Value of Consumer Behavior Studies

Market research and customer satisfaction are hot industries. There are so many different strategies that people can use – so many different aspects of customer purchasing behavior to consider – that studies are being conducted at major universities as well as both for profit and non-profit companies to find out what it is that makes customers tick. This research is often extremely informative.

Indeed, there are studies have identified hundreds of factors of customer defection, the efficacy of new customer satisfaction programs, and so on. There is ample research out there, and many of it can influence the strategies you choose to use with your own company.

But there lies an interesting question: Howe beneficial is this information for your own company? Is it possible to take the information available from these published papers and apply it directly to the way that your own company operates?

The reality is that you can’t necessarily take information directly from these reports and plug them in to your own plans. This is for a variety of reasons: All Companies Differ You can learn a lot from these papers, but not every aspect of it is going to be applicable to you.

For example, your company may benefit from increasing purchasing more than reducing defections depending on your business model, or customers may be influenced by things that are not in your control (or may be in your control) that may not be true in other research. Number Meaning Much like customers differ, so too does the research. Numerous studies have found that specific scores do not have widespread value.

A company that scores a 5 on a satisfaction score may be great for one company and terrible for another. How you read your own scores requires your own research, and interpreting value from other research isn’t helpful. Feasibility There are hundreds, possibly thousands of factors that influence things like customer satisfaction.

It’s impossible to target all of them, but the degree to which they affect your business is going to differ. With your finite resources, you need to target the areas that are most important to your business, so even if another paper states that a different aspect of customer purchasing is important, you cannot necessarily take that at face value.

Research papers are a great way to learn more about the potential programs you can use in your company, and may help you understand your customers better. But you cannot depend on them as though they are going to solve your business. Each business is different, and you need to perform your own research and see what your company needs to target.