How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

An even better question may be how well do you know your prospective customers? Fortune 500 companies pay a great deal of money to market research firms to answer that question. Understanding who their prospective customers are and what their market demographic looks like allows a company to adjust their business model to address exactly what their customers want. Wouldn’t it be great if you as a small business owner had the money to do the same?

Now you do. Membership in the Southern Barter Club allows you to gain access to market research and gives you a leg up on your competition. You’ll be able to put your barter dollars to good use by hiring a professional research firm.

You’ll find that the type of market research you choose to perform will depend largely on how much you are willing to spend. For instance, hiring a firm to convene and moderate a focus group may be more expensive than compiling a survey. You will have to determine the best balance between the depth of your research and your budget. Thankfully barter can give you access to options you may not have had available to you in the past.

Here are a just a few options open to you:

Focus Groups
A moderator will ask a scripted series of questions and monitor a discussion among groups of individuals that fit your selected profile. The discussion can be videotaped or monitored live from an observation room with one-way mirrors.

Surveys
These take the form of questionnaires online or by mail and interviews in person or on the phone. You can perform employee and customer service studies and learn first hand where you need to improve, be more competitive or where you need to branch out in order to meet the demands of your customers.

Personal Interviews
More in-depth than surveys, your demographic is asked a series of questions and the session is recorded for analysis.

Field Trials
You can place your new product in select stores and observe customer response and buying habits.

Observation
Have you ever walked through a mall and witnessed someone with a clipboard taking notes? It’s possible that they’re performing and observation technique. By observing consumers’ behavior, you can gain valuable feedback regarding your customer’s patterns and habits.

Mystery Shopping
Hotels, restaurants and retail stores benefit greatly by utilizing mystery shopping. You can improve the quality of your services and ensure customer retention by sending mystery shoppers to your business to measure customer satisfaction at specific locations.

Taste Tests
What do your customers really think about the taste of your products? A research firm will conduct taste tests in your behalf so that you can improve your product.

By gathering data from your customers and target market in the form of market research, you can take the guesswork out of how to fit the needs of your clients and you’ll be a step ahead of the competition!

For more information about how market research can benefit your company, contact Thomas Cheshire at Roundtable Support. To locate research firms that are available on barter, call SBC at 1.877.779.8803

Barter Your Vacation This Year

Memorial Day marks the first day of summer. The weather is warm, the kids are out of school and you're probably planning a vacation. Unfortunately, with the economic slowdown, a lot of people are considering scaling back on their summer vacation this year or perhaps even cancelling it altogether.

Here at SBC, we say - why pay for your summer vacation when you can barter it?

Provide your skills, services or trade inventory to other members in our exchange and earn valuable trade dollars which you can trade in for a great vacation.

What can you get this summer with your trade dollars?

Spend a week at the beach - You'll find an abundance of properties for rent in Orlando, Daytona, Panama Beach and other Florida resorts. Want to stay closer to home? Check out available properties in Hilton Head. Want to go further? How about an ocean front resort in Mexico, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic? It's all in the SBC barter store!
Take a cruise - There are several cruise options available on trade.
Go to Europe - Rent a home in France, stay at a hotel in Germany or discover Poland.
Get in touch with nature - Visit the Andes Mountains in Ecuador or enjoy the beauty of a jungle resort in Belize.
Plan a long weekend - How about a cabin rental on Lake Hartwell? Or perhaps a stay at the Wyndam in Valdosta, a bed and breakfast in Knoxville, a stay in Ellijay with gorgeous views of NE Mountains or cozy up at an Inn in Nashville? Is a weekend in NYC more to your taste? With 196 hotel and condo. options currently available in several states, you're sure to find accommodations to suit you- yes all on trade!
Gather your friends and family for an afternoon of fun-filled activities - We checked the Barter Store to find out what we can do in Atlanta using your trade dollars. A private school will rent their 7 acre campus on trade for your event. Call Jumptastic for renting inflatables for the children. Custom Design Cakes can provide a cake, cookies or desserts. Cater your event by Rays Chicken Wings or Field House or you can swing by Mellow Mushroom and pick up some pizzas. If you want to don your own apron and tongs, head on over to Patton's where you'll find the finest quality meats on trade. You can even plan a spa party and have a mobile massage therapist come to your location! Call SBC for contact information on the these and other vendors.

With barter, your local and national choices are unlimited. So don't forgo your vacation this year, do it on trade and you may find that this year will be your best vacation ever!