6 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer

To market your business more effectively…

Why guess when you can go straight to the horse’s mouth!?

Yep, this post is all about getting some clarity and the best way to find out what you do well and what you could improve is simply to ask those who know, like, and trust you enough to have said yes to your offering.

Constantly seeking feedback from your customers/clients is a great way to learn how to market your business more effectively. If you’ve never done this before, make it this week’s priority task, as it’s one of the best ways to discover what YOU DO that actually differentiates you from your competition.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with a business that had no idea what its competitive advantage was, what they did well, why people bought from them, how they found them until they heard it right from the mouths of happy customers.

So, if you wanna market your business more effectively, get really clear on what sets you apart, and what’s truly important to your customers, ask the following six questions to every customer that comes on-board with you…

1. How did you find out about us?
   The primary question you should ask every new client that says yes to your offering is where they found you. That way you know which marketing strategies are working and which ones aren’t.

4. What made you decide to hire us/buy from us in the first place?
   This is also a good baseline question for your marketing. It can get at how effective your advertising, message and lead conversion processes are working. I’ve also heard customers talk about the personal connection or culture that “felt right” in this question.
5. What’s one thing you feel we do better than other organisations you considered/have done business with?
   Here you are trying to discover something that you can work with as a true differentiator. This is probably the question you’ll need to work hardest at getting specifics. You want to look for words and phrases and actual experiences that keep coming up over and over again, no matter how insignificant they may seem to you. If your customers are explaining what they value about what you do, you may want to consider making that the core marketing message for your business.
6. What’s one thing you feel we could improve or do to create a better experience for you?
   On the surface, this question could be looked at as a customer service improvement question, and it may be, but the true gold in this question is when your customers can identify an innovation. Sometimes we go along doing what we’ve always done and then out of the blue, a customer says something like, “I sure wish it came as an mp3 download rather than video”, and all of a sudden it’s clear how you can create a meaningful improvement to your products, services, and processes. Push your customers to describe the perfect experience of buying what you sell.
7. Do you recommend us to others, and if so, why?
   This is the ultimate question of satisfaction because a truthful answer means your customer likes the product or service and likes the experience of getting the product or service. If they don’t or haven’t referred, you can also enquire why which again will help improve your service.
8. What would you “Google” to find a business like ours?
   This is the “ninja lead generation question” but understanding what it implies is very important. If you want to get very, very good at being found online, around the world or around the town, you have to know everything you can about the actual terms and phrases your customers use when they go looking for companies like yours.

Far too often businesses optimise their web sites around industry jargon and technical terms when people really search for “stuff to make my life better.”

BONUS QUESTION: I’m all about the fact that connection is your currency and that your network correlates directly to your net worth, thus I’m a huge fan of collaborating for clients and building strategic partnerships and networks. So, another question I would suggest you get in the habit of asking your customer is – “What other companies do you love to refer?” If you can start building a list of “best of class” companies, based on your customer’s say so, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve got a list of peeps you should be building strategic relationships with. 

Next steps from here
Create a form and get in the habit of surveying a handful of customers every month (a great tool for surveys is www.surveymonkey.com ). You’ll be rewarded with awesome insight and you’ll also find that your customers enjoy being asked what they think.

One word of caution, if you’re asking them directly via phone or in-person don’t accept vague answers like “you provide good service.” While that may be true and good to hear, you can’t work with that. Push a bit for depth and ask what good service looks like to them. Maybe even ask if they can tell you about a specific instance in which they felt they got good service from you.

Thank you as always for reading. 

Here’s to your success!

P.S. If you’d like to discover your current stage of business + what you need to focus on to get the business growth you’re looking for, then take my free Business Essentials Quiz here.