This book was published by Sage Publications in September 1993; call (805) 499-9774 to order a copy. For more information and additional articles on this topic, go to my home page.
Based on the best practices of leading technology firms such as Hewlett-Packard, this book gives step-by-step advice for conducting a program of customer visits.
In a customer visit, managers and engineers travel to the customer workplace and conduct face-to-face interviews with product users. In a program of customer visits, a dozen or more such visits are carried out according to a consistent plan. This innovative form of market research has proved useful in new product development, in exploring new market opportunities, in assessing customer satisfaction, and in motivating efforts toward continuous improvement.
This book provides specific how-to advice with respect to all aspects of a customer visit program:
The remainder of this page reproduces the table of contents and the reference list.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus of the book
Background
Who should read this book?
Part I
1. The Contribution of Customer Visits to a Market Focus
Market focus and quality
Promise of Customer Visits
Why do market research of any kind?
Why personal visits?
Why visits by cross-functional teams?
2. The Customer Visit in Practice: Some Examples
Hewlett-Packard
Other Firms that Conduct Customer Visits
Summary
Part II
3. Planning a program of visits
Why a Program of Visits?
Appropriate and Inappropriate Applications
Common types of non-programmatic visits
Planning Customer Visit Programs: Set Objectives
Select a sample
Special cases in sample selection
Select team members
Prepare a discussion guide
Tips for preparing a guide
Time Frame
4. Conducting the Visits
Interview format
Interview roles
Interview skills
Questioning strategies
Five Difficult Interview Situations
5. Completing the Visit Program
Debriefing
Analysis and reporting
Dissemination of results
Storage of results
Closure for customers and the field
Part III
6. The Analysis of Visit Data
and the Question of Generalizability
Overview
Analysis strategies
Specific advice for improving the analysis of visit data
7. The Customer Visit in Perspective
Research planning
The market research toolkit
Qualitative vs. quantitative market research
Customer visits compared to surveys and focus groups
Summary
8. History and Future Prospects of Customer Visits
Current Status
Future Prospects
9. References
10. Exhibits
11. Sidebars
12. Tables and Figure
13. Appendix A: Checklist for Planning a Program of Customer Visits
14. Appendix B: Methodology for Research Conducted at Hewlett-Packard
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