Description
Book SynopsisVisits to customers by a cross-functional team of marketers and engineers play an important role in new product development, entry into new markets, and in exploring customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The new edition of this widely used professional resource provides step-by-step instructions for making effective use of this market research technique.Using a wealth of specific examples, Edward F. McQuarrie explains how to set feasible objectives and how to select the right number of the right kind of customers to visit. One of the leading experts in the field, McQuarrie demonstrates how to construct a discussion guide and how to devise good questions, and offers practical advice on how to conduct face-to-face interviews.Extensively updated throughout, this third edition includes three new chapters as well as expanded coverage of the analysis of visit data. It also discusses which industries and product categories are most (and least) suitable to the customer visit technique. The author also covers how the customer visit technique compares to other market research techniques such as focus groups.
Trade Review"We've asked hundreds of marketers and thought leaders for the most important thing a marketer can do for a firm. Answer: Bring new techniques for discerning real customer needs. That's where Customer Visits comes in. This jewel of a book shows you how to make customer visits powerful tools for customer insight. It's a great read and a powerful resource." -- Ralph A. Oliva, Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Business Markets Penn State University "This new edition of Customer Visits is a must-read book for anyone whose firm markets products to other businesses. This is a book I read every few years, just to remind myself what a good execution of a piece of marketing research requires. I always strongly recommend it as a professional purchase to my MBA Marketing Core students. Ed McQuarrie presents a great deal of practical content on how to prepare for, conduct and analyze customer visits - in an enjoyably readable and practical form." -- Abbie Griffin, Royal L. Garff Presidential Chair in Marketing University of Utah This book will interest company representatives and management involved in sales, customer relations, and marketing. It is clearly written and offers an interesting history of the development of the tradition the customer visit. Reference & Research Book News"
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part 1. Rationale; 1. Why Visit Customers?; 2. Customer Visits as a Distinctive Approach to Market Research; 3. Limits, Boundary Cases, and the Sweet Spot for Customer Visits; Part 2. Procedures; 4. Programmatic, Ad Hoc, and Hybrid Approaches to Visiting Customers; 5. Planning a Program of Visits; 6. Budgets, Recruitment, Coordination, Team Preparation, and Time Line; 7. Selecting Customers to Visit; 8. Preparing a Discussion Guide; 9. Constructing Good Questions; 10. Conducting the Visits; 11. Completing the Visit Program; Part 3. Analysis; 12. Generalizability of Visit Data; 13. Procedures for the Analysis of Visit Data; 14. The Place of Customer Visits within the Market Research Toolbox; Appendix: Checklist for Conducting a Program of Customer Visits; Bibliography; About the Author; Index.
