There’s a not-so-well guarded secret in marketing and sales that persists:
The precise identification of customer intent – or pain points – is key to business success. 🥂
And in my experience as an e-commerce analyst, I have to attest to the truth of this notion. Because not only is it apt in practice, it forms the base for good outreach.
All complex, new-age business frameworks, in fact, center on this understanding. So, as someone involved in the buying and selling of things/services, this learning is crucial. It is by no means a grounding prescription only for computer repair.
Another key take with any commercial growth analysis is ‘field specificity’. In our context here, this means that the business growth case – as it pertains to computer repair – is different. Its series of customer pain points are unique to its ‘served demographic’ turf.
At RepairDesk, we pride ourselves on our industry-first computer repair shop software offerings. The said applications framework, it is undeniable, is pivotal to modern-day repair business success.
But as the axiom goes, the tool is only an extension of the mind-frame of its wielder. Facilitative only when the correct consumer psyche insights are available. And this is what I hope to ensure in this piece.
Some Pain Points Analysis 101
When stepping into B2C computer repair, you need to become your customer. Empathize with their angling; pin down what they’re looking for.
As a repair business owner, I wouldn’t even dismiss going the method marketing route. A cool adaptation of traditional method acting that helps marketers gain unparalleled customer-mindset depth. This approach comes in especially handy when the imaginative faculty is a bit lacking (which is ok, of course, 😅).
The standard methods of pain-point analysis include:
- Conducting In-Person & Remote Customer Surveys
- Visiting Customer Frequented Forums
- Keyword Research!
- (Indirect) Customer Journey & Persona Mapping
Nothing, of course, beats direct potential-customer exchanges for fostering repair (or, otherwise) business growth. This is the closest that such an enterprise can ever get toward unearthing accurate needs.
Indirect methods of assessment such as forum visitations and ‘persona fleshing’ can also bear gold. But here, marketing savviness, coupled with strong intuition, is needed. Otherwise, the data sets attained might just as well have been written in Klingon! They won’t make much analytical, strategy-informing, sense.
Let’s dig into each of these concepts in detail.
Customer Surveys (or Consumer Mind Transcripts)
The bracketed phrase is how I like to term these insight magnets/pullers. Because the survey exercise, in essence, is mimetic.
But even here, there are gradations of efficacy.
The best type of engagement comprises in-person interaction – in the old-school sense. Think Zoom sessions on steroids, where spontaneity is the mode of conduct. You want to glean the collective brain of your audience. So, any stiff formalities will prove counterproductive to the endeavor. They will serve as impediments to reflexive delivery.
Depending on your audience, however, you might be better served with text surveys. Styled in the MCQs format, these can also be filled anonymously (for discreet addressees). Also, they’re quick; easier to get done with for the typical, work-bogged, individual.
Surveys communicated by email and other delayed-access publications, though, are risky. Their click-thought rates (CTRs) usually figure on the low end of the audience-interaction spectrum. As a result, they come with the inherent stigma of resource/effort wastage.
Real-time sessions are the best bets, here.
Forums (where Customers Swarm & Grumble)
For the discerning marketer, online forums are precious, intent-mining, channels. These are the venues where, following adequate filters setting, the target audience can be discovered.
Their trail, truth be told, is not difficult to detect. Because in most cases, they are keen to air their grievances against every lived subject under the sun!
For computer repair business owners/workers, the complaints can include such issues as:
- Regular workflow concerns (idyllic openings for repair shop software marketing pitches)
- Incompetent, field-inexperienced, workers among colleagues, direct reports, and even managers
- Low customer turnout; shop/workplace disagreements
- Taxation problems – leading to higher service costs
- Worker resistance to mechanization (resulting in non-competitiveness)
and what have you.
As a B2B repair software designer, say, you can build solutions to these loud problems and earn currency.
For repair businesses, however, these insights can serve as remedial pointers to better work processes.
Keyword Research (the De Facto Audience Pulse Gauge)
In a nutshell, keyword research is concerned with unearthing popular search engine user queries. As in, the terms that a significant number of people are likely to search. These are narrowed in line with the topics/themes of the research conducted.
Popular research utilities include the Google Keyword Planner and the Semrush Keyword Generator.
These utilities help users to unearth keyword clusters:
Semantically related terms/phrases that attract large online search interest.
One of the more interesting applications of keyword extraction is Brand Reputation Management.
Here, company-affiliates size up the transparent, public discourse that pertains to their brand on the internet. By entering their brand name, they gain an instant understanding of the other terms consumers associate with their businesses. If the associations are negative, the company can course-correct; improve on the fronts found wanting.
Keywords research also helps with new product/service line establishment ideas. Coupled with targeted trend reports, this activity is a ready font for growth planning. Existing sales lines can also be improved following the same methods.
Nowadays, development engineers are actively engaged in trying to integrate keyword research tools and POS software. This initiative aims to centralize repair shops’ marketing flow within the same interface.
Customer Journey & Persona Mapping
These growth perpetuating ventures require a combination approach. A series of steps that entails both in-person/detached customer surveys and keyword analysis. The goal, here, is to ensure that adequate terms are available to:
- Clearly reflect the ground situation (for marketing funnel placements)
- Formulate an accurate assessment of the venues (virtual or physical) where customer-brand interactions take place
- Draw precise customer persona frameworks (so the brand can focus outreach on qualified leads acquisition)
Computer repair business growth depends on the assembly of many progressive factors in the right sequence.
Termed the ‘entrepreneurial mindset‘ by yours truly, it’s important to understand and arrange for them in ‘checklist’ fashion.
A higher number of checks, at least anecdotally, correspond with greater levels of business success, and vice versa.
