customer needs essay

16 Types of Customer Needs (and How to Solve for Them)

Published: March 24, 2023

Companies want to stay relevant and innovative and often look at other successful companies, hot industry trends, or new shiny products for inspiration.

However, a vital component to growth is at every business's fingertips — it's customers. Honing in on customer needs can improve the longevity and progress of your business. Happy customers result in higher retention rates, lifetime value, and brand reach as they spread the word in their social circles.

The first step toward creating the types of customer experiences that result in happy customers is by understanding and meeting customer needs.

In this article, you'll learn:

• The Definition of Customer Needs
• The Types of Customer Needs

How to Identify Customer Needs

• What a Customer Needs Analysis Is
• How to Solve for Your Customers' Needs

Types of Customer Service

What are customer needs.

A customer need is a motive that prompts a customer to buy a product or service. Ultimately, the need is the driver of the customer's purchase decision. Companies often look at the customer need as an opportunity to resolve or contribute surplus value back to the original motive.

An example of customer need takes place every day around 12:00 p.m. This is when people begin to experience hunger (need) and decide to purchase lunch. The type of food, the location of the restaurant, and the amount of time the service will take are all factors to how individuals decide to satisfy the need.

Customer-centric companies know that solving for customer needs and exceeding expectations along the way is how to drive healthy business growth and foster good relationships with the people your company serves.

Although customer centricity is not a new concept, the right steps to achieve a customer service focus are still hazy.

Why are customer needs important?

Anticipating customer needs will help you cater to customers before they feel the need to put in a request for a new feature, product, or solution for you. If companies can begin to make changes before their customers' needs aren't fulfilled, this can ultimately lead to growth, innovation, and retention.

Creating a customer-centric company that truly listens to customer needs can be daunting, and there's a steep learning curve if you haven't paid close attention to customers before.

Below are the most common types of customer needs — most of which work in tandem with one another to drive a purchasing decision.

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The types of product needs can be split into two categories: product and service.

Product Needs

1. functionality.

Customers need your product or service to function the way they need in order to solve their problem or desire.

Customers have unique budgets with which they can purchase a product or service.

3. Convenience

Your product or service needs to be a convenient solution to the function your customers are trying to meet.

4. Experience

The experience using your product or service needs to be easy — or at least clear — so as not to create more work for your customers.

Along the lines of experience, the product or service needs a slick design to make it relatively easy and intuitive to use.

6. Reliability

The product or service needs to reliably function as advertised every time the customer wants to use it.

7. Performance

The product or service needs to perform correctly so the customer can achieve their goals.

8. Efficiency

The product or service needs to be efficient for the customer by streamlining an otherwise time-consuming process.

9. Compatibility

The product or service needs to be compatible with other products your customer is already using.

Service Needs

10. empathy.

When your customers get in touch with customer service, they want empathy and understanding from the people assisting them.

11. Fairness

From pricing to terms of service to contract length, customers expect fairness from a company.

12. Transparency

Customers expect transparency from a company they're doing business with. Service outages, pricing changes, and things breaking happen, and customers deserve openness from the businesses they give money to.

13. Control

Customers need to feel like they're in control of the business interaction from start to finish and beyond, and customer empowerment shouldn't end with the sale. Make it easy for them to return products, change subscriptions, adjust terms, etc.

14. Options

Customers need options when they're getting ready to make a purchase from a company. Offer a variety of product, subscription, and payment options to provide that freedom of choice.

15. Information

Customers need information, from the moment they start interacting with your brand to days and months after making a purchase. Businesses should invest in educational blog content, instructional knowledge base content, and regular communication so customers have the information they need to successfully use a product or service.

16. Accessibility

Customers need to be able to access your service and support teams. This means providing multiple channels for customer service. We'll talk a little more about these options later.

With so many types of customer needs, how do you understand which ones apply to your customers specifically? Next, we'll dig into how to identify them.

• Use Existing Data
• Solicit Customer Feedback
• Customer Journey Mapping
• Input from Service Team
• Study Competitors
• Social Media Listening
• Keyword Research

"You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology," Steve Jobs notably stated . "You cannot start with the technology and try to figure out where you are going to sell it."

Whether you sell technology or some other product or service, the underlying message he's saying here rings true.

This means understanding where they're coming from when they've chosen to make a purchase, what expectations they're bringing to the table, and what bumps they'll encounter along the way.

Identifying Customer Needs

You can gain more knowledge about what your customers want using a few different strategies.

1. Use Existing Data

Most likely you have some customer data already, especially if you’re using a CRM. This is the best place to start your search. Are there pain points or issues you can glean from just looking at this customer data? Are there any patterns you can identify? Taking note of who your current customers are and their past interactions with your brand to get a better idea of where customers are coming from and if you’re meeting their needs.

2. Solicit Customer Feedback

When trying to identify consumer needs, go straight to the source. This can be done using surveys that live on your site, or sent via email. Additionally you could conduct focus groups to gain more in depth insight to customer needs and their overall experience with your product or service.

3. Customer Journey Mapping

To better understand and assist customers, you’ll need to first know what phase of the customer journey they are in and what they’re looking for. This is where customer journey mapping can help, giving a visual representation of how customers interact with your brand. This exercise will help you create a more proactive customer service approach and improve retention.

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4. Input from Service Team

In addition to getting customer feedback, it’s important to consult those who work with them most — your service team. They’ll often have insights you may not be privy to and can help you anticipate the needs of your customers as well as solve existing issues. They’ll also be able to explain how customers are currently using your product or service and can identify any hiccups in the process.

5. Study Competitors

It’s common to study competitors when conducting market research, but you should also consider them when identifying customer needs. There might be overlap in your target audience, meaning your brand could benefit from reviewing any issues competitors are experiencing and gain insight on how they went about fixing it. You might find that some of their strategies would be worth implementing at your company, or discover gaps in service that your company can fill.

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6. Use Social Media

Chances are, your customers use a variety of social media platforms in their day to day. Take advantage of that by using it as a way to listen in on what customers are saying about your products and your competitors. Are people asking questions under your posts? What sorts of comments are they making? Are they giving praise, asking for assistance, or do they want new features? Using a social media monitoring tool like Hootsuite will help you identify trends, mentions, and hashtags relevant to your brand to better inform your strategy.

7. Keyword Research

People turn to the internet for most things, so Google is an excellent resource for figuring out customer needs. How are customers finding your brand online and what are they typing into the search box to find it? Doing keyword research can give you a broad overview of what your customers need based on search data. Keyword research will also help you optimize your site for search engines by aligning the content of your site with what customers are searching for.

If you design your process with these things in mind, you'll be able to uncover consumer needs at any stage of their lifecycle. You can take a deeper dive into their needs by conducting a customer needs analysis.

What is a customer needs analysis?

A customer needs analysis is used in product development and branding to provide an in-depth analysis of the customer to ensure that the product or message offers the benefits, attributes, and features needed to provide the customer with value.

To conduct a customer needs analysis successfully, you need to do the following:

1. Customer Needs Analysis Survey

The customer needs analysis is typically conducted by running surveys that help companies figure out their position in their respective competitive markets and how they stack up in terms of meeting their target customers' needs.

The survey should primarily ask questions about your brand and competitors, as well as customers' product awareness and brand attitudes in general.

Questions can include:

• Questions about positive and negative word associations with your brand
• Questions asking customers to group your brand in with similar and/or competing brands
• Questions comparing and sorting brands according to their preferences for usage

You can learn more about which questions to ask in this survey in our guide and this guide from dummies.

2. Means-End Analysis

Once you've conducted the customer needs analysis survey, you can use the answers to get a fuller picture of the reasons why your customers purchase from you, and what makes your product or service stand apart from your competitors.

A means-end analysis analyzes those answers to determine the primary reasons why a customer would buy your product. Those buyer reasons can be divided into three main groups:

1. Features: A customer buys a product or service because of the features included in the purchase. If the customer were buying a computer, for example, they might buy it because it's smaller and more lightweight than other options.

2. Benefits: A customer buys a product or service because of a benefit, real or perceived, they believe it will offer them. The customer might also buy the computer because it syncs easily with their other devices wirelessly.

3. Values: A customer buys a product or service for unique, individual values, real or perceived, they believe it will help them fulfill. The customer might think the computer will help them to be more creative or artistic and unlock other personal or professional artistic opportunities.

As you might imagine, these reasons for purchasing something can vary from customer to customer, so it's important to conduct these customer surveys, collect the answers, and group them into these three categories. From there, you can identify which of those motivating factors you're solving for, and which you can improve on to make your product or service even more competitive in the market.

3. Customer Feedback

If you want to know what your customers think about the experience of working with your company, ask them. Interviewing your customers and members of your service team can contribute to a customer needs analysis and improvements to your customer lifecycle .

As you gather data from your customer needs analysis, it's important to identify the points of friction that your customers experience and the moments in their journey that provide unexpected delight.

• What can your company change?
• What are the elements that you can build from?
• What parts of the experience needs to be worked on?

Asking these questions can lead you to valuable insights as you work to solve for your customers.

How to Solve for Customer Needs

The first step to solving for your customers is to put yourself in their shoes: If you were the customer when we purchase your goods, use your technology, or sign up for your services, what would prevent you from achieving ultimate value?

