Conducting customer research is essential for founders who want to better understand their customers' needs and pain points. Following the five steps outlined below, founders can identify their target customers, research their needs and preferences, gather and analyze customer feedback, and engage with customers on social media. This will help founders to collect valuable insights and data, and to use it to improve their product or service and build stronger relationships with their customers. 

Here are five steps in the form of questions that founders can use to conduct customer research and better understand key pain points:

Who are your target customers?

Identifying your target customers is the first step in conducting customer research. This could include demographics, such as age, gender, and income, as well as psychographics, such as values, attitudes, and interests.

What are your customers' needs and preferences?

Once you have identified your target customers, you can research their needs and preferences. This could include conducting surveys, focus groups, or customer interviews, to gather data and insights about what customers want and need.

What are your customer's pain points and challenges?

To better understand customer needs and concerns, you need to understand their pain points and challenges. This could include conducting customer surveys or interviews, or using analytics and data, to identify the most common problems and obstacles that customers face.

How can you gather and analyze customer feedback?

To better understand customer needs and concerns, you can gather and analyze customer feedback. This could include using tools, such as SurveyMonkey or Google Forms, to create surveys that customers can fill out, or using platforms, such as Zendesk or Intercom, to collect and manage customer feedback. By regularly collecting and analyzing customer feedback, you can stay up to date on your customers' changing needs and concerns, and adjust your product or service accordingly.

How can you engage with customers on social media?

To better understand customer needs and concerns, you can engage with customers on social media. This could include responding to customer questions and comments on social media platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook, or using social media listening tools, such as Hootsuite or Brand24, to track and monitor customer conversations and sentiments. By engaging with customers on social media, you can build relationships, gather feedback, and stay up to date on their needs and concerns.

By conducting customer research regularly, founders can stay up to date on the changing needs and concerns of their customers, and adapt their products or service accordingly.