How to do customer research and the benefits you can reap

What we will cover

• What is customer experience research?
• Why is it important to do research about your customer?
• What problems are your customers trying to solve?
• How do your customers make decisions?
• What values are important to your customers?
• How to do customer research?
• Customer research questions?
• How often should I conduct customer research?

What is customer experience research?

Customer experience research is the process of gathering insights into how people perceive and interact with your brand, products, or services.

Although it sounds very fancy, it is simply the process of conducting an interview with your customers to gather feedback, the quality of the interaction is all about the planning and questions – more on that in a moment.

It sometimes gets muddled with traditional market research, which is more generic and less personalised to your business. Customer research aims to understand the emotional journey customers take, from the problem they had, to why they chose you and beyond.

The goal isn’t just to measure satisfaction but to uncover gaps, frustrations, and moments of delight. For values-led organisations like our clients, this approach helps ensure the solutions offered are not only technically sound but also aligned with the customer’s lived experience.

By investing in customer experience research, you can develop more intuitive services, communicate with greater relevance, and build long-term trust – all of which are essential when working with mission-driven clients or communities.

Why is it important to do research about your customer?

No customer, no business.

For businesses, it builds connection and trust with your customer base. When people feel heard, they’re more likely to stay loyal and advocate for your brand.

It can help you gather great content: testimonials, case studies and stories to showcase your expertise from the customers’ perspective.

From a strategic standpoint, research reduces risk. You’re less likely to invest time and money into features or campaigns that won’t land.

For charities, regenerative enterprises, and public sector clients – where goals often involve balancing sustainability, compliance, and user engagement – customer research allows you to deeply understand their priorities and tailor your services to meet those complex needs.

Understanding your user is key to delivering meaningful, effective products and services.

Customer research helps you make informed decisions based on real-world needs, not assumptions.

And from an ethical perspective, especially for B Corp-certified companies, it ensures your impact is people-centred.

In short, research helps you do better work, for the right people, in the right way.

What problems are your customers trying to solve?

At the core of every business interaction is a problem the customer is trying to solve.

In our instance it may be a marketing manager needing more visibility, an NHS comms lead seeking compliance, or a brand that has lost its direction, understanding these problems is essential.

In our experience, too often we jump to solutions before clarifying the problem. But when you deeply understand your customers’ challenges, you can design more relevant, efficient, and impactful services.

This applies to everything from initial research, website UX to messaging, personal interaction and onboarding through to delivering the services – were on a journey to find out if the experience met the promise.

Sometimes, the challenge isn’t just about what a customer wants either, but the constraints they’re working within, like limited resources, tight timelines, or competing priorities.

When you understand that context, you can position your services in a way that offers clarity, support, and tangible value.

How do your customers make decisions?

As Daniel Kahneman explains in his bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow, customer decisions are rarely made on a whim—they’re shaped by a blend of logic, emotion, group dynamics, and perceived risk.

Understanding your different customers and their drivers will influence your marketing strategy. For instance, the Head of Comms at the NHS may weigh up data, compliance, and stakeholder opinions before signing off on a new website. The marketing manager of an SME may need to convince senior leadership of visual credibility before moving forward.

That’s why customer research should uncover the decision-making process itself. Who is involved? What are the triggers and blockers? What kind of evidence builds confidence? Mapping this journey helps you present the right information at the right time.

Gathering the problems you’ve already solved for existing clients can be incredibly valuable, because what you solved for them may be exactly what your future clients are struggling with now.

These insights can provide great hooky content for adverts or landing pages as well as building credibility to the impact you had for your customers.

When you understand the hurdles others have faced, you can speak directly to those challenges, offer proven solutions, and position yourself as the partner who “gets it” before the customer even finishes explaining.

What values are important to your customers?

In today’s economy (and certainly the future), values influence buying decisions just as much as features or price, especially in sectors aligned with sustainability, social good, or public service.

Your customers want to work with partners who reflect their ethics. You have already aligned with them because they are your customer, but what was the driver behind that? Transparency? Community engagement? Environmental impact? Trust & Accountability?

This is more than messaging, it’s about brand perception. For instance, a green hosting solution isn’t just a technical detail; it’s a value alignment opportunity before someone has bought a product. And, in order to deliver on the promise, it is either a green service you deliver or it isn’t, your customers will tell you.

When your brand and service values resonate with your customers’, you’re no longer just a supplier – you’re a trusted partner. So research helps you speak their language, understand their vision, and support it authentically.

How to do customer research?

Customer research doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be intentional.

Start by defining what you want to learn: Do you need feedback on a product? The buying experience? The brand perception? Insights into customer decision-making? Or a better understanding of their day-to-day challenges?

From there, choose your methods. This will vary depending on the volume of your customers and their engagement with your brand.

Types of research

Surveys can give you scale and quantitative data, however we are naturally sceptical of surveys because of the lack of personal touch and questions over the time it will take and how it will be used.

Interviews and focus groups are better, they offer deep, qualitative insights. They require some personal communication to setup and will make customers feel a part of something that is important to you.

Then theres Usability Tests, these help assess how people interact with your digital platforms and are normally designed to solve specific issues that are identified.