Your customer needs analysis is a good starting point for getting in the mind of your customer, especially when it comes to identifying common pain points. From there, you can build a proactive plan to implement your customer-first values throughout the customer lifecycle. Here are some tips for doing so:

1. Offer consistent company-wide messaging.

Too often customers get caught up in the "he said, she said" game of being told a product can do one thing from sales and another from support and product. Ultimately, customers become confused and are left with the perception that the company is disorganized.

Consistent internal communications across all departments is one of the best steps toward a customer-focused mindset. If the entire company understands its goals, values, product, and service capabilities, then the messages will easily translate to meet the customers’ needs.

To get everyone on the same page, organize sales and customer service meetings, send out new product emails, provide robust new employee onboarding, and require quarterly training and seminars or staff-hosted webinars to share important projects.

2. Provide instructions for easy adoption.

Customers purchase a product because they believe it will meet their needs and solve their problem. However, adoption setup stages are not always clear. If best practices aren't specified at the start and they don't see value right away, it's an uphill battle to gain back their trust and undo bad habits.

A well-thought-out post-purchase strategy will enable your products or services to be usable and useful.

One way companies gain their customers' attention is providing in-product and email walkthroughs and instructions as soon as the customer receives a payment confirmation. This limits the confusion, technical questions, and distractions from the immediate post-purchase euphoria.

A customer education guide or knowledge base is essential to deliver proper customer adoption and avoid the ‘floundering effect' when customers are stuck. Other companies provide new customer onboarding services, host live demos and webinars and include events and promotions in their email signatures .

3. Build feedback loops into every stage of the process.

Lean into customer complaints and suggestions, and it will change the way you operate your business. Criticism often has negative connotations. However, if you flip problems to opportunities you can easily improve your business to fit the customer's needs.

Just as you solicited customer feedback in your needs analysis, you can keep a pulse on how your customers feel at scale with customer satisfaction scores , customer surveys , exploration customer interviews, social media polls, or personal customer feedback emails.

If you're able to incorporate this into a repeatable process, you'll never be in the dark about the state of the customer experience in your organization, and you'll be enabled to continue improving it.

Take customer suggestions seriously and act on those recommendations to improve design, product, and system glitches. Most customer support success metrics are paramount to the customer experience and this mentality should trickle down to every aspect of the organization.

4. Nurture customer relationships.

When a customer buys a product or service, they want to use it right away and fulfill their immediate need. Whether they are delighted within the first hour, week, or a month, it's important to constantly think about their future needs.

Proactive relationship-building is essential to prevent customers from losing their post-purchase excitement and ultimately churning. If customers stop hearing from you and you don't hear from them this can be a bad sign that they are about to churn .

Companies solve for customer relationships with a combination of customer service structure and communication strategies. Solve for the long-term customer need and create a customer service team dedicated to check-ins and customer retention , show appreciation with rewards and gifts to loyal customers, host local events, highlight employees that go above and beyond and communicate product updates and new features.

5. Solve for the right customer needs.

Excluding customers from your cohort of business can seem counterintuitive to solve for your customers' needs. However, understanding whose needs you can fulfill and whose you cannot is a major step toward solving the right problems. All customers' needs can't be treated equally and a company must recognize which problems they can solve and ones that aren't aligned with their vision.

To find the right customer priorities, create buyer personas and uncover consumer trends, look at customer's long-term retention patterns, establish a clear company vision, provide premier customer service to valuable customers and communicate with your ideal customer in their preferred social media space to capture questions, comments, and suggestions.

Successful startups, brick-and-mortar shops, and Fortune 500 companies solve and prioritize customer needs to stay ahead and establish industry trends.

6. Provide great customer service.

If a problem arises, your customers want to get it resolved and feel heard in the process. This starts with being able to meet their needs with empathy, but along the way, the process for obtaining support should be easy and on a channel that's convenient for them.

Some customer needs are time-sensitive and require immediate interaction via phone or chat. Others are less critical and can be resolved at a more casual pace. Let's break down the types of customer service and how each optimizes your team's ability to fulfill customer needs.

• Social Media
• Call Back Service
• Customer Self-Service
• Interactive Virtual Assistant
• Integrated Customer Service

Email is one of the most fundamental forms of customer service. It allows customers to fully describe their problems, and it automatically records the conversation into a resourceful thread. Customers only have to explain their issue once, while reps can reference important case details without having to request additional information.

Email is best used with customer needs that don't need to be resolved right away. Customers can ask their question, go back to work, and return to the case once the service rep has found a solution. Unlike phones or chat, they don't have to wait idly while a rep finds them an answer.

One limitation of email is the potential lack of clarity. Some customers have trouble describing their problem, and some service reps struggle to explain solutions. This creates time-consuming roadblocks when the issue is overly complex. To be safe, use email for simple problems that require a brief explanation or solution.

When customers have problems that need to be answered immediately, phones are the best medium to use. Phones connect customers directly to reps and create a human interaction between the customer and the business. Both parties hear each other's tone and can gauge the severity of the situation. This human element is a major factor in creating delightful customer experiences.

Phones come in handy most when there's a frustrated or angry customer. These customers are most likely to churn and require your team to provide a personalized solution. Your team can use soft communication skills to appease the customer and prevent costly escalations. These responses appear more genuine on the phone because reps have less time to formulate an answer.

The most common flaw with phone support is the wait time. Strive for shorter wait times as 33% of customers are frustrated by being waiting on hold. Customers hate being put on hold, and it's a determining factor for customer churn .

Chat is one of the most flexible customer service channels. It can solve a high volume of simple problems or provide detailed support for complex ones. Businesses continue to adopt chat because of its versatility as well as the improvement in efficiency it provides for customer service reps.

When it comes to solving customer needs, chat can be used to solve almost any problem. Simple and common questions can be answered with chatbots that automate the customer service process. For more advanced roadblocks, reps can integrate customer service tools into their chat software to help them diagnose and resolve issues.

The limitations of chat are similar to those of email. However, since the interaction is live, any lack of clarity between the two parties can drastically impact troubleshooting. As a former chat rep, there were plenty of times where I struggled to get on the same page as my customer. Even though we resolved the issue, that miscommunication negatively impacted the customer's experience.

4. Social Media

Social media is a relatively new customer service channel. While it's been around for over a decade, businesses are now beginning to adopt it as a viable service option. That's because social media lets customers immediately report an issue. And since that report is public, customer service teams are more motivated to resolve the customer's problem.

Social media is an excellent channel for mass communication, which is particularly useful during a business crisis. When a crisis occurs, your customers' product and service needs become the primary concern of your organization. Social media is an effective tool for communicating with your customers in bulk. With a social media crisis management plan , your team can continue to fulfill customer needs during critical situations.

Social media is different from other types of customer service because it empowers the customer the most. Customers tend to have more urgent needs and expect instant responses from your accounts. While this type of service presents an enormous opportunity, it also places tremendous pressure on your reps to fulfill customer demand. Be sure your team is equipped with proper social media management tools before you offer routine support.

5. In Person

As the oldest form of customer service, you're probably familiar with working in person with customers. Brands who have brick-and-mortar stores must offer this service for customers living near their locations. This fulfills a convenience need as customers can purchase and return a product without having to ship it back to the company through an online service.

In-person customer service is great for businesses with strong service personnel. Without dedicated employees, your customer service team won't be able to fulfill your customers' product or service needs. Successful teams have reps who are determined to provide above-and-beyond customer service .

5. Call Back Service

Sometimes it's not about how quickly your business can provide a solution, but rather how efficient you can make the service experience. For example, say a customer has a simple question about pricing that should only take a few minutes to answer, but their expected wait time for phone service is over 15 minutes. Rather than making this customer spend more time on hold than actually speaking with a representative, you can offer a call back service where your team reaches out to the customer as soon as the next rep is available.

Another situation where this type of service comes in handy is with text-based mediums like email and live chat. In some cases, these channels aren't ideal for troubleshooting and can lead to friction if the case isn't transferred to another platform. Having a call back service available allows customers to schedule time to speak directly with reps, particularly when they feel like they aren't gaining progress on their case. Instead of having to create a completely new support ticket , call backs seamlessly transition the conversation to a more effective channel.

6. Customer Self-Service

Self-service teaches your customers how to solve problems independently from your support team. Rather than calling or emailing your business whenever they need assistance, customers can navigate to your knowledge base and access resources that help them troubleshoot issues on their own. Not only does this get customers faster solutions, but it also saves them from having to open a ticket with your team. This makes the experience feel much less like a formal support case and more like a quick roadblock that your customers can handle on their own.

Self-service is advantageous for your team's productivity as well. If more customers use your knowledge base, less will call or email your team for help. This will free your reps up more to focus on complex service cases that require a longer time commitment.

7. Interactive Virtual Assistant

Chatbots are no longer novelties that customer service teams use to show off their technological prowess. Now, they're integral pieces of support strategies as they act more like interactive virtual assistants than simple, question-and-answer bots. Today's chatbots are powered by innovative AI technology that interprets customer needs and can walk people through step-by-step solutions.

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The image above shows a perfect example of how useful today's virtual assistants can be. In this situation, the customer is learning how to use their new car — a product that typically offers a lot of unique features and an extensive operator's manual. To help new users navigate the car's basic features, this brand offers an augmented reality tour hosted by a virtual assistant. The user simply has to scroll their camera over different parts of the car and the chatbot will tell them everything they need to know.

