have a problem, many customers will take to social media or forums, rather than contacting the company directly. Keep an eye on social media chatter concerning your business and perform regular searches of forums and review sites to see what people are saying about your company.

Creating a customer profile gives you valuable information that can help to develop your marketing material, increase sales and bring in new customers. Create a customer profile by analyzing existing customers, getting the right information, creating a database and listening to complaints.

The Atlanta Small Business Network, from startup to success, we are your go-to resource for small business news, information, resources.