SmallBusinessNewz

It's all too possible for professional marketers and businesspeople to spend days or weeks thinking about customers, only to then come up with a completely wrong approach.  So here's a simple solution: if you need to find out about someone's opinions or needs, ask.

Admittedly, a lot of people won't be interested in the chance to offer their opinion - just think about how many receipts promoting online surveys you've thrown away.  Also, folks may not appreciate a more in-your-face (and time-consuming) approach like cashiers peppering them with questions at the point of purchase.

Then here's one more potential problem: there may be a sort of self-selection bias, with the chatty people who choose to take a survey being unusually disappointed that there aren't more sales clerks to answer questions, for example.

Still, a post on the Small Business Blog from Microsoft suggested, "This can be as easy as sending an inexpensive (or sometimes free) online survey via Surveymonkey or Emma.  If you have a shop, offer an incentive to all customers who come in to fill out a quick questionnaire.  Invite your customers to an informal focus group with some drinks and snacks and offer them a coupon as an incentive."

Or, "If you're an online or service business, offer a discount code, or 50% off their next service; always offer some type of incentive for their valuable time and participation."

This is definitely an easy way to find out what some customers are thinking.