Interactive features like this show that you're investing in more than just product development. You're thinking about how you'll support customers and what services you can adopt that will make their lives easier. Customers pay attention to this type of customer service and it can often be a reason why many will return to your business.

8. Integrated Customer Service

Integrated service can be described as all of the little things your brand does to remove pain points from the customer experience. Some of this is proactive, like sending customers an automated newsletter that informs them about major updates or announcements, and some of it is reactive, like pinging a customer success manager whenever someone submits negative feedback to your team.

Even though these pain points may seem small, they add up over time if left unchecked. The best way to remove most of these points of friction is to adopt automation as you grow your customer base. Automated customer service tools like ticketing systems, help desks, and workflows help your team keep pace with increasing customer demand. This technology lets you maintain that same level of personalized customer service even as more people reach out to your business for support.

There's no "best" type of customer service. Each medium complements the other and optimizes your overall performance when used together. This creates an omni-channel experience for your customers which will keep them coming back for more.

What do customers want from a typical customer service situation?

It’s important to note that customer service is reactive. That said, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure you’re providing excellent customer service.

• Listen : While it’s normal to want to quickly get customers in and out of your service queue, it’s important to actually listen to what their issue is before giving them a solution. They may have a more nuanced issue that a boilerplate response can’t provide. There’s nothing more frustrating than providing customers with a canned response that doesn’t actually solve their issue. Automation is great, but just ensure that it is helping customers.
• Don’t Make Customers Repeat Information: No one wants to answer or submit the same questions repeatedly . Not only is it inconvenient, it shows the customer that no one is listening or paying attention. If you have a ticketing system, review the customer’s history or profile to get familiar with their situation before responding.
• Be Pleasant: Tone is much harder to convey over written communication and can unintentionally come across as cold. To convey some warmth you could introduce phrases like “I’d be happy to help with that,” or “Hope your day/week is going well.”
• Be Responsive : Not only do customers want their problem solved, but they prefer it’s resolved quickly. If you can’t solve their issue easily when they first contact you, set expectations around when it will be resolved (24hrs, 2 business days?) and keep them in the loop. Don’t ghost them.

What Customers Want

• Simple Solutions
• Personalization
• Transparency
• Accessibility

Each customer has their own unique needs, but there are a few that are universal.

1. Simple Solutions

While your product or service may run using a complex set of algorithms and procedures, customers don’t need to know that. They simply want a solution that resolves their issue with as little fuss as possible. Keep your messaging simple and focus on how your brand will solve the customer’s problem.

2. Personalization

Treat your customers like people and not numbers on a spreadsheet. Zendesk found that 54% of customers expect all experiences to be personalized. Use their name in communications and tailor your messaging to the buyer persona they most closely align with. Adding a personal touch when it comes to marketing lets customers know that their needs are at the forefront of your brand’s mission.

Does your product or service outperform the competition or provide a more cost effective solution for consumers? If so, drive that point home in your messaging. Explain how and why they should choose your product or service over others on the market. How will customers benefit when they choose your brand?

4. Transparency

One of the easiest ways to build trust with consumers is to be transparent. No one wants to feel duped by disingenuous, bait-and-switch advertising. Be honest about your product or service’s capabilities and pricing whenever possible.

5. Accessibility

While it is always encouraged to empower customers to help themselves with features like a knowledge base, getting extra assistance when they need it shouldn’t be difficult. Whether it’s phone, email, or chat support, it’s important to be responsive to consumer needs. At the beginning of this article we identified accessibility as one of the most common types of customer needs. If your team is unresponsive to their needs, customers will trade your brand in for a competitor that fills the gap.

Understanding Customer Needs and Expectations

One of the best things you can do is continue learning based on the types of issues that come up so that you can proactively address consumer needs and continue improving on the experience.

While the process requires quite a bit of legwork, the results will be instrumental in the success of your brand. Once you understand customer needs and expectations, you can work towards delighting them with your product.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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IELTS Essays: Customer Needs

by Dave | Real Past Tests | 0 Comment

This is an IELTS writing task 2 sample answer essay on the topic of whether or not consumers today really need advertising from the real IELTS exam.

I wrote about this same topic a year ago so this time I decided to have the opposite opinion. That’s a really good exercise to practice – try writing an essay about an old topic but have a new opinion about it!

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IELTS Essay: Customer Needs

If a product is good and meets customer needs, then people will buy it and advertising is unnecessary.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Some are of the belief that advertising is largely superfluous as most consumers are aware of their own needs. In my opinion, this is true despite the fact that advertising can occasionally serve informative purposes.

The stated aim of the majority of advertisements is to raise awareness among a potential audience. This applies to commercials, billboards, and online advertising. A good example would be the short commercials that play before videos on YouTube. These ads are designed to showcase an item or service that, based on advanced audience targeting, would appeal to a particular consumer or demographic. Since an individual has been targeted, it is likely that the advertisement will be relevant and, if the ad is well-designed, informative. For instance, this might be an advertisement for a smartphone targeted at a photography enthusiast that includes details about hardware specifications and picture quality.

However, the internet now allows individuals to research products more objectively on a case by case basis. When a particular person is interested in purchasing a new phone, because they lost an old one or they desire a more modern one, then they can compare prices online, read customer reviews, and consult a variety of blogs and sites like Consumer Report, which is well known for its unbiased appraisals. There are, admittedly, situations when individuals will uncover new products they might not have been aware of before through ads. However, this is more likely to occur organically in daily life if a person sees someone else, for example, with a useful smart watch. The advent of social media and sharing of personal information online also means that individuals have another media outlet aside from advertising that promotes new products and services.

In conclusion, advertising is no longer needed in modern society as there are other ways to research and discover products. This does not imply that advertising is ineffective, merely that in a perfect world it could be eliminated.

1. Some are of the belief that advertising is largely superfluous as most consumers are aware of their own needs. 2. In my opinion, this is true despite the fact that advertising can occasionally serve informative purposes.

• Paraphrase the overall essay topic.
• Write a clear opinion. Read more about introductions here .

1. The stated aim of the majority of advertisements is to raise awareness among a potential audience. 2. This applies to commercials, billboards, and online advertising. 3. A good example would be the short commercials that play before videos on YouTube. 4. These ads are designed to showcase an item or service that, based on advanced audience targeting, would appeal to a particular consumer or demographic. 5. Since an individual has been targeted, it is likely that the advertisement will be relevant and, if the ad is well-designed, informative. 6. For instance, this might be an advertisement for a smartphone targeted at a photography enthusiast that includes details about hardware specifications and picture quality.

• Write a topic sentence with a clear main idea at the end.
• Explain your main idea.
• Develop it with specific examples.
• Keep developing it fully.
• Stay focused on the same main idea.
• Finish by adding extra detail.

1. However, the internet now allows individuals to research products more objectively on a case by case basis. 2. When a particular person is interested in purchasing a new phone, because they lost an old one or they desire a more modern one, then they can compare prices online, read customer reviews, and consult a variety of blogs and sites like Consumer Report, which is well known for its unbiased appraisals. 3. There are, admittedly, situations when individuals will uncover new products they might not have been aware of before through ads. 4. However, this is more likely to occur organically in daily life if a person sees someone else, for example, with a useful smart watch. 5. The advent of social media and sharing of personal information online also means that individuals have another media outlet aside from advertising that promotes new products and services.

• Write a new topic sentence with a new main idea at the end.
• Explain your new main idea.
• Include specific details and examples.
• Continue developing it…
• as fully as possible!

1. In conclusion, advertising is no longer needed in modern society as there are other ways to research and discover products. 2. This does not imply that advertising is ineffective, merely that in a perfect world it could be eliminated.

• Summarise your main ideas.
• Include a final thought. Read more about conclusions here .

What do the words in bold below mean? Make some notes on paper to aid memory and then check below.

Some are of the belief that advertising is largely superfluous as most consumers are aware of their own needs . In my opinion, this is true despite the fact that advertising can occasionally serve informative purposes .

The stated aim of the majority of advertisements is to raise awareness among a potential audience . This applies to commercials, billboards , and online advertising. A good example would be the short commercials that play before videos on YouTube. These ads are designed to showcase an item or service that, based on advanced audience targeting , would appeal to a particular consumer or demographic . Since an individual has been targeted, it is likely that the advertisement will be relevant and, if the ad is well-designed , informative . For instance, this might be an advertisement for a smartphone targeted at a photography enthusiast that includes details about hardware specifications and picture quality .

However, the internet now allows individuals to research products more objectively on a case by case basis . When a particular person is interested in purchasing a new phone, because they lost an old one or they desire a more modern one, then they can compare prices online , read customer reviews , and consult a variety of blogs and sites like Consumer Report, which is well known for its unbiased appraisals . There are, admittedly , situations when individuals will uncover new products they might not have been aware of before through ads. However, this is more likely to occur organically in daily life if a person sees someone else, for example, with a useful smart watch . The advent of social media and sharing of personal information online also means that individuals have another media outlet aside from advertising that promotes new products and services.

