How To Use Customer Wants For Your Business Advantage

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what customers are looking for in a product? What about taking the time asking them what they prefer your shop to look like and some other details that they want whenever they purchase from your store?

Finding out what your customers really want is a crucial step in achieving a higher retention rate and customer loyalty towards your brand. But even if you already know what your customers are looking for? How are you going to use that information to your business’s advantage? These are crucial questions that you need to ask yourself and find answers for especially as you seek to bring your business towards growth and development.

But what are the basic customer wants and what are the steps that you can take so they would all turn into helpful business development tools? We’re going to discuss these things in this article but before that, let’s differentiate customer wants versus customer needs? They may sound similar but they are actually not so just read on to find out why.

Customer Needs Vs. Customer Wants: Which is the Top Priority?

If you’re asking which one is more important than the other then our answer is “it depends” on the overall situation. For instance, your business could be serving a specific group that all share the same problems/issues, have the same belief, love the same color, idolize the same celebrity, etc. so that means that you are already serving their functional, social, and emotional needs. This group of customers may have something in mind that they want your shop to offer like credit card payments and other forms of flexible payment terms. This is where the want needs to be addressed first.

It is normal for a business to address customer needs whether consciously or unconsciously but it’s the wants that need more focus especially as the business starts growing. Running a successful business alone means that you’re already catering to the needs so in order to grow even more and gain more loyalty from existing customers, you’ll need to start listening to their wants and make sure they are dealt with every single time when possible!

But what are the basic customer wants and how you can you ensure that they are being addressed? Let’s now start with the real meat of this article and go directly to the first customer want that you need to be working on if you really want your business to serve customers in the best possible way.

1. They Want The Best Selection of Products

This can mean many things. For instance, customers may want to see more variety of products or they could be looking for higher quality ones. Others may also look for products that are lower-priced. Your customers may also be looking for a particular brand that is not available in your area. Don’t make that crucial decision of adding products right away. Study every detail first or even do market research to ensure that your efforts will actually return good profit or you’re putting yourself at the risk of losing. Adding more products will be a beneficial move if it will make you some profit in return but if it does not then you need to explore other creative ways in addressing this want from your customers.

2. They Want You to Stay Open For Longer

Customers want to be able to shop at their most convenient time. This means that your business needs to stay open for longer hours each day. It may also mean that you need to open earlier each morning then close much later in the evening. Also consider opening your shop 24/7 so you can cater to the needs of all your customers no matter what time it is that they prefer to spend for shopping or making business with your store. Aside from the aspect of time, your customers may also want to see you opening an online shop where they can place orders and purchase their favorites no matter where they are. Starts addressing this by first analyzing when most of your customers go to your shop then make the adjustments as you see fit.

3. They’re Looking for Multiple Modes of Payment

There are customers who really want to purchase your product or use your service but the problem is your shop or business doesn’t accept the mode of payment that they want to use or is available for them. That is why offering not just one but two or more mode of payments is a good idea. Just remember that there are additional risks and costs that come with accepting checks or credit card payments so be sure that you’ve set the right pricing that does not hurt your profit. Also, it is important that your employees know how to verify checks and as well as credit card payments.

4. They Want Excellent Customer Support

Take every step to learn how your customer service team is treating your customers. Ensuring that you have excellent and highly-trained agents is crucial especially in our modern time that runs on “Review Economy”. Start by training incoming customer support agents and equipping them with the right skills so they can show empathy and make customers feel they are well taken care of whenever they get engaged with your business and fall into certain issues along the way. Measuring how well your agents perform can be challenging but consider hiring a secret shopper or even do it by yourself if you really want to get the information first-hand.

5. They Want To Be Heard

Lastly, your customers also want to be heard so be sure to offer several options for them to leave feedback about your product or business. You can send survey emails or make it available on your website for easier access. After-order questionnaires also work great so tell your webmaster to implement it so you can start collecting customer feedback which will help point out the aspects and other details that need some fixing or improvement.

Make Heeding Customer Wants a Habit

Customer wants are the crucial details that you need to be focused in finding as your business grows. These are the aspects of your business which customers will be happy about when they start seeing some improvements on. Those details will also be instrumental in ensuring that your customers are satisfied and will eventually drive growth as more and more people flock to your business from loyal customer’s genuine recommendations.

That is why heeding what your customer wants and making sure that every single one of them is addressed at the right time and in the right manner is crucial in business growth. It is not enough that their needs are served; you also need to put their wants into consideration and when you do, take every precaution and couple every effort with proper study so you won’t make any move that can result in a business disaster.

‍