When you start your own business as an electric appliance store owner or distributor, the first step you need to take is to investigate the market you are to target. Understanding your customers as well as your competitors is the fastest way to acquaint yourself with the market. Get to know your customers so well that you can anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations. Knowing who your competitors are, and what they are offering, can help you to narrow down your product selection, and to make services and marketing stand out.

Here are several tips to help you get to know your customers and your competitors in business more deeply and thoroughly.

1. Walk in your customer’s shoes           

To get to know your customers, you need put yourself in your customer’s position, which means you are required to take a hard look at the points at which your customers have contact with your business. There are several ways you can get in touch with your customers to get know if they are satisfied with your service and products , including your website forms, phone calls and emails as well as meetings, visits and deliveries.

• Customer motivation research

Researching consumer motivation may be a particularly fruitful source of innovation.

We can use market research to get a better understanding of consumer motivation. On the contrary, when there are barriers constraining consumption — you can begin to identify possible opportunities for business innovation and expansion.

To account for differences between specific types of consumers and how they approach the buying process can also be used to guide future product development and marketing strategies to boost your bottom line.

• customer satisfaction survey

The fact that not everyone complains when they are dissatisfied makes the customer satisfaction survey quite essential. Unless you proactively consult your customers, you may never discover where you are going wrong. Well-compiled customer surveys can tell you things you may not know, including human factors such as staff behaviour. 

Conduct a customer satisfaction survey and you will make your customers feel valued. When you do make improvements, tell your customers what you have done as a result of their feedback. BUT don't ask for feedback if you're not prepared to make changes. It will make them feel worse if they realize you set light by their opinions. 

• In your customer’s shoes

Apart from the customer contact programme to ensure you keep in touch with your clients, you also can act as a customer by following your touch points, interaction procedures and carrying out transactions will also give you important insight. For example, is your branding top-notch and consistent at every point? Does your email and social media messaging flow and match? Are there any barriers in place to purchasing?

Make sure you make reviewing your customer experience a regular activity. You’ll gain understanding, as well as identify areas of improvement and innovation.

2. Understand Your Competitors

No matter what product or service your business offers, it will always face competition. Understanding your competitors and their business practices is the key to success. The most commonly used methods are as follows.

• Do a competitive analysis

Knowing who your key competitors are and assessing their strengths and weaknesses is an essential step that can illuminate specific growth strategies and ways to differentiate your products and services.

When analyzing the competition, consider the following questions:

Who are the main industry participants, and what is their market share?

What products or services do they sell, and what is their value proposition?

Which products and brands are growing more significantly and why?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?

What strategies can you employ to build an advantage?

• Speak to Your Competitors

If you use the right approach, you can learn a lot of information about a company by simply contacting them and asking the right questions. While they certainly won’t divulge all of their business strategies, it’s possible to get high-level information such as the size of the company, current product offerings and new markets they may be moving into. Again, even small pieces of information are helpful in putting together the overall puzzle.

• Check Social Media

Simply monitoring social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn can offer a lot of insight into what competitors are saying. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the internet is that people speak their minds. This is especially true on review sites such as Yelp or Trip Advisor. Google also offers users the chance to review businesses, all of which is available for free online.

Researching your customers and competitors is easier than it may seem. Ask yourself these questions to see where you can improve. Being critical of your own business and taking inspiration from your customers and competitors can help you be more competitive.