In conclusion, advertising is no longer needed in modern society as there are other ways to research and discover products. This does not imply that advertising is ineffective , merely that in a perfect world it could be eliminated .

largely superfluous mostly not needed

aware know about

needs desires

despite the fact regardless of the truth that

occasionally serve informative purposes sometimes can be useful

stated aim real purpose

raise awareness make people know about

potential audience possible customers

applies is relevant here

billboards big posters outside

short commercials short videos advertising products

designed sculpted

showcase showing off

service delivery services, food delivery, etc.

based on advanced audience targeting comes from online user habits, search history, etc.

particular consumer a given shopper

demographic group of people

it is likely that it will probably happen that

relevant related

well-designed made well

informative gives information

photography enthusiast person who loves taking photos

includes details has info about

hardware specifications how fast the phone is

picture quality how good the pictures are

research studies

objectively without bias

case by case basis in each situation

compare prices online look at similar prices

customer reviews what people reported about it

consult look into

blogs websites with personal articles

unbiased appraisals objective reviews

admittedly I would concede

uncover find

occur organically happen without being forced

useful smart watch watch that has many purposes

advent beginning of

sharing of personal information online posting to social media

media outlet ways of spreading information

aside from besides

promotes encourages

modern society our world today

imply means

ineffective doesn’t work

merely just

in a perfect world ideally

eliminated gotten rid of

Pronunciation

Practice saying the vocabulary below and use this tip about Google voice search :

ˈlɑːʤli sju(ː)ˈpɜːflʊəs   əˈweə   niːdz dɪsˈpaɪt ðə fækt   əˈkeɪʒnəli sɜːv ɪnˈfɔːmətɪv ˈpɜːpəsɪz ˈsteɪtɪd eɪm   reɪz əˈweənəs   pəʊˈtɛnʃəl ˈɔːdiəns   əˈplaɪz   ˈbɪlbɔːdz ʃɔːt kəˈmɜːʃəlz   dɪˈzaɪnd   ˈʃəʊkeɪs   ˈsɜːvɪs   beɪst ɒn ədˈvɑːnst ˈɔːdiəns ˈtɑːgɪtɪŋ pəˈtɪkjʊlə kənˈsjuːmə   ˌdɛməˈgræfɪk ɪt ɪz ˈlaɪkli ðæt   ˈrɛlɪvənt   wɛl-dɪˈzaɪnd ɪnˈfɔːmətɪv fəˈtɒgrəfi ɪnˈθjuːzɪæst   ɪnˈkluːdz ˈdiːteɪlz   ˈhɑːdweə ˌspɛsɪfɪˈkeɪʃənz   ˈpɪkʧə ˈkwɒlɪti rɪˈsɜːʧ   əbˈʤɛktɪvli   keɪs baɪ keɪs ˈbeɪsɪs kəmˈpeə ˈpraɪsɪz ˈɒnˌlaɪn   ˈkʌstəmə rɪˈvjuːz   kənˈsʌlt   blɒgz   ʌnˈbaɪəst əˈpreɪzəlz ədˈmɪtɪdli ʌnˈkʌvə   əˈkɜːr ɔːˈgænɪk(ə)li   ˈjuːsfʊl smɑːt wɒʧ   ˈædvənt   ˈʃeərɪŋ ɒv ˈpɜːsnl ˌɪnfəˈmeɪʃən ˈɒnˌlaɪn   ˈmiːdiə ˈaʊtlɛt   əˈsaɪd frɒm   prəˈməʊts   ˈmɒdən səˈsaɪəti   ɪmˈplaɪ   ˌɪnɪˈfɛktɪv ˈmɪəli   ɪn ə ˈpɜːfɪkt wɜːld   ɪˈlɪmɪneɪtɪd

Vocabulary Practice

I recommend getting a pencil and piece of paper because that aids memory. Then write down the missing vocabulary from my sample answer in your notebook:

Some are of the belief that advertising is l__________________s as most consumers are a_______e of their own n_______s . In my opinion, this is true d_________________t that advertising can o______________________________________s .

The s_____________m of the majority of advertisements is to r____________________s among a p________________e . This a_______s to commercials, b___________s , and online advertising. A good example would be the s_____________________s that play before videos on YouTube. These ads are d__________d to s_____________e an item or s__________e that, b_______________________________g , would appeal to a p_____________________r or d______________c . Since an individual has been targeted, i_______________t the advertisement will be r____________t and, if the ad is w______________d , i_______________e . For instance, this might be an advertisement for a smartphone targeted at a p____________________t that i________________s about h____________________s and p______________y .

However, the internet now allows individuals to r__________h products more o_____________y on a c__________________s . When a particular person is interested in purchasing a new phone, because they lost an old one or they desire a more modern one, then they can c_____________________e , read c_________________s , and c_________t a variety of b_____s and sites like Consumer Report, which is well known for its u___________________s . There are, a______________y , situations when individuals will u_________r new products they might not have been aware of before through ads. However, this is more likely to o_________________y in daily life if a person sees someone else, for example, with a u__________________h . The a_________t of social media and s___________________________e also means that individuals have another m_____________t a__________m advertising that p___________s new products and services.

In conclusion, advertising is no longer needed in m___________y as there are other ways to research and discover products. This does not i_______y that advertising is i_________e , m_______y that i________________d it could be e_____________d .

Listening Practice

Learn more about this topic in the video below and practice with these activities :

Reading Practice

Read more about this topic and use these ideas to practice :

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/is-this-the-grossest-advertising-strategy-of-all-time/280242/

Speaking Practice

Practice with the following speaking questions from the real IELTS speaking exam :

Talk about an advertisement you watched that convinced you to buy a product. Include

What it was

When you saw it

How it convinced you

And if you were happy with the purchase.

Writing Practice

Practice with the same basic topic below and then check with my sample answer:

Some feel that the effects of advertising are positive for individuals and businesses, while others think they are negative.

Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.

IELTS Essay: Advertising

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How to Anticipate Customer Needs (With Examples)

When was the last time you heard a story about exceptional customer service? Or an innovative way a company figured out how to meet customer needs?

You know the kind: An observant hotel employee rescues a beloved stuffed animal. The considerate customer service agent sends a gift card to apologize for a shipping error. A software company sees you’re having trouble with their platform and sends you a private video walkthrough.

These are all great examples, but what really makes a difference day after day is simply anticipating customer needs before they become problems.

Some companies seem to have an uncanny ability to get ahead of their customer’s issues. But it doesn’t just happen. Exceptional customer service is designed with dedication and built into company cultures.

We get it. Sometimes merely meeting customer needs is a struggle. Anticipating them? Now that seems daunting. After all, you can’t read minds.

The good news is that your customers don’t expect you to. (In fact, they often find it creepy when you know too much about them.) But they do want you to anticipate their problems and help them reach a resolution as quickly as possible.

For all of the work it requires to make anticipating customer needs happen, the payoff is well worth it. Let’s take a look at how to anticipate customer needs and what it means to your customer service.

Table of Contents

What will you gain by anticipating customer needs?

In a word: loyalty.

We’ve touched on customer loyalty before, but we can’t stress its importance enough. In a digital-first age, customers have endless choices—and you need to make them choose you. Winning their loyalty has become more important than ever.

Customer service has become a major competitive advantage. According to Microsoft , 90% of customers say customer service is important to their brand choice and loyalty to that brand.

And should those customer service expectations fall short, 58% of customers show little hesitation in severing the relationship. The days of implicit loyalty are long gone.

While customer loyalty should be enough of a draw, here are some more benefits to anticipating customer needs:

• Increased revenue. When your customers feel taken care of, they’re more likely to come back. They’re looking for easy, frictionless experiences and will frequent the businesses that give them that.
• Less strain on your customer service team. You read that right. Making things simple for customers will have a direct impact on your customer service team. Even when you provide more customer service, it’ll still be better for your agents. Customers will have fewer questions, there will be less urgency in their questions, and they’ll be less frustrated overall.

Start by identifying customer expectations.

You’ve probably heard of the surprise and delight customer service strategy. It suggests that the best way to retain customers is to keep them guessing. Following its doctrine, you should go above and beyond the normal call of duty to give the customers something they weren’t expecting. The examples in the introduction are all great cases of using surprise and delight.

While it works when customers are already pleased with your company, it probably won’t make an angry customer come back. And since 55% of customers expect better customer service year over year, according to Microsoft’s Global State of Customer Service report , simply meeting expectations is often a struggle.

Hubspot’s Annual State of Service Report shows even greater numbers. 88% of respondents agreed that customers have higher expectations than in the past, and 79% said customers are smarter and more informed.

So what are customers’ needs? What do they expect from today’s businesses?

Simplicity.

They want frictionless experiences, easy-to-navigate interfaces, and fast solutions to their problems.

But you shouldn’t just take our word for it. The best way to figure out what your customers want is to ask them. More and more businesses are conducting post-purchase surveys to ensure customer satisfaction, loyalty, and more. According to Hubspot, 70% of businesses report they are tracking customer satisfaction/happiness—a jump from 60% in 2020 and around 55% in 2019.

Similarly, a majority of respondents—85%—say customers are more likely to share positive or negative experiences now than in the past.

While CSAT and other surveys can help you improve customer service, expand your research to include those that don’t buy from you. Ask why they didn’t purchase, and dive deep to figure out which of their needs weren’t met—and see how you can meet them in the future.

Give customers convenient service.

Regardless of whether they’re shopping for a vacation getaway , office supplies , or looking for subscription-based fashion , your customers expect convenience and fast service.

When you walk into a store, you expect orderly displays and friendly staff ready to serve you. When you visit a company’s website, you expect the same: A streamlined digital presence, complete with an easy-to-use website and customer service agents at the ready.

