The more you know about your customers, the better you'll understand them. And the better you understand them, the better you'll be able to sell to them.

One of the best ways to collect this information is by creating a quick online survey.

The data you collect from customer surveys can be invaluable to the operation of your business.

Survey results allow you to examine your marketing strategy and ask important questions like:

- Are you promoting the fact that you have a huge product range, when what your customers actually want is extended operating hours?

- Are you promoting your products as technically superior when what your customers really care about its ease-of-use?

- Are you heavily promoting cheap prices when what your customers are more concerned about is customer support?

If you take the time to ask, you'll be surprised at how helpful your customers can be.

To begin with, the two key areas you want to explore are Demographics and Psychographics.

Demographics identify 'Who is your customer?', and Psychographics asks 'Why does your customer buy?'

When collecting demographic information, you're trying to find out what the profile of your ideal customer is. When collecting psychographic information you're trying to determine what motivates your ideal customer to buy.

Here is some of the information you'll want to gather from your customers.

Demographic Questions

- Are they male or female?
- How old are they?
- Are they married, single or divorced?
- What is their average household income?
- Where do they spend the majority of their time online?
- What are their interests?

Psychographic Questions

Of the people who purchased your product or service...

- What do they think of your product or service?
- Why did they buy your product or service?
- What do they like about your product or service?
- What do they dislike about your product or service?
- How do they think you could improve your product or service?

Of the people who didn't purchase your product or service...

- Why didn't they buy from you?
- Do they feel you are overpriced? Underpriced?
- How did they say you could improve your offer?
- How do they think you could improve your product or service?

What's the Best Time to Collect Customer Information?

The best time to collect this valuable customer information is at the time of purchase (or directly after). The other option is to offer some form of an incentive in exchange for filling out the survey.

What Sort of Incentive Should I Offer?

Remember, you'll get a much better response to your email surveys if you offer something of value in exchange for their personal information.

This can be in the form of a:

- Free report
- Prize
- Discount off their next order
- Offer with a high perceived value

Adrian Mullan is the author of 'The Internet Demystified' and founder of WebDummy.com - a popular Internet marketing resource for small business owners.