Setting it up Customer research interviews

Begin by identifying potential customers who represent your target audience, try to gather at least 20.

Reach out to them with a friendly, concise, templated email that clearly explains why you’re getting in touch, what you’re hoping to learn, and how grateful you would be for their help.

Use a scheduling tool like Calendly to create a window of available slots, making it easy for them to choose a time that works and automatically sets up a zoom call.

Ask users if it is okay to record the interview so you can get a transcription (remember to turn this setting on in Zoom), this will give you lots of text data to search and analyse for your post-interview reports.

Techniques for delivery

Always seek to listen more than you speak. And once you’ve gathered the data, analyse it for patterns, contradictions, and actionable insights.

Importantly, share findings internally and build them into your planning process. Research is most powerful when it leads to change – not just reporting.

Lastly, you need to build a knockout set of questions and take users on a journey so they understand the context.

Customer research questions?

Good research starts with good questions. Aim to uncover needs, emotions, blockers, and aspirations – this happens in the choice of words you use. For example, which of these will evoke a more decsiptive response:

• Tell me about the sales process?
• What surprised you about the sales process?

The subtle use of adjectives across dozens of questions will create a more engaging overall story.

Get a bunch of ideas down first, they can be ordered later.

Let’s take “customer feedback on a purchase” as an example.

Here are a few examples you might come up with:

• Can you tell me a bit about your role?
• Would you be open to being featured in a case study or client story?
• Did the product/service meet your expectations?
• How did you define success from this purchase?
• What values are important to your organisation?
• What three words would you use to describe the brand?
• What prompted you to seek out the product?
• What was your first impression of the brand?
• How did you feel about the brands website/marketing materials?
• What kinds of things do you typically look for on a supplier’s website?
• Would you recommend the brand to others?
• Has anything changed in how you feel about them since you started working together?
• What led you to choose them in the end?
• What are your biggest challenges right now?
• What would have made this experience feel effortless for you?
• Did the end result live up to the proposal/quote?
• How do you normally stay in touch with the brand?
• What do you think the brand values could be?
• What would you say to someone considering buying from this brand?
• Who else is involved in this decision?
• When buying, what concerns or doubts did you have?
• Would you be happy to provide a short quote we could use?

These are great questions but they dont follow a sales story that the customer can relate to, so perhaps we could order them like this:

Getting to know you:

• Can you tell me a bit about your role?
• Who else is involved in this decision?
• What values are important to your organisation?
• What are your biggest challenges right now?

Researching the purchase:

• What prompted you to seek out the product?
• What was your first impression of the brand?
• How did you feel about the brands website/marketing materials?

Choosing supplier:

• How did you define success from this purchase?
• What kinds of things do you typically look for on a supplier’s website?
• When buying, what concerns or doubts did you have?
• What led you to choose them in the end?

Delivery of purchase:

• Did the product/service meet your expectations?
• What would have made this experience feel effortless for you?
• Has anything changed in how you feel about them since you started working together?
• Did the end result live up to the proposal/quote?

Post purchase:

• What three words would you use to describe the brand?
• How do you normally stay in touch with the brand?
• What do you think the brand values could be?
• Would you recommend the brand to others?
• What would you say to someone considering buying from this brand?
• Would you be open to being featured in a case study or client story?
• Would you be happy to provide a short quote we could use?

This now takes a more linear approach to the interview, and will help you ask relevant questions around the feedback that you get and hold a similar topic for longer.

The goal is to go beyond surface-level answers and get to the sentiment and motivations behind them.

Ask with curiosity, listen with intent, and follow the threads that matter most to your customer.

How does customer insight shape your brand strategy?

So you’ve conducted your interviews, happy days, you’re done right? Not quite.

Even if you are looking to gain feedback on a particular product and the feedback is around the disconnect between the marketing material and the values of the sales team, there is a gift you have just been given – precious feedback you didn’t know you needed.

Consider that your brand isn’t just what you say, it’s what your audience experiences.

Customer insight helps close the gap between intention and perception. By understanding what customers care about, how they talk about their challenges, and what outcomes they seek, you can build a brand that truly resonates.

Insights could inform your messaging, tone of voice, or visual approach. They could identify a need for a brand rename entirely, or a change to the products/services you offer.

When you design your brand strategy with customer research at its heart, you become more relevant, credible, and effective. You also gain a competitive edge by showing that you get your audience – not just sell to them but to create a community around you, built on the values you hold.

How often should I conduct customer research?

Customer research isn’t a one-and-done activity, it’s best considered as an ongoing habit.

Markets shift, needs evolve, and expectations change, that’s why it’s vital to treat research as a continuous loop. It can also feed great ongoing case study content.

At a minimum, review your insights annually, but for active projects, new services, or large campaigns, consider this as part of the initial planning.

For example, conduct short feedback surveys after webinars/talks. Offer Zoom interviews at the end of projects and hold quarterly interviews with key clients.

The more regularly you listen, the more agile your organisation becomes. You’ll spot trends earlier, avoid missteps, and stay aligned with what really matters. Regular research keeps your work grounded, your strategy focused, and your relationships strong.

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