What the registry doesn’t show: who the people behind a national customer base really are
- Segment
- Nationwide organization
- Topic
- Audience profile, journey and needs
- Method
- Nationwide quantitative telephone survey with more than 10,000 interviews
- Status
- Active
- Date opened
- ••/••/••••
- Main activity
- ••••••••••••
- Size
- ••••••••
- Is it operating?
- Why was it opened?
- What is holding back growth?
- Why did it stop?
The starting point
A registry tells you a business exists. It doesn’t tell you whether it’s up and running, why it was started, what’s holding it back or why it closed.
For a nationwide organization, that difference matters. From a distance, the people in a customer database look like a single audience. Up close, it includes those who started by choice and those who started out of necessity, those just beginning and those with years of experience, those growing and those who have closed up shop.
The organization needed to understand what happens after registration, and where the barriers and opportunities lie for helping this audience move forward.
Also hearing from those who stopped
- Operating
- Stopped their activityusually left out
- Never actually startedusually left out
One design choice defined the study: it didn’t only listen to those still active. It also included those who had stopped and those who never really got started.
This group is usually left out of research, yet it explains as much as those who carry on. The reasons for stopping, the obstacles to starting or restarting and the willingness to come back show where the organization arrives too late or doesn’t arrive at all.
How we did it
The survey was conducted by phone, with more than 10,000 interviews and nationwide coverage. That made it possible to reach people in every region, including smaller towns and rural areas.
- 10,000+telephone interviews
- Nationwideevery region, including smaller towns and rural areas
- 3questionnaire themes
- 3angles of analysis
QuestionnaireThe questionnaire covered three themes:
- 1
Journey: profile, motivations and sources of income.
- 2
Operations: day-to-day routine, management, finances and main difficulties.
- 3
Training: what this audience needs to learn, the format they prefer and how much time they have for it.
From answers to profiles
The study’s value lay less in the data collection than in what was done with the data. Three types of analysis came together:
Segmentation: participants were grouped into profiles with distinct situations and needs, rather than being treated as an average.
Comparison with the registry: what people reported was checked against registration data, revealing the gap between the business on paper and the real one.
Regional analysis: comparing regions showed that the same kind of support doesn’t carry the same weight everywhere in the country.
What changed for the customer
The study shaped two areas of the organization’s work: training, with topics and formats tailored to what each profile needs and can keep up with, and communication, with messages and approaches designed for different moments.
- 1TrainingTopics and formats by profile
- 2CommunicationMessages for each stage
A program designed for the average participant risks serving no one at all.
It all starts with recognizing that a customer base isn’t a single audience, and that understanding those who stopped helps design the offer for those who carry on.