Just how fast? According to Hubspot’s Annual State of Service report , 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as important or very important when they have a customer service question—which customers define as under 10 minutes.

Here are a few ways to give customers fast, convenient service:

• Make customer service digital. Customers don’t want to interrupt their day to call customer service, wait on hold to speak to a representative, or spend days waiting for an email response. These slower communication methods are helpful in a pinch, but customers now want something more. They want digital customer service.

You don’t need a crystal ball to see that consumers are using mobile devices to communicate. Implementing business messaging to reduce wait times, deflect calls, and provide faster assistance disrupts and resets the consumer expectation that contacting a company for help is slow and inconvenient.

• Be easily accessible. It sounds easy, right? If they found your website, surely they can find your customer service contact info hidden on your help page, which is hidden in your footer, or beneath a menu in your header. Yes, customers can probably find you, but make the process easier by being available to them wherever they are.

Have a web chat (also known as live chat) box on your website so customers can instantly chat with a customer service agent—no matter how far down your website rabbit hole they’ve gone.

Don’t stop there. Are your customers on Instagram ? What about Twitter ? The more places you’re available to answer questions, the happier your customers will be. They won’t have to go searching for help, and you’ll always have someone there when they need you.

Offer proactive customer service. Heading off a problem before it happens is almost always better than waiting for them to come to you. And customers agree— more than two-thirds want an organization to reach out and engage with proactive customer notifications, according to Microsoft.

Being proactive can be as simple as sending tracking links to limit “where’s my order?” inquiries. Consider collecting top customer questions and sharing them during the purchasing process, or feed answers to a chatbot for quick customer service response times.

At Quiq, we help our clients provide convenient ways for customers to engage with a brand and allow consumers to reach out to companies on their terms. Communicating with companies via messaging is still pretty new, and we’ve seen so many consumers respond with surprise and delight at the ability to text a company for help.

Stop communication inefficiencies before they start.

Many customer needs examples revolve around their time. As we mentioned above, inefficient communication just adds to your customers’ frustrations. You’ve likely experienced the struggle of having to navigate IVR systems (those interactive voice response systems that use automation to collect customer information and point them in the right direction). Whether you’re waiting on hold or waiting for an email response, that’s time you can’t get back.

During those moments of need, the last thing your customers want is to interrupt their day. Customer loyalty is won (or lost) in these critical moments.

Anticipate customers’ needs by working within their schedules and workflows. Here are a few ways to get started.

• Make communication asynchronous. The biggest frustration when calling help centers is that you must put your day on hold to do so. Don’t force your customers to conform to your service center’s schedule. Instead, offer asynchronous messaging .

Communication methods like web chat and voice are helpful for getting answers to more complex questions, but they also require customers to block out their time and respond immediately. Asynchronous messaging, however, lets customers respond whenever they’re available. As a bonus, your customer service agents can handle multiple interactions at the same.

• Take advantage of chatbots. Chatbots are the key to giving customers the immediate responses they crave without overwhelming your customer service team. They’re always available to provide simple answers to questions or, at the very least, acknowledge the customer’s question and let them know when an agent will be available to chat.

You can also use chatbots to help you anticipate customers’ needs by having them prompt customers with messages as they navigate through your website. Start with a welcome message, offer product suggestions based on browsing history, or provide answers to FAQs during checkout.

• Eliminate repetitive tasks. Speed up redundant tasks by creating pre-build responses for common questions. Not only will you be able to speed up response times, but you’ll also ensure customers get the same accurate and helpful information no matter which customer service agent they talk to.

Imagine how your customers would perceive your brand if they were able to text a question to your contact center and get immediate help and resolution. No interruptions to their day, no inconvenience or waiting involved.

Aligning your people, processes, and technology to reduce effort and streamline communications will do wonders for your customer service. With each positive interaction, customers will anticipate great service well into the future.

When your customer expects to be taken care of, they can engage with your company without feeling that they have to play offense, which leads to more pleasant interactions for both sides.

Empower CSAs to make the right decisions for customers.

Sometimes, anticipating customers’ needs means understanding that you can’t predict them all. Problems come up, mistakes get made, and website bugs happen. The trick is coming up with a plan to handle things that have no plan.

How do you do that? Empower customer service agents to take action to solve customer issues.

Unfortunately, right now, not everyone has that power. Around 20% of service agents say their biggest challenge is not having the ability to make the right decisions for customers, according to Hubspot. But it’s likely that many more face this issue on a regular basis.

Ensure your customer agents have the authority to do things like:

• Offer discounts when customers encounter problems.
• Expedite orders when shipments are lost or damaged.
• Take as much time as they need to solve customer issues.

Without the authority to make these decisions on their own, agents have to wait for approvals or miss out on opportunities to surpass customer expectations.

Equip your team with the tools to meet future needs.

While you can’t predict every need that pops up (unless you found that crystal ball), you can ensure your customer service is always on point . Set your team up for success with the right tools to meet customer service needs now and into the future.

Regardless of the issue, the one thing you can anticipate is that your customer wants resolution in the fastest, most pain-free way possible. Quiq helps companies across multiple industries do just that with our Conversational AI platform.

Let customers talk to you the same way they chat with their family and friends. Whether a customer needs to text you to ask about an exchange or new car loan, needs assistance via chat in finding and buying the perfect gift, or wants to schedule a service and pay for it through Apple Messages for Business , Quiq messaging powers your customer connections.

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Table of contents

The art of anticipating customer needs: benefits and tips.

Anticipating customer needs is about being proactive with customer service: you sense a customer might need your help, and reach out to them proactively, instead of waiting around for them to contact support. 

This kind of proactive customer support is not just a nice-to-have, it’s something customers have come to expect. In fact, according to a survey by Microsoft , about 70% of consumers have a more favorable view of brands that offer proactive customer service notifications.

In this piece, we’ll cover why it’s important to anticipate customer needs, common concerns customers may have, and the best ways to help customers before they reach out for help.

Table of Contents

The benefits of anticipating customer needs.

 Anticipating customer needs in advance offers a few important benefits such as: 

Anticipating the needs of your customers is, therefore, good for your brand as well as your customer support agents. 

Common customer concerns and needs related to your product

A big part of understanding and anticipating customer needs is first identifying areas where they may need help. These will usually be related to your product. 

Product pricing is an important factor that influences customers’ decisions when buying your product. It’s also something customers frequently need help understanding. 

If you’re selling a subscription-based product, customers might want to know how different subscription plans compare to each other. For B2C products, customers might want to know if and when during the year you offer sales and discounts. 

It helps to clearly mention all product features offered in a specific subscription plan. 

It may also be helpful to include a price comparison page on your website, that allows customers to compare your product to others in the market. According to research from Google , more than 50 percent of shoppers say they always do research before they buy to ensure they are making the best possible choice.

Ease of use

A complex product interface is likely to invite more customer queries and concerns, as opposed to one that is simple and easy to use. 

It makes sense to evaluate different parts of your product with the unit testing approach and ask, “Is this a feature customers may not understand or need help with?” Then, either simplify the feature or add self-help options, so customers can use it better.

Product information and how-tos

This refers to information about new product features, step-by-step walkthroughs of your product, and frequently asked questions about your product or service. 

A good way to answer common customer concerns without overwhelming your customer support team is to build a customer self-service portal. This includes a number of information sources such as a knowledge base (the content needs to be easy to read and answer user’s search intent.),a FAQ page, and a community forum page. Go through a document review process to ensure the content aligns with your guidelines.

Errors and bugs

A customer may face an error due to a mistake from software engineers and programmers. It usually occurs in software products, leading to a change in their functionality and defect in the final product. 

A bug is the result of a coding error. Developers often identify bugs during development, though sometimes they may make it to the final product and cause malfunctions. 

It’s important to weed out errors and bugs before they make it to the final product, as they risk deteriorating customer experience and are also costly to fix. 

The National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST) published a study in 2002 which showed that on average a bug found in coding/unit testing takes 2.4 hours to fix, whereas an average bug found in post-product release takes 13.1 hours to fix.

How to anticipate customer needs?

We’ve gone over common areas or reasons for which customers may get in touch with you, but how do you know when customers will reach out, and for which issue?

Here are some nifty tricks to identify customers’ expectations way before they reach out to customer support and provide a superior experience : 

Keep an eye on customer interactions with your brand

This means tracking all the paths that may lead customers to your product — your website, social media channels, and blog — and identifying stages at which customers get stuck. 

For instance, if you see a number of new customers visiting your pricing page, but few proceeding to sign up, it’s possible customers find your pricing complicated or they’re unsure about the value of your product.

Recommended Reading

Collect customer insights through user research

User research uses several ways such as customer surveys , group discussions, real-time user testing, and heat maps, to identify issues customers may face with your product. 

This type of research helps you uncover both quantitative and qualitative insights about customer behavior. For instance, surveys can help you gauge if your website interface is user-friendly, while real-time testing can help you see which areas customers are most likely to get stuck at, or which sections of your app may be buggy. 

Altogether, this data helps you identify common roadblocks customers might face. You can either remove them entirely or provide helpful instructions for customers to navigate them. 

Analyze buying patterns of customers

Buying patterns reveal the channels customers most frequently use to purchase your product, the frequency with which they purchase, and how they respond to marketing promotions. This helps you optimize your purchase channels, anticipate demand for products, and tweak your promotional channels. 

