Customer Research Basics Customer Research Defined Customer Research includes the process of identifying who will use a given product or service, understanding the needs and preferences of these users, and determining levels of satisfaction. Customer research is conducted as part of the marketing process along with product evaluation, advertising and promotion. Primary market research involves information collection techniques such as questionnaires, telephone interviews, and focus groups. Since primary research can be expensive, secondary research may be conducted as a starting point.
Secondary research is market research that already exists and was conducted by someone else.
Though this research was conducted for different objectives, some of the information available as secondary research can be helpful as a foundation for primary research. Qualitative research methods, such as focus groups, are generally used to gain insights and obtain a frame of reference from smaller groups of consumers within a given market segment in order to prepare for and complement quantitative research. This type of research can often give us general information about how our customers are thinking and feeling about a product or service. Qualitative research does not statistically represent a target market so its results are not considered statistically valid. Usually questionnaires and formalized surveying methods are used to obtain this information.