Initiating Customer Research
I'm trying to do customer research in the restaurant space and am having difficulty getting restaurant owners/managers to have a 30 minute phone call with me. I know they're pretty busy and they might not take time out if they don't see a value in the call.
I was wondering what methods I could try to get a phone interview at least? What methods have you guys used to get interviews with your potential customers in a particular space?
Many restaurant owners/managers are struggling to stay in business right now. You're not going to be a priority at all unless you have an extremely compelling reason for them to take 30 minutes to chat with you in what is a very one sided conversation. Also, 30 minutes is a lot of time to expect up front. Drop that to 10-15 minutes to see if it improves your results. You may want to tap your network to see if anyone can make introductions.
Cold email, cold linkedin messages have always worked for me. Templated message with one line that is personalized usually does the trick. It's a numbers game if you don't have the network.
I was thinking of saying that I'd be willing to write a short article about the restaurant that they could use as marketing material in return for the interview. I'm not sure if that would be a compelling incentive though.
Go in and buy a bunch of food and chat to them when you are there.
Of course, might not work if you aren't local, but you could spend money with them to get their attention somehow.