For instance, if you see more customers switching to mobile wallets to make payments,  you might add more options for customers to check out using this channel. Similarly, if you see a customer frequently purchase the same item, you may send offers related to that product, or automatically add to their cart the next time they log in. 

Track customer activity in your product

This is particularly helpful for anticipating customer needs for software applications. It’s something a project manager needs to monitor.

The actions customers take inside a product may sometimes reveal if they will run into potential issues. 

Payments app Square tracks customer activity inside its app to gauge potential customer queries. For example, if they notice a customer failed to link to their bank account, they proactively send them an email explaining why, instead of waiting for them to reach out. If a seller starts accepting card payments, they send them tips on swiping cards and card readers.

Thanks to this proactive support, Square’s CSAT scores have gone from 30% to over 75%. 

Use insights from customer support requests

Each customer support interaction ― from support conversations to knowledge base queries, to NPS surveys and live chat ― is a chance to collect useful customer data. 

While NPS and CSAT surveys help you see how many customers like or dislike your product, support conversations with your current customers help you understand why . They give you a sneak peek into the most common issues customers run into with your product and what you can do to improve their experience. According to Hiver’s Customer Service Benchmark Report , 51% of customer service teams monitor all support conversations to infer customer feedback.

It is also helpful for agents to keep a customer’s past support interactions handy, so they can get relevant context about the customer and the issues they frequently run into. This helps support agents solve customer queries in a single interaction, instead of asking customers for more information and delaying support. 

Collaborating quantitative and qualitative customer service data is the best way to get an in-depth understanding of customer needs and problems. 

In a nutshell

Providing great customer service is good, but going out of your way to solve customer issues is better. It shows customers you care to go above and beyond to improve their experience and boosts their affinity towards your brand. 

Your website analytics, support interactions, and user tests can be a goldmine of customer data, letting you peek into issues customers might run into and help them before they ask for help. 

Remember, the better you are at anticipating customer needs, the better you’ll get at eliminating customer problems. 

Deliver stellar customer support right from Gmail

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99 Customer Service Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best customer service topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on customer service, ❓ customer service essay questions.

• Customer Service and Its Value in Companies The top leaders of companies must realize that they have a duty to not only meet the needs of the customers, but also to work hard to exceed the expectations of the customers.
• FedEx Customer Service Malfunction The micro issues include poor tracking and follow up of the lost package, inadequate feedback to the client on the status of the package, and uncoordinated responses to alterations in customer delivery requirements.
• Apple Inc.: Customer Service The continuous innovation of the company has led to its capture of the music industry with the creation of iTunes and the Apple Store.
• Toyota Company Customer Service Through the company’s quality products, Toyota has built a bank of goodwill that will enable it to maintain customer loyalty in the long-term.
• Zappos: How Excellent Customer Service Can Drive Growth The company believes that the right corporate culture is the foundation of exceptional customer service. According Tony, zappos is a company that is committed to delivering happiness to all the stakeholders.
• Customer Service Situations The price on the marking label was not the same as the price in the check. Describe a customer service situation where the customer won at the expense of the service provider.
• Customer Satisfaction and Service Proper customer service, which is the act of providing services to the customer during the whole transaction process, is important for the success of every business.
• Flow Charts in Customer Service Problem Solving For solving the problems that arise in the customer service environment as well as improving the processes an organization uses, it is very important to understand what is done in the company at every stage.
• Customer Service in Restaurants It can be quite frustrating to make a customer wait for a certain meal only to deliver the wrong one to them.
• Customer Service Conflict Management Strategies The key difficulty is, therefore, to find out what type of customer the support is dealing with and, thus, to choose the appropriate strategy to calm him/her down.
• Excellent Customer Service: Models and Implications Furthermore, regarding the fact that the majority of companies recognize this idea, the need for the creation of long-term relations with customers and their loyalty becomes the only possible way to win the rivalry.
• The Mount Rundle Hotel’s Customer Service Failure The difference in the price of the same service on two different websites indicates that the hotel is not keen on customer services.
• Burger King: Satisfying Customer Needs In response to the recent obesity trends in the US as well as in other countries, Burger King has started to adjust its menu.
• Customer Service Seminar: Project Proposal The major group to whom the project is intended is the executives and employees of Bank of America who deal with the customers. The sponsor of this project is Bank of America.
• The Importance of Customer Service in Healthcare The location of the training was the Brooklyn Hospital Center, and the presenter was the Nurse Educator. Since the professional background of the audience was nursing, the subject was clinically relevant, and the nurses could […]
• Customer Service and Interpersonal Experience: Starbucks The focus of the paper is on the principles on which the company was created and this is tackled in the background section of this paper.
• Walmart Project Plan: Customer Service and Technological Base Therefore, the project implementation should be controlled on the basis of performance measures and evaluation of the overall climate in the workplace.
• A Customer Service Position: A Job Description The skills required for a customer service position also vary depending on the company, but some common skills are typically required and, thus, must be included in the job description.
• The Mount Rundle Hotel: Customer Service Failure Moreover, the hotel is not committed to offering quality services to its clients, and that is why nobody is concerned that guests do not have adequate toiletries in their rooms.
• Customer Service Training The main objective of a needs assessment in an organization’s training program is to identify performance weaknesses and necessary knowledge and skills needed to eradicate the weaknesses.
• The Problem of Customer Service in Companies In fact, one of the founders noted how customer service greatly impact on the products that the company sells and highlighted the very important part of their policy which is allowing the customer to provide […]
• Customer Service Improvement Plan for Shopee Pte. Ltd. Role What do they do Who Change Sponsor The CO and the MGD will assess expenses to improve the complaint/refund processes to reduce the average dispute resolution time (Trustpilot, n.d.). Improving Shopee’s hotline service, including new tools, workforce expansion, and processes for investigating lost package cases without delay, will be considered (Trustpilot, n.d.). In collaboration […]
• Competent Customer Service in Business The customer is the principal value for any enterprise, and every company should improve the quality of products and services to provide the necessary level of assistance.
• Outsourcing Customer Service for Axe Co. To avoid congestion at the headquarter premises To avoid workload for human resource and finance department To improve quality of customer service, support To promote the company’s awareness by partnership To provide quality customer […]
• United Airlines Firm’s Customer Service Problem Complexity stands for the interconnection of the yield management system and the absence of actions to do in crises, such as overbooking.
• Aspects of Customer Service In this progression, the association needs to distinguish why the things need to change, and on the off chance that individuals in the association are not fulfilled, it would be hard for the association to […]
• Saudi Airlines: Excellent Airline Customer Service Strategic branding is what the airline management has put in place to ensure that better services are delivered to the customers.
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital: The Customer Service Model The management of the hospital then uses the collected feedback to improve the manner in which its staff handles customers. The second way in which the adopted customer experience model of the hospital benefits the […]
• Recommendation on Customer Service This department is the one which can significantly improve the quality of services provided as it is a mediator between the client and the hospital’s employees.
• Functioning of the Customer Service in AL Baraha Hospital The customer service in Al Baraha Hospital is based on the principle that the well-being of the patients should be the top priority for medical workers and administrators.
• Healthcare System: Customer Service The overall objective of this action was to defraud the public through false claims submitted to the Government by the company.
• Customer Service Improvement Project at Qatar National Bank Evaluation Hayes and Wheelwright’s 4-Stage model is a conceptual tool meant to evaluate the project with the extent of how its operational contributions improve the company’s competitiveness.
• Defending Public Service Values in a Customer Service Age Regardless of the propagation and persistence of requests concerning the process of serving customers, the relationships between the public and the organizations that provide services are impacted by the performance expectations and public priorities.
• Richard Branson’s Customer Service Secrets It is exceptionally true when the competitors in the sphere of action are huge companies with billions of assets. The majority of big businesses’ owners are usually isolated from the employees and the customers in […]
• Managing Customer Service for Abissnet Company The main purpose of this report is to develop strategies, which will help to improve the overall quality of customer service in the company Abissnet.
• Customer Service Award for Excellence The main motive for the creation of this prize is the need to critically evaluate organizations working in the sphere and outline the most effective approaches and models that are used to create excellent customer […]
• Telefónica’s O2 Brand Marketing and Customer Service O2 is the trademark used by Telefonica U.K. Limited and one of the largest telecom companies in Europe. It is part of the global telecommunications group Telefónica S.A.
• Customer Service Representative Training Evaluation The expected outcome of the survey comprises of the strengths and weaknesses of the content of the training session and evaluation of instructors who lead this training session.
• Business Communication in Customer Services It is also important to note that effective business communication promotes employee retention strategies, which in turn reduces the rate of labor turnover within an organization.
• Best Food Superstores’ Customer Service Policy The problem is in the system’s weaknesses when the price on the label does not match the actual price fixed in the main computer at the cash desk, and the consumer should get or not […]
• Touchpoints in UAE Government Customer Service Delivery A recent report published in the article by Ahmed indicates that the United Arab Emirates is ranked in the 21st position globally and the leading country in the Arab world in terms of citizens’ level […]
• Hondwreck Partsheaven Project Plan: Inventory and Customer Service As a seller of car parts and a provider of wrecking services, Hondwreck Partsheaven is looking to improve the quality of the provided services, optimize the inventory processes, and optimize the overall performance of the […]
• Customer Service Representative: Organizational Structure The method is usually simple to undertake, the HR manager will collect adequate information in a timely manner, and it reveals the aspects of the targeted position that might not be captured by the other […]
• Customer Service Representatives’ Training The training program must also address the service orientation attitudes and skills of the CSRs because they are not able to apply their knowledge on registration steps for effective delivery of services.
• Customer Service in the UAE Banking Sector What are the dimensions that have affected the level of service quality the most in UAE Islamic banks? Jabnoun & Khalifa carried out a research study on the dimensions of service quality that affect the […]
• Sonic Drive-in: Customer Service Communication The personnel in the store had to shift from the automated communication system in the ordering station to a manual system that threatened to slow down the delivery of foods to the clients.
• The Customer Service Perspective: Balanced Scorecards In the opinion of business administrators, these metrics can throw light on the experiences of customers and their assessment of the company’s performance.
• Jordan’s Restaurant Customer Service The level of cleanliness within the restaurant, warm greetings the choice and preference of where to seat made the whole experience lively.
• Customer Service as a Part of Business Strategy The use of the term “customer service” requires delineation to ensure that there is not confusion with other aspects of customer care in the business. The important issue in regards to the definition of customer […]
• Improving Customer Service in a Nigerian Musical Instrument Company The research questions guided the development of the questionnaire and in turn, the specific questions in the questionnaire dealt with the issues associated with the project.
• Restructuring Customer Service Department at Wall-Mart In addition, the consultant should be ready to face resistance on the part of the managerial staff and personnel; The role of the manager will include Controlling the availability of resource and device the exact […]
• Ryanair’s Customer Service The company exploits the fact that customers are concerned with company core products, service delivery and the company’s image. In addition, the company maximizes on its product delivery service with respect to the level of […]
• Netflix Customer Services In light of setting up the support services, they have to consider the needs of customers in order to ensure that the support services are focused on customers.
• Role of Customer Service in Technology Industry However, it is significant to note that the preciseness of the value of customer service in an organisation varies in relation to the industry, the service offered and or the product being offered for sale.
• Developing Competitive Advantage Through Customer Service The achievements of the company are attributed to its ability to attract and retain large numbers of customers from all parts of the world.
• Customer Service Improvement: Mobilicity Phone Company With this situation in mind, I would like to propose to the CEO on the best advertisement solutions that would assist in improving the popularity of the company and hence its sales as well as […]
• Stress Management among Customer Service Employees: Antecedents & Interventions A focus on the identification of current and potential stressors affecting this group of employees, and the subsequent development of interventions which could be used by the employees to manage and curtail stress effectively, is […]
• Customer Service Excellence and Customer Satisfaction In service offering, product refers to a service concept that has the capacity to give value to customers. Here, their aim in the customer service system should be to boost the quality of their interactions […]
• Socially Responsible Marketing and Customer Service To achieve this, organizations need to bring both the internal and external stakeholders together in such a way that they can share in the effort of maximizing the bottom line of the company.
• Empowerment in Customer Service Management The term empowerment refers to the process of providing more authority to the employees of an organization. Chebat and Kollias argue that the service industry is hugely dependent on the capacity of employees to deliver […]
• Customer Service Operations and Excellence The Meriden Hospital is one of the many hospitals and clinics belonging to the BMI Healthcare organization owned by the General Healthcare Group PLC.
• The Importance of Empowerment in Customer Service Management Customer service employees are in a better position to respond to the needs of customers because of their grassroots experience. Empowerment enables employees to follow the ideals and strategies of their organization in their interactions […]
• Hospitality Customer Service – Service Recovery Project As such, it is always important that the customer service supervisor is able to read the psychology of his or her staffers and ensure that all are of positive attitude to avoid service breakdown.
• Customer Service Representative It will help to collect the necessary data to design the most effective training program for customer service representatives. It is also important to note that questionnaires should contain data concerning the future training program.
• IT Role in Business Processes and Customer Service More importantly, the company implements the concept of full transparency of operations and is more attached to a scientific way of thinking.
• Customer Service at WestJet The success behind WestJet as a low-cost carrier is mainly attributed to the quality of service that the airline provides to its passengers.
• Customer Service Coordination Self-management on the other hand is the key factor because the coordinator must be self-aware all the time in relation to the environment and the needs of the customers.
• What Constitutes Good Customer Service?
• How Consistent and Reliable Customer Service Contributes to Customer Satisfaction?
• How Customer Service Grown and Changed Over the Years?
• How Does Customer Service Help Your Team?
• How Can Email Improve Your Customer Service?
• How Can Marketing Research Improve Customer Service of Popular?
• How Are Millennials Redefining Customer Service?
• What Reasons for Using Customer Service Policies Marketing?
• What Recommendations for the Customer Service Branch?
• What Makes Good Customer Service?
• Where Has Customer Service Gone?
• Why Customer Service Needed in Globalization of Logistics?
• Will Improving Customer Service Result in Higher Stock?
• Does the Web Reduce Customer Service Cost?
• Can Customer Service Affect the Business a Restaurant Has?
• What Relationship Between Customer Service and Logistics Management?
• How Are Strategic Management and Customer Service Connected?
• What Is the Customer Service Perspective?
• Which Administrative and Customer Service Skills Need?
• How Different Communication Techniques Used in Customer Service?
• How Can International Retailers Achieve a Competitive Advantage Through Customer Service?
• What Are the Three Essential Qualities of Customer Service?
• What Is the Role of Customer Service?
• What Are Customer Service Skills?
• What Words Describe Good Customer Service?
• How Is Culture and Customer Service Excellence Connected?
• Airbnb Paper Topics
• DHL Research Topics
• FedEx Ideas
• eBay Topics
• McDonald’s Topics
• Online Shopping Questions
• Telecommunications Questions
• Burger King Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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How to identify and solve for customer needs

