When it comes to business, there is perhaps no greater riddle to solve than "What do customers really want?" After all, there are entire industries built on researching consumer tastes, trends and buying habits. And yet, customers remain a complete mystery to many business owners.

Solving the puzzle gets a little easier, however, when you seek answers from the puzzle pieces themselves: your customers. Consider organizing customer focus groups — they can help you:

1. Identify your community's specific needs.
2. Generate rich customer data, in customers' own words.
3. Build customer loyalty.
4. Help create more effective marketing campaigns.
5. Fine-tune concepts for new products and services.
6. Expose — and help solve — problems within your business.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Stay focused on one objective

Establish a single purpose for your focus group. Is it to generate new product concepts, to determine if your customer service is satisfactory or to understand how your customers are using your existing products? Keep all your questions and the group discussion focused on that objective.

I recommend: Market Navigation Inc. offers a list of the types of information focus groups are best suited to elicit.

Write a script

The best focus groups follow a scripted agenda that includes a series of predetermined questions — phrased clearly and in a manner that will encourage discussion. Add an element of entertainment to keep participants interested and engaged.

I recommend: Open your session with a series of icebreakers. Try Donald Clark's “Icebreakers, Warm-up, Review and Motivators Activities” or Susan Boyd's “Ten Ways to Break the Ice!”

Choose a moderator

Select someone, whether recruited internally or hired externally, to run your session; someone approachable, comfortable with public speaking and able to follow a script. As the business owner, you should not moderate, but should feel free to observe.

I recommend: Locate an experienced focus group moderator by searching the Qualitative Research Consultants Association's (QRCA) member database.

Select a site

Wherever you decide to host your focus group, make sure the setting is comfortable, quiet and well lit. Conference rooms and lounges are good choices.

I recommend: Focus group sessions are best held on neutral ground; try reserving a meeting room at your local library, where space typically is plentiful and free.

Recruit participants

Focus groups typically include up to a dozen participants. Select yours carefully according to predetermined qualifications, such as age, location or interests; the idea is to get information from your target customers, not random strangers.

I recommend: You can find focus group participants by standing outside your business, or you can hire a market research company, such as Direct Opinions, to locate prospects.

Monitor your sessions

It might be useful to monitor focus groups with a camera or tape recorder. Make sure participants know they are being taped, and that they consent to being recorded.

I recommend: Consider hosting your session at a special focus-groups facility, which should have the necessary equipment and set-up — including two-way mirrors — for monitoring sessions. Locate a facility near you by searching Quirk's Marketing Research Review's Focus Group Facilities Directory.

Evaluate feedback

Following a session, review the discussion and track participants' responses. Don't expect hard, statistical data, however, as focus groups are qualitative — not quantitative — by design.

I recommend: Consider holding a focus group online, with help from a data collection company such as Itracks. Doing so will make collecting, evaluating and reporting focus group results faster and easier.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Most sessions should last between one and three hours, including time for a short break; several sessions will be required in order to collect worthwhile information.
• •  Beware of group dynamics and participants who dominate the conversation; both can skew your results.
• •  To reap the most from your focus group, encourage maximum participation; invite each participant to speak in turn and use differences in opinion to stimulate discussion.
• •  Phrase questions in terms that participants will understand; the best questions to ask within a focus group are open-ended and neutral.