{"id":8941,"date":"2025-03-09T18:47:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T18:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/customer-research-saas\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:00:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:00:54","slug":"customer-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/customer-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Research 101: The Complete Guide for SaaS"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens when you build a product or service around what you think <\/em>potential customers want, only for them to buy something else? For starters, it shows you don\u2019t know your customers well enough.<\/p>\n

But worse than that, it leads to lower revenue, failed products, and plummeting customer loyalty.<\/p>\n

According to Harvard Business Review, 80% of new products<\/a> fail, primarily because companies fail to conduct proper customer research.<\/p>\n

The solution seems obvious: improve your customer research process. But how?<\/p>\n

This article will walk you through what customer research really <\/em>is, from choosing your research methodology to recruiting participants, analyzing feedback<\/a>, and beyond.<\/p>\n

What is customer research in SaaS?<\/h2>\n

Customer research is the process of listening closely to your existing or potential customers to understand their needs, preferences, behaviors, and pain points.<\/p>\n

For SaaS companies, this “listening” can take many forms to learn how users interact with their product and uncover areas for improvement. It could include conducting user interviews and surveys, analyzing product usage data, and tracking customer feedback<\/a>, to name a few.<\/p>\n

In action, customer research in SaaS could look something like examining support tickets to uncover recurring issues or feature requests<\/a>, like consistent asks for better reporting features. This helps prioritize updates based on actual needs, not just assumptions.<\/p>\n

Does customer research help build better products?<\/h3>\n

The short answer: yes.<\/p>\n

The long answer: once you know what your customers want, you reduce the risk of product failure. <\/strong>Instead, you can build products with a better product-market fit<\/a> that address all user demands and improve customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n

However, because customer needs and market conditions are constantly evolving, customer research can’t be a one-time thing<\/strong>. For example, 71% of customers<\/a> now expect far more personalization than before.<\/p>\n

In light of these changes, research needs to be an ongoing process, integrated into every stage of the SaaS product lifecycle for continuous improvements and sustained growth.<\/p>\n

Types of customer research for SaaS<\/h2>\n

There are two common customer research methods: primary and secondary research. However, within both these methods, there’s also the question of choosing between quantitative and qualitative research. Let’s explore each type in detail to see which is more suitable for your context.<\/p>\n

Qualitative research<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Qualitative research<\/a> focuses on collecting and analyzing non-numerical, descriptive data. Such research helps you understand the \u201cwhy\u201d behind customer behaviors and opinions.<\/p>\n

Examples of qualitative research methods include:<\/p>\n