Posted July 11, 2022

By Serena Miller

Editor, Sales Best Practices at Outreach

What are customer needs?

The different types of customer needs, how to identify customer needs, how to solve for customer needs, powerful technology for identifying and meeting customer needs, stay up-to-date with all things outreach.

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For sales teams across every industry, keeping up with high customer expectations is a seemingly constant challenge. On top of executing their day-to-day sales activities, managing their pipeline, and ensuring they hit their targets, salespeople must also properly identify and solve for their customers’ needs — or risk falling behind their competitors.

In today’s hyper-competitive global market, customers expect ease, convenience, and intuitive services and products. They expect businesses to keep up with their expectations, regardless of the platform they use to interact with that business. But if sales organizations and their sellers don’t understand customers’ fundamental needs, they cannot offer the tailored solutions that meet and exceed those needs.

A lack of foundational knowledge surrounding customer needs often leads sales teams on a wild goose chase in their attempts to offer solutions that adequately serve their customers. This means wasted time, resources, and, ultimately, missed revenue.

Here, we’ll walk through the process of identifying the most crucial aspects of customer needs, and how to build upon them to craft sales strategies that pinpoint and solve consumer and prospect pain points.

Customer needs include all of the expectations, demands, and requirements (both specified and unspecified) a buyer has as they seek out a solution. In some instances, the customer may not even be fully aware of their own needs, so sellers must interact with each prospect and client with acute awareness of their potential expectations.

While each buyer is unique — and thus so are their needs — sales organizations can begin to identify some commonalities among them by conducting thorough research and collecting feedback. Then, they can tweak both the sales process and their offerings so as to better serve those specific needs.

For instance, an organization that sells B2B marketing solutions might gather customer feedback at every stage of their sales process to determine whether or not they’re meeting client expectations. By digging through relevant social media posts, online reviews, and customer feedback forms and conducting deep user research and more, they uncover two key findings:

• Their marketing automation software is difficult to use, so customers are struggling to ensure team-wide adoption and justify their investments in the technology.
• Their prospects feel that the customer interactions they’ve experienced are generic, pushy, and disingenuous.

Using this information, the business decides to prioritize product development to improve their software’s usability and to adjust their sales strategy to become more customer-centric and personalized. Over time, they're able to better meet their customers’ expectations to build brand loyalty, increase client satisfaction, reduce churn, and boost their profitability.

While customer needs vary greatly (depending on industry, company size, current environment, objectives, and more), they typically fall into two categories: product needs and service needs. There are several different types of needs within those two groups, each of which requires a different solution.

Product needs

Product needs refer to the customers’ expectations of a business’s actual offerings. These included (but are not limited to):

• Functionality - Customers need the products they buy to function in a way that suits their needs and resolves their pain points. When they invest in a product, customers want the offering to fulfill its promised capabilities and include all purchased features.
• Performance - A product is not of any use to the customer if it doesn’t operate successfully and consistently. Clients expect that the solutions they purchase are in working order and perform properly so they can achieve their intended outcomes.
• Price - Each customer has a specific budget, and thus an established amount they’re willing to spend on a product. They need to find a solution that resolves their pain points and supports their goals while also remaining within the parameters of that budget.
• Compatibility/Integrations - More often than not, customers already have an existing ecosystem of tools and technologies that support their operations. They expect any new products they purchase to be compatible with those current tools, so as to get the most out of their tech stacks .
• User Experience - As customers evaluate potential solutions, they look for products and services that offer convenience and intuitiveness. They don’t want to invest in something that will require complex training or will go unused due to poor usability.

