The key for any successful business is to be able to anticipate the needs of customers and exceed their expectations, according to the article “Get Inside Your Customers’ Heads: 3 Ways,” from Inc.com. Exceptional businesses differentiate themselves by taking the step from understanding characteristics, demographics and buying habits, to grasping what customers see, hear, think and feel. Here are three ways to get into the minds of yours customers:

1. Make better use of your data. You likely have data on customer characteristics and buying habits in your computer system, so use it! Understand when and where customers make purchases, then try to figure out why. Identify your most profitable customer segments and what sets that group apart. Doing so will help you meet this group’s expectations and take steps to push other customers into that segment.
2. Shift to a more customer-centric business model. To improve the customer experience, shift your focus from an organizational or product view to a customer-focused view. Ask yourself questions like: How can I better serve my customers? How do our customers prefer to be reached and how do we fit into that routine? For what value is out customer base willing to pay and at what price?
3. Explore what your customer truly want, not just what they are asking for. Customers often don’t understand the value of a new offering until they see it. As Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses.’” Innovators are able to differentiate what their customers really want from what they are asking for. To do so, try to identify patterns in customer behavior and take action to find a solution that meets the customer’s unmet needs.

Click here to read the entire article from Inc.com.