Customer research is a place where your fashion business can always benefit from asking better questions. The more you know about your customers, the better you will be able to make clothes that truly fit them. Asking questions is a great way to get any conversation going.
On episode 74 of the How Fitting podcast, Jane Hamill and I talked about identifying and connecting with your ideal customers. In the episode, Jane walks us through asking your customers (or potential customers) better questions.
What she learned from experience was that certain questions yielded more insightful answers than others.
Avoid asking questions like:
- Do you like this?
- Would you buy it?
- Is this design good?
- Would you wear something like this?
People will just answer ‘yes’ to questions like these because, as Jane pointed out, “they’re nice and they want to think they’re somebody who would buy” and “human nature is that we are very optimistic about our future behavior.” ‘Yes’ isn’t helpful, though, if it only stems from politeness.
Ask instead:
- What were the last three items you purchased for XYZ purpose?
- Where did you buy those items?
- How much did you spend on them?
- What do you love the most about each?
- What have you gone out shopping to buy, but not been able to find?
See the difference? Not only are the second questions more specific, but, as Jane explained in the episode “you’re asking them about their current behavior, not about some fantasy future behavior”. This is a powerful distinction! What people would like to do is not always the same as what they actually do. To make clothes that actually sell, you need to know what your customers actually buy.
Do you have a customer research question that gets you stellar responses every time? If you’re willing to share, hit reply and let me know! (With your permission, I’ll share replies anonymously in a future newsletter.)