Service needs

Service needs are all the requirements customers have surrounding interactions with a solution provider and the business as a whole. This might include:

• Transparency - Today’s customers are quick to identify a business that’s trying to pull the wool over their eyes to make a sale. They expect complete transparency into what they’re being offered, how it will impact them, how much it will cost, and how the company from which they’re purchasing will handle any unforeseen issues.
• Options - Customers want flexibility when it comes to the products and features they purchase, so offering rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions won’t inspire them to buy. They want to know that they have several options from which to choose (each in varying functionality, price points and payment options, and more) to feel confident that the solution will meet their unique needs.
• Accessibility - When a product breaks or the customer has a question, they need unfettered access to support. They expect to reach customer service and support teams quickly and easily, so businesses should offer several avenues of access (e.g. social media, email, phone, self-service portals, etc.).
• Empathy - Buyers want to know that the businesses from which they purchase truly understand their challenges and goals. They want to interact with sellers and customer support reps who lead with an authentic, empathetic , and consultative approach, rather than a pushy or promotional edge.
• Information - Modern buyers are smart. In fact, 94% of B2B buyers conduct online research before making a purchase, so it’s fair to assume that information impacts their decisions. They want the solutions providers they’re considering to offer in-depth, valuable information about their products and services (both before and after a purchase is made), so they feel comfortable buying and using the solution.

"If you build it, they will come," doesn't apply to product, service, or sales process that meets customer needs. Actually, the exact opposite rings true, as 66% of buyers expect a sales rep to tailor solutions to their individual needs. They don’t want providers to develop and pitch solutions they think buyers might need. They want them to build their solutions , sales processes, and experiences around their unique pain points, objectives, challenges, and needs.

But identifying those needs upon which a successful business (and its sales strategy) relies isn’t as easy as ticking expectations off a predetermined list. Each organization’s customers are different, and they should take the time to uncover which expectations are most relevant to their buyers, then meet — or exceed — them.

Below are several methods by which a business can identify their customers’ specific needs.

Customer feedback

Collecting, analyzing, and acting upon customer feedback can give a company a serious leg up against their competitors. It may seem like an obvious approach, but while 89% of customers feel an organization should give them an opportunity to provide feedback, only 47% believe that most brands take action on that feedback. It’s a clear opportunity for companies to demonstrate their commitment to listening to their customers and making adjustments to better meet their needs.

Customer feedback can take the form of social media posts, on-site prompts or chat boxes, on- and off-site reviews, and more. Regardless of how a business requests and collects feedback, it’s essential to ask buyers open-ended questions about:

• Their experiences with the website
• The product and service information that’s available to them
• Their interactions with sellers, customer service/support teams, etc.
• How their products or services solve (or fail to solve) their pain points
• How their products or services could be improved to better meet their needs

Then, the organization should analyze their customers’ responses on a regular basis to identify key trends and patterns. If they do make subsequent adjustments to their products, services, sales process, or customer service strategy, they should be transparent with buyers about the change, citing customer feedback as the catalyst for their decision. This will help them establish trust with customers and illustrate their willingness to adapt to their clients’ needs.

User research

If your product and/or service teams aren’t already conducting user research, now might be a great time to start. There are myriad excuses for foregoing user research (e.g. lack of time, resources, or budget, assuming that customers don’t know what they want, etc.), but a proper mix of qualitative and quantitative user research can affect several revenue-relevant metrics, including:

• Customer acquisition - By conducting user research that gleans insights into how your audience interacts with your sellers, your website, and your overall brand, you can begin to tweak your messaging and engagement strategies for increased conversions.
• Customer retention - Retaining an existing customer is much more cost-effective than acquiring a new one, but how do your existing clients feel about your business, your products and services, and the support they receive? User research helps your teams identify clients’ specific pain points, goals, and any issues they may be having and course correct before they jump ship to a competitor.
• Referrals - A whopping 92% of people prefer a word of mouth recommendation over any other type of referral; but customers recommending your company must be willing to put their own reputations on the line to do so. By conducting user research, your business can unearth and resolve any product, service, or other issues that may be preventing them from referring your brand to their peers with confidence.

Don’t forget that user research can be costly and incredibly time-consuming if you don’t adequately plan for the process. Be sure to choose a research method that’s relevant to your industry, products and services, and intended audience, get stakeholder buy-in early on, and align your research with broader business goals to ensure success.

Customer surveys

While customer feedback can help you collect longer-form, detailed responses, surveys can enable your team to quickly gain insights into specific areas for improvement. They’re helpful for evaluating overall customer satisfaction to predict retention and product or service purchases. It’s vital to remember that customer surveys are only truly valuable if they include the right questions and are utilized at the right time, so be sure to:

Keep customer surveys short and concise

Eliminate unnecessary questions that aren’t directly tied to what you want to know

Send surveys during key moments in the buying journey (like directly after a demo, immediately following a purchase, or prior to a potential subscription renewal)

Use consistent rating scales (e.g. 1-10, wherein 1 represents extremely dissatisfied and 10 equates to extremely satisfied) to avoid confusion

Skip the leading questions, which can irritate customers and skew your data

Offer incentives (like discounts or entry for a giveaway) for customers who participate

Your team can implement in-product surveys, send them via email, or use on-page popup surveys on the company’s website. Don’t be afraid to play around with different methods until you find one that garners high levels of participation.

Sales team and service team interviews

Several members of your sales and service teams likely have their ears to the ground when it comes to customer needs. They have constant interaction with customers and prospects, and their insights are incredibly valuable — so put them to use.

Interview these team members to learn which problems, needs, or desires they frequently hear from customers and potential buyers. If they’re doing their jobs properly and leading with empathy, they’ll already have deep knowledge around your customers' biggest pain points, your company’s shortcomings, and the changes they’d like to see.

Competitive research

Researching your competitors is a vital part of understanding your own offerings, establishing benchmarks for growth, identifying your company’s unique differentiators, and making intelligent decisions that help you exceed customer expectations.

This should go far beyond scouring their social media profiles or Google Ads: It should also include a deep look at the companys’ histories, their largest customers, and where they’re thriving or failing to meet customer expectations. Dive into the strategies they’re using (and whether or not those strategies are successful), and consider implementing them yourself, if necessary. Don’t be afraid to study their weaknesses and capitalize on those shortcomings by filling in the gaps at your own company.

Keyword research, search landscape analysis, and social listening 

Buyers turn to search engines like Google for their every whim, so it’s essential to understand the keywords and phrases they use when looking to solve their pain points. After all, they can’t make a purchase from your business if they can’t find you first.

Start by conducting thorough keyword research and identifying how your competitors position themselves. Compile a list of all the keywords that are relevant to your industry, products, services, and business, and measure their monthly search volume (a keyword research or online ranking tool can help!) to determine which ones are worth pursuing.

But don’t stop there: Take a close look at the search engine results pages (SERPs) for each of those keywords to uncover the users’ intent or motivation for typing it into their search bar. If, for example, a user searches “marketing software,” the SERPs should tell you what they’re likely looking to find. Are the majority of results product pages geared toward selling marketing software, or are they informational pages regarding how it’s used, its benefits, and why a company may need it?

Once you’ve analyzed the results, you can begin creating valuable content on your own site that targets the user needs attached to your most relevant keywords. This will help your business get in front of the right audience and demonstrate its position as a thought leader in the space. After all, customers want content that resonates with their needs, shows them you understand those needs, and delivers the information they need when they need it.

Once you’ve identified your customer’s most pressing needs, you can begin prioritizing the ones that will make the greatest impact on their experiences. Let’s look at the same example we used earlier, wherein a B2B marketing software company discovered two pressing issues:

• Their customers are struggling to use their marketing automation software because it’s unnecessarily complicated.
• Their prospects are underwhelmed and irritated by their sellers’ engagements, which are generalized and insincere.

They’ve also identified some other potential areas for concern (like a lack of payment options and a new feature request), but they’ve decided to first focus on the problems above because they’re likely to significantly impact retention and acquisition.

To solve for these needs, the business decides to work solutions into their product roadmaps. They adjust their product vision, strategy, and goal to align with improving the product’s usability so that their customers can more easily implement and utilize their software. They invest the proper time, resources, and funds into UX research and design. Once they’ve improved the product, they send an email announcement to existing and potential customers and publish a blog post on their website to address the changes.

On the service side, they decide to tweak the sales process to include highly personalized interactions. They offer unique touches (gained by data, customer feedback and surveys, buyer sentiment analysis , and active listening ) in sales emails, curated online and virtual events, and more to let their prospects know they’re in tune with their needs and preferences. They tailor each interaction to their customers’ liking, including the cadence, format, and style with which they’re delivered.

The company measures their progress over time, too, using feedback and data to evaluate their efforts. They adjust their strategies as they go to ensure they’re fully meeting their customers’ expectations and providing the best possible experiences at every turn.

It’s clear that uncovering your customers’ needs, desires, and objectives is absolutely crucial to offering competitive solutions. But the process can be time-consuming, costly, and fruitless if your business doesn’t have the proper tools for support.

Outreach Engage helps sellers turn insights into actions and takes the guesswork out of uncovering and solving buyer needs. It uses AI-driven buyer sentiment tools for understanding and acting on customers’ emotional responses, and uses key data to help your team make smarter decisions about the sales process and buying journey.

Learn more about how to understand your customers’ needs and preferences and improve your approach, or request a demo today.

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