3 Things Your Customers Won’t Tell You … Unless You Ask
Posted October 1, 2007 in Marketing 48 Comments »
When it comes to driving your business, you want to have two magical things happen:
- You want your customers to become even better customers
- You want those customers to tell people about you.
This magical one-two punch is what grows your business without inflating your expenses. But to get a handle on those two things requires you get the answers to three things your customers won’t tell you … unless you ask. Read on to discover the three questions that will reveal what you need to know to boost your bottom line.
#1 – Why Do You Enjoy Being My Customer?
Customers continue to do business with you for a number of reasons (good rates, great service, strong rapport), but it’s rare that they’ll volunteer this information without being asked. So ask them.
Find out what you’re doing right, and you can do two things:
- Do more of the things they like
- Discover patterns (what multiple customers/demographics like best)
Get the goods on this question, and you can turn your current customers into do-more-business-with-you customers.
#2 – What Else Do You Wish My Business Did?
Customers don’t just get products/services from you – they get other products/services before, during and after their transactions with you. Don’t miss this chance to cash in. Find out what else they want, and discover how you can give it to them:
- If it’s easy to do, you might consider selling it yourself.
- If it’s out of your business scope, make deals with trusted vendors and recommend them.
Either way, it’s a chance to tap into more revenue, potentially at a minimum of effort on your part. But you gotta ask.
#3 – Who Should You Tell About My Business?
People like doing business with you. And chances are high that they know others who would benefit as well … but they won’t volunteer this info off the top of their heads (most of the time). So make it networking with future clients easier by offering incentives like the ones you’ll find here.
Give people a good enough reason to spread the word about you, and they surely will. And when your good name becomes a standard of excellence that attracts new customers to you, the effort you put into creating it is money in the bank.
And that’s just good business.
What Questions Will You Ask Your Customers?
Take a quick second and add your great ideas to the conversation. I’ll see you there.
Dave
******
Subscribe to Dave Navarro’s blog to get freakishly easy-to-use productivity tips to help your blog and business generate sales faster.
About the author: Dave Navarro is a business productivity coach who loves showing freelancers how to make more money and have more time for themselves. Get more of the good stuff at Rock Your Day or follow Dave on Twitter.
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48 Comments
Limitless
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:10 amHi Jon! Thanks for your comment at StylishLabs and thanks for submitting your wonderful blog. We really think it’s great, I have chcked some of your articles and I found them really relevant, we’ll find the way to include FreelanceFolder in The Creative District
Limitless ∞
Grigory
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:29 pmI belive that the main thing should be always remembered – the customer is your employer, he is the real person who pays you the sallary and he should be treated in appropreate way.
Joe Pulizzi
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:21 pmDave…excellent post. We’ve worked with clients in the past on delivering consistent, valuable information to clients on a regular basis. If they do that, working in the above questions to clients becomes much easier. Great stuff!
John Achoukian
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:37 pmDave – I think that people who are excellent at satisfying their customers are unaware that they are always enhancing their level of customer satisfaction. You’re blog is right on, as it asks for that critical feedback on which to explore more opportunities.
Jonathan Field
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:52 pmSimple, but good advice. So many companies act like they don’t want to talk to their customers, and I find it unfortunate. The good news is that it leaves a lot of room for a scrappy customer-focused company to come in and get a foothold.
chris
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:03 pmGood advice, however in todays game of endless politics, you cannot always be expected to be told the truth. You really need to know the person before asking. If they do not normally express themselves freely, you will not get an honest answer. It could do more harm than good.
subcorpus
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:15 amnoted …
will try that sometime …
but am afraid that they might ask something that i can’t deliver …
oh well …
Andy
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:25 amGreat post. I think it’s also worth asking the opposite to get some useful insight from your trusted customers:
1) What do you dislike about our service?
2) What are you glad my business doesn’t do?
3) Who isn’t going to be interested in my services?
These questions give your customers a chance to complain and bad-mouth the competition which often helps loosen their tongues, giving you even more cheap market research.
Joy
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:07 pmThis article is really helpful..^^ Although I agree with Andy but still it’s ok to ask your customers what they really think about your business and service. By asking them, you will also show your customers that you care about their opinions.
Andy
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm@Joy: Yeah, I didn’t mean anyone should ignore Dave’s original questions.
I think that asking the essentially the same thing but framed from an opposite point of view can help get to the information we’re all looking for. Or maybe it’s just that businessmen in Leeds are particularly obstreperous ;-)
Again, kudos to the article author for an excellent talking point.
Chicago Website Design
October 5th, 2007 at 12:20 pmGreat post. I agree. In general fostering communication is great because it clears and ambiguities and assumptions you may make. Talking to the customer to find out what they want and need is of utmost importance. Another thing I find is that people can have false assumptions about who you are and what you do.
Megan
October 9th, 2007 at 8:59 pmGreat article. Its important to deliver what your customer needs. Happy customers means more happy customers. Get to know the person behind the product. Collecting data like that not only will you meet some great people but you will also know what kind of people are coming to your site who you should target.
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balidreamhome
October 19th, 2007 at 10:55 pmVery nice article, and indeed helps me to improve my customer service understandings !! Great website and great articles, thanks.
Andika Kusuma
November 18th, 2007 at 7:05 amwhat a nice tips… I never ask this kind of question before
kevin
January 18th, 2008 at 9:19 amyeah, I need to ask customers for feedback
–
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Klaus
May 5th, 2008 at 4:33 amExcellent questions!
Thanks for reminding ;-)
Pete
May 26th, 2008 at 1:10 amSomething I have never considered, we are so busy asking the question, what are we not doing, instead of what else can we do, great read
Vernon
March 13th, 2009 at 3:07 amYou can easily survey your customers if you have them on an e-mail list. Then with the click of a mouse you can direct them to SurveyMonkey.com or any other survey service and get the answers you’re asking for. You’ll save a lot of time, and can focus on doing the things you love about your business. Here is a great report on how to create an e-mail list.
Vu Tran
May 29th, 2009 at 12:40 amGreat post. I will definately take these tips into consideration.
Valerie
June 5th, 2009 at 11:28 amI’d like to hear *how* people ask these questions. I have some ideas, but I’d like to hear what other have used regularly and why.
Website Design Services
July 4th, 2009 at 5:58 pmGreat questions, but I would include the opposite. Asking about what they liked serves a great purpose, but asking what they don’t like helps improvement. It is all about improvement. You can improve greatly if you know your weaknesses.
rasel
July 30th, 2009 at 12:02 pmfucking great idea!
Joshua Fairfield
August 21st, 2009 at 6:19 pmAsk your Customer and getting to them on a real personal level and your in like a pair shoes.
Nic loves languages
September 19th, 2009 at 7:29 pmI love the simplicity of these. They make so much sense. Sometimes asking straight out is the best thing to do.
Phoenix personal injury attorney
October 21st, 2009 at 1:01 pmNeed a reminder sometimes, that the client can help you more than you know or they know if you’re willing to put the time in.
Home Job Advice
December 1st, 2009 at 2:39 pmGreat Blog! So many companies fail to ask what the customer wants! I think that every company should incorporate some type of newsletter or opt-in email list to follow up with their customers. :)
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