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MARKET RESEARCH The Gen Y business owners and managers are technically savvy. They like to connect on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. Surveys can reveal which sites these executives not only visit but also value, and therefore which sites an operator should focus on building for successful promotions. Competitive analysis Many businesses conduct surveys to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors. For example, a more technologically advanced vending owner may be hurting another operators' business and costing him or her opportunities by chatting-up advanced capabilities and, at the same time, making the other frm look old fashioned or out-of-touch with the needs of today's businesses. Surveys can reveal what other competitors are saying about an operation and if there is some measure of credibility in those statements. Demand for new products and services Surveys often reveal the need for new or additional products and services. New ideas are often hatched from suggestions or needs voiced by customers. A survey can indicate what these needs are. If the approach is truly novel and different it can help give the company the "frst-in" sales and marketing advantage and a huge edge on the competition. Knowing what new products a location wants will lead to greater sales. Developing a new business plan Customer research can reveal more than what clients like and dislike about an operation. The information can be used to discard products and services that are not resonating with the location and make the appropriate changes immediately, or 20 Automatic Merchandiser SURVEY responses revealed St. Louis vending customers would pay more for healthy foods. in the future. For example, should an operator improve offce coffee service offerings? Do specialty or local brands have greater appeal for a certain location? Survey responses gathered for a vending client in St. Louis revealed that their customers were willing to pay more for healthy foods as opposed to standard snack machine brands. The information helped the business determine that they could leverage the healthy foods to increase proft margins. The research also indicated that the vending company could target larger frms, with 200 employees or more. The company began offering and creating micro markets with a few customers. Now the vending business has several micro markets in the works and the opportunity to capture larger clients and increase revenues. Cost effectiveness Consider the costs of retaining a client versus those of replacing one. Finding a new client takes hours of work prospecting, attending sales meetings, generating requests for proposals (RFP)s and follow-up to secure a relationship. Instead, opera- Connect with customers about: • Level of vending service • Effectiveness of a marketing plan • Competitor ranking • New products and services VendingMarketWatch.com April 2013 tors should focus on client retention, which involves a few telephone question and answer exchanges that can reveal a great amount of customer dissatisfaction, or satisfaction. Customer surveys need not be expensive. The cost depends on whether the survey is done in-house or outsourced and the needs of the business and size of the database. In-house surveys will cost anywhere from $50 to $150 per hour factoring in the manager or president's time doing the survey in addition to standard work, as well as understanding the nuances of creating a survey or interpreting the results. For an outsourced survey, operators can expect to pay $22 to $24 per hour with an established marketing company. This can include as little as 2.5 hours per week surveying new customers or up to 10 hours per week for research geared to the entire customer base. Whether a company conducts surveys in-house or outsources them, they are an effcient way to connect with customers and allow operators to plot the next steps for increasing revenue in their business. In a highly competitive industry, the only way to give customers what they want is to ask them frst. Vicky Hudson is CEO/Founder of Hudson Management Services in St. Louis, Mo. She and her frm work with clients on a nationwide basis to help them with customer surveys, marketing research, teleprospecting and sales support. She can be reached at vhudson@hudsonmanagementservices.net.