High customer expectations today mean that HVAC, electrical, landscaping and other home service industries have to make daily choices that affect the company’s revenue stream, reputation, and growth potential.
If you operate in these industries, your gut instinct alone isn’t going to be enough. For example, by using market research, you can effectively utilize your company’s resources to develop strategic plans based on collective data rather than having to guess what is right for your business.
If you decide to partner with a market research company, you can improve your understanding of your customers and what they want, you can find better avenues of growth, and you can reduce the amount of risk associated with your marketing and expansion strategies.
Understanding Customer Expectations
The expectations of customers for home services have changed considerably over time. In today’s world, the importance of transparency, reliability, and convenience are valued equally with price. Business market research is necessary to determine the criteria that are most significant to consumers when selecting a vendor.
Business market research supplies a company with data to help understand the key elements that affect customer decisions, for example, response time, rating(s) and review(s), price transparency, and service guarantees, based on survey results and data collected from interviews and customer behavior data.
By applying this knowledge, an organisation can ensure that they formulate business operations and marketing strategies based on how consumers prioritise time, money and value, rather than on the assumptions made by the organisation.
Identifying High-Value Services and Markets
Not all services or locations offer the same growth potential. Market research helps home services businesses identify which services are most in demand and which markets present the strongest opportunities.
Companies have the ability to prioritize resource allocation, when to enter neighborhoods and expand services based on seasonal demand through an analysis of local trends and customer demographics.
Market research firms have the capability to assist businesses in interpreting the findings and implementing actionable plans for growth.
Strengthening Competitive Positioning
By conducting market research, organizations get insight into how they compare to competitors and get an edge in their market. Through this process organizations can learn how to set themselves apart from their competitors and determine what gaps in the market are not currently being filled by competitors.
Understanding where competitors’ position themselves assists companies in enhancing their customer, employee, advertisement, marketing, and all other business services, and developing more effective ways of differentiating their offering in the marketplace based on competitive insights vs. merely competing on pricing.
Enhancing Customer Retention
Growth isn’t just attracting new customers; retaining current customers is less costly and results in greater stability of revenue. By using market research, companies gain insight into why their customers continue to come back, or why they don’t.
Businesses use customer input to improve their internal communications, schedule processes, etc., which will strengthen connections to their customers, enhance the satisfaction of their customers, and create an environment conducive to repeat business and customer testimonials.
Planning for Long-Term Growth
A business needs to conduct market research continuously. Market research can help a business keep up with their customer’s changing requirements, any technology that could affect its operations, and the overall business environment in which it operates.
When a business surveys its customers on a regular basis through research, it can gather data and adjust the company’s strategies and make informed investment decisions. Businesses that use this data in conjunction with their past assumptions have a better chance of consistently growing and being more responsive to the overall changes within the market.
Final Thoughts
Growing home service businesses are increasing their reliance on a data-driven approach to make informed decisions, as well as to grow their business in a very competitive market.
Through understanding customer needs through market research and developing marketing strategies that enhance performance for the business, pricing for products and services and knowing how they stack up against competitors, owners of these companies will have the tools for continued growth.
For long-term success, business owners should evaluate partnering with a marketing research firm for ongoing development of a marketing plan that will support their ability to continually make informed decisions and achieve sustainable growth.
