Customer Research: Why B2B Businesses Can’t Afford to Ignore It

Q: Can Insight Data support construction suppliers?

Yes. Insight Data specialises in the building products, fenestration, and trade sectors, offering live data and bespoke research aligned to your audience and goals.

Q: How often should we update customer research?

We recommend reviewing customer insights every 6 to 12 months, or whenever launching a new product, entering a new sector, or if campaign results change unexpectedly.

Q: What’s the difference between customer research and customer feedback?

Customer feedback is often reactive and anecdotal. Customer research is proactive, structured, and provides quantifiable insights that guide strategic business decisions.

Customer Research: Why B2B Businesses Can’t Afford to Ignore It

Customer research isn’t a luxury in 2025; it’s a strategic requirement. With B2B buyers demanding personalisation and relevance at every touchpoint, failing to understand your audience can cost you market share. Poorly timed emails, vague messaging, or product launches based on assumptions will no longer cut through.

Recent research from PwC shows that 32% of customers will stop doing business with a brand after just one bad experience. For B2B brands, especially in construction and building products, the stakes are even higher, decisions take longer, buying cycles are more complex, and reputational risk is greater.

In this environment, understanding how your customers think, behave, and buy isn’t optional; it’s the only way to build lasting trust and stay competitive.

Why Customer Research Matters in B2B Markets

Reason	Impact
Targeted messaging	Tailor campaigns to buyer roles, behaviours and budgets.
Fewer wasted leads	Reduce bounce, spam reports and opt-outs.
Better product-market fit	Develop products your market actually wants.
Improved customer retention	Address pain points and loyalty drivers.
Competitive edge	Spot emerging trends before your rivals do.

What the Data Tells Us

Here are real, verified statistics highlighting why customer research is now critical:

74% of B2B buyers say they are more likely to purchase from a supplier that recognises their specific business needs.
42% of B2B marketers say poor data quality is a major barrier to effective personalisation.
80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalised experiences.

These findings all reinforce the same truth: businesses that invest in customer insight outperform those that rely on guesswork.

How Insight Data Can Help

At Insight Data, our in-house market research team supports companies in the glazing, construction, and building products sectors with accurate, actionable insight. We conduct research tailored to your audience and goals.

Our services include:

Customer satisfaction surveys – Identify loyalty drivers and service gaps.
Reputation analysis – Understand how your brand is perceived in the market.
Product and market analysis – Validate ideas before launch.
Trend tracking and forecasting – Stay ahead of buyer behaviour shifts.

Each project is fully managed, GDPR-compliant, and conducted by sector specialists with deep knowledge of the trade and commercial landscape.

Customer Research Backed by Sector-Specific Databases

Customer research is only as effective as the data behind it. At Insight Data, we maintain live, precision-built marketing databases across the glazing, construction and building product sectors. This gives you access to more than 80,000 verified decision-makers, updated in real time by our in-house research team.

Each database is segmented by sector, company size, job role and location, making it ideal for highly targeted research, campaigns, and strategic sales planning.

Database	Reach	Target Audience ABI
Fenestration	13,000+	Fabricators, installers, IGU suppliers, trade counters
Local Builders	18,000+	Builders specialising in extensions and refurbishments
Builders’ Merchants	8,000+	National networks and independent stockists
Architects & Designers	7,700+	Specifiers and early influencers in project design
House Builders	650+	National and regional residential developers
Main Contractors	2,000+	Commercial construction and property maintenance firms

These sector-specific databases underpin every bespoke research project we deliver, ensuring accuracy, relevance and measurable results. They also feed directly into our CRM platform, Salestracker, for seamless integration with marketing and sales workflows.

Seamless CRM Integration with SalesTracker

Salestracker CRM dashboard showing live sales metrics, lead analysis, and user interaction in a trade office environment.

Live CRM dashboard view in Salestracker showing lead conversion rates, performance dials, and contact breakdown by status.

Customer research is most powerful when it’s connected to real-time sales and marketing data. That’s why Insight Data integrates research findings directly into our Salestracker CRM platform.

With Salestracker, your team can:

Access live profiles of over 80,000 decision makers across the UK
Filter by job role, revenue, product use, or behaviour
Use research-backed data to inform campaigns
Align sales, marketing and customer service with the same insights

When Should You Invest in Customer Research?

Customer research focus group session with participants and researcher discussing feedback

Customer research focus group gathering insight for product development and audience profiling

You don’t need to wait until a campaign fails or churn spikes. Customer research adds value at every stage of your business.

Scenario	Value of Research
Launching a new product	Test the market and gather early reactions.
Entering a new sector or region	Profile typical buyers before investing.
Experiencing poor campaign results	Identify why engagement is low.
Rebranding or repositioning	Align messaging with what your audience values.

Real-World Example: Avoiding Irrelevant Messaging

A study by Accenture found 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognise and remember them. Yet 46% of 20,000 people surveyed globally said they distanced themselves from brands that sent irrelevant content.

Customer Research FAQ: What Should You Know Before Getting Started?

Understanding how customer research works and how to use it effectively is key to getting real value from your data. Below are common questions about customer research, tailored to help B2B businesses make informed decisions and avoid wasting budget on the wrong tactics.

What is customer research?
Customer research involves collecting data about your audience to understand their preferences, behaviours, and pain points. It supports better marketing, sales, and product decisions.

Why is B2B customer research different?
B2B decisions often involve multiple stakeholders, longer sales cycles, and technical requirements. Research must be more targeted and sector-specific.

Can Insight Data support construction suppliers?
Yes. We specialise in building products, fenestration, and trade sectors, offering data and research aligned with your audience.

How often should we update customer research?
We recommend reviewing insights every 6–12 months or whenever launching new products, entering new sectors, or if campaign results change unexpectedly.

What’s the difference between customer research and customer feedback?
Feedback is often reactive and anecdotal. Research is proactive and structured, giving you quantifiable insights to guide strategic decisions.

How Insight Data Turns Customer Research Into Action

Poor customer research leads to poor messaging. That’s why so many B2B firms are shifting from off-the-shelf data lists to bespoke research projects and live data platforms.
Insight Data aligns customer research with its suite of marketing intelligence tools. Using Salestracker CRM, customers access live databases of over 50,000 trade and glazing listings and 88,000 verified decision‑maker emails continuously updated via 20,000+ researcher calls per month. Its bespoke market research services collect tailored insight via telephone surveys, questionnaires and competitor studies and deliver executive summaries. These detailed findings feed directly into lead generation, email marketing, direct mail and CRM workflows for targeted campaigns. As a result, Insight Data ensures that customer research doesn’t sit in a report; it becomes actionable intelligence across your marketing and sales tools.