The Power of Customer Insight Research
For many decades, researchers have worked with companies and brands to assess their position in the marketplace. The same attitude and customer insight research employed by both B to C and B to B companies are powerful tools for generating data that can strongly affect a determination of value. Such research can take any number of forms and include:
• Market segmentation studies
• Awareness, attitude and image studies
• Psychographic and ethnographic studies
• Package and product testing studies
• Advertising and communication effectiveness studies
Whatever research approach is used, the goal is the same: to determine the strength of the company or brand as compared to competition.
Often, though, valuation experts ignore the importance of customer insight research. They fail to realize that by measuring the attitudes of customers and prospects, and producing hard data across a range of factors can greatly increase the value of a company.
Consider how you, and your competition, are perceived by your customers or prospects in regard such elements as:
• Being trustworthy
• Having quality products
• Providing good value for money
• Having great customer service
• Providing innovative products or solutions
• Delivering what is promised
• Have good change or return policies
• Being on time with answers
In any valuation, how you and your competition perform on these and other goodwill factors can be key value drivers.
How to Collect Data
There are a number of approaches that can be used when tapping into customer or prospect attitudes. Survey Monkey is particularly economical for companies that maintain an up-to-date customer/prospect email database. Other approaches include:
• Tapping SurveyMonkey® or other syndicated marketing research panels and choosing from the millions of potential respondents that they maintain, and you can tap into to question.
• Using one of the thousands of telephone interviewing services that exist to administer questionnaires to the intended audience and collect their attitudes.
• Using the mail to send questionnaires to the intend targets.
• Conducting in-depth interviews either in-person or on the phone.
• Setting up interviewing booths at trade shows or other events where the right target is in attendance.
Each data collection situation will be dictated by the goals of the research and the ease with which customers or prospects can be questioned.
• A Business Appraiser gathers all of the data that might influence the opinion of the subject’s value.
• To that data, a Business Appraiser applies all of the techniques that make sense in the context of the company. All relevant valuation methods are considered and applied as appropriate.
• Comparable private sales transactions and multipliers for the market methods are very specific to the company’s NAISC code, as are public company comparisons.
• A comprehensive review of the business risk factors is conducted.
• A detailed description of the company is prepared.
• A Business Appraiser reviews and assesses the prevailing economic conditions.
• All the details of the data the Business Appraiser gathered in reaching a conclusion.
• Explanation of the logic in going from that data to a conclusion of value.
Have a question on Business Valuation? Contact Micheal Gilburd.
Recent Comments