Day 13: Tailor-made CustomerLove

For the longest time I was afraid to ask my customers for feedback. I could not even convince myself to send a simple “How’s that working for you?” email.

Welcome to the life of an introvert.

The only way I could gauge customer interest in my services (or lack thereof) was the rise and fall of my bank account.

Last year, my coach asked me what I would be willing to do to improve my business. Would I be willing to ask my customers a few questions?

Asking for feedback from anyone brings up all kinds of fears for me. What if they don’t like me? What if I suck and they’ve never told me? What if they think I’m weird? What if? What if?

By framing the question that way, my coach opened up a door for me. What if asking follow-up questions and then refining my services based on that feedback took my business to a new level? What if doing this would help my customers get more of what they need from me?

I bit the bullet and emailed a few of my favorite customers. I told them I had an Oprah-ish request. I wanted to know what they loved the most about working with me and what I could do to improve the way we worked together.

I learned three great things that day:

1. Asking for feedback is not that hard. It doesn’t hurt. I didn’t go up in flames.
2. My customers love me.
3. My customers give awesome constructive criticism.

I continue to ask for feedback from my customers. I take their comments, both good and bad, and I tweak my business. I adjust services. I rewrite sales copy. I explain design jargon in simple terms. I keep doing all the things they love and avoid the things they don’t.

In short, I use their feedback to give them tailor-made customerlove. You can do this for your customers and business, too.

• Decide whom you want feedback from first. Do you want to survey all your customers? Do you want to zone in on your newest customer?
• Decide what questions to ask. This will depend on what you are trying to find out from your customers. For example, you might ask about the results they’ve had using your latest product or service. (Fellow Customer Love participant Susan T. Blake http://susantblake.com can help you ask good questions.)
• Decide how you are going to ask for feedback: phone/Skype, email, survey form or in person.
• Decide when you are going to ask for feedback. Automate the process. Make it part of your business. Set up reminders in your calendar to follow up at certain intervals or after projects are complete. Put your survey questions into a Google form http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=87809 so you don’t have to start from scratch each time you want feedback.
• Use the feedback you get to improve your products or services. Look for the truth in any criticism. What can you change about your processes or products that will solve your customer’s problem? If you make that change what else might be possible for your business?
• Ask your customers for permission to use the positive parts of their feedback as testimonials on your site (and keep up the good work).

Don’t make this harder than it is. Ask for feedback and receive feedback.

Today’s assignment:

Decide right now whom you want to get feedback from first. Leave a comment below once you’ve made the decision. You don’t have to name names, I just want to give you a virtual high-five for moving forward.

Tomorrow you can start crafting questions. Before you know it, you’ll have feedback to work with and your customers will be experiencing some tailor-made love.