Ask clients for feedback (instead of assuming)
After a few years in business (or in our chosen careers), we fall into this bad habit of assuming we know what our clients and potential new clients want. And, like all assumptions, that makes an ass of you and me. Bad assumptions lead to unhappy clients, weak product/service launches, and just general confusion about why you aren’t growing as fast as you should. But, that can be counteracted by simply asking your ideal clients and potential new clients for feedback.
Now, I don’t necessarily mean an NPS score or feedback survey. Those are better than nothing, but don’t allow you to dig deeper. Schedule legit interviews with either your ideal clients or potential new clients and ask them all the questions you can’t find in your own in-house data. A lot of the best questions will revolve around their emotions, intentions, and overall journey aka the soft data that only they could possibly have the answers for (as opposed to your hard data).
Things to keep in mind:
What they want (what they really, really want): We think we know what our clients want but we’re just seeing our industry through our own lenses. We know what would be most beneficial to our clients or most impressive from our standpoint and years of experience. For example, I offered two add-on options to personal tax preparation. 1, an audit protection plan, and 2, an audit tracking and detection plan. As an accountant, I thought option 2 was better. You’d get a thorough report of your IRS account history and it could detect audits BEFORE they happened, allowing time to mitigate any damage. But, my clients didn’t want that. They wanted to know that they’d be taken care of (which audit protection provided). And, there may be a similar issue with what you’re offering or how you’re packaging your services. Offer what they want, not what you like.
Why they chose you: The reason your client hired you probably isn’t what you think it is. Even in obvious situations (eg, you hire a plumber to fix a burst pipe because it’s burst), there’s a reason you were picked over your competition. Sometimes, it’s obvious (eg, there is no competition) or you’re a very highly recommended referral. But, more often than not, that’s not the case. Find out why people really hired you then lean into it.
Start small: Interviewing your client base or audience can be a massive undertaking. There’s entire frameworks and agencies that specialize in it. But, you can also start small with just a few clients. Even a little bit of info is better than no info. Pick your ideal clients (note: I said IDEAL, not FAVORITE) and ask if they’d spend 30min with you on Zoom to discuss why they chose you and what could be improved.
Include feedback questions in discovery/onboarding: Instead of full-blown interviews, you can also ask a few important questions during discovery calls or new client onboarding. And, again, I don’t mean adding a ‘how did you find us?’ question to your contact form (spoiler alert, they don’t truly remember), but during the face-to-face discovery call or onboarding process, ask them one or two feedback questions. For example, “I’m so grateful that you chose to work with us. I’m always trying to understand my clients better and I’m curious, why did you choose to work with us?” Then, dig into their answer with them.
Action Item: Pick your top 3 ideal clients and set up calls to interview them. Learn why they chose you and what they like about you.