Who can give you the best advice on improving your business? Your accountant, marketing specialist or perhaps a business consultant? The truth is the best source of ideas for building your business is free. It comes from your customers and prospective customers. All you have to do is ask. Listen to what your customers have to say and you will discover your strengths, weaknesses and, most importantly, what they would like.

I can hear you saying that you do listen to your customers. But which customers do you hear? Probably those that complain because they were unhappy with your products and/or service. At the other end of the scale, you also hear from the customers who are your biggest fans. While the input of these two groups is undoubtedly valuable, they make up less than 10% of your clientele and they most certainly are not representative of the silent majority that accounts for the bulk of your business.

The best way to find out what your customers and prospective customers think of your business and what they want from you is to conduct a survey. Excellent customer survey software makes it very easy to create, run and analyze professional quality surveys.

The following story illustrates the value of customer surveys. A modestly successful retail store owner was proud of his business that offered an extensive selection of top quality merchandise at very reasonable prices. He paid above average wages to ensure his customers received attentive and knowledgeable service.

After conducting a customer survey, he discovered that his customers did not care about his extensive variety of high quality merchandise and, in fact, wanted some less expensive options. Service was not a major consideration in the decision to shop at his store and neither were good prices. The main reason that people shopped at his store was its convenient downtown location and ample free parking.

You can guess the rest. He dropped items that were not selling well and added some lower quality lines. Prices gradually rose while his wages decreased. All his ads now prominently mentioned his convenient location and ample free parking. His sales increased somewhat but, most importantly, his profits tripled. And one more thing he now does regular customer surveys.