If you’ve ever conducted research into your own business or product in an effort to determine what your customers really think of you it can be pretty scary stuff. What if your product’s a dud? What if your company is seen as the worst in your market segment?
Following on from our last research a few years back we’ve done it again, this time commissioning Micromex Research to help us understand our customers better, and to see whether they’re happy with what we’re doing.
When the data came back I was contemplating whether a quick trip to the pub might be the order of the day before delving into what the 900 or so survey respondents had to say about us.
Thankfully, what they said – what you said - is that we are doing okay in terms of our editorial content. There are a few things here and there that we have to fine-tune, and there were certainly plenty of suggestions for areas that we could delve into more deeply. We’ve already had one planning meeting on how we can tackle the suggestions and input, and you can expect to see a few changes here and there in coming editions. (A big session at the pub wasn’t needed this time around).
As well as trying to find out what you like to read about, we also included quite a few questions to learn more about you – what you do, how often you do it, and where you do it. We asked questions about your business and the challenges you were facing, and what challenges you could foresee in the future. Some of your responses are revealed for the first time in this edition (see pages 6-7). In following magazines we will provide further survey results.
What this survey has shown me is that you really can never be complacent. The business world is changing so rapidly that if you’re not up to speed and delivering what your customers want and need then maybe you won’t be around for as long as you were hoping. Refining, refreshing, making small changes here and there, and developing an ongoing, two-way dialogue really is imperative in continuing to move forward with any amount of success.
We at BT Publishing are planning to be around for a while yet, and therefore hope that when we do ask you again what you like and don’t like about us you keep being honest. The pub will no doubt still be just around the corner.
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