Starting a business means creating value for your customer. Stop making what you want and start thinking like your customer.

Do you have a product that you want to launch? Or a service that may not be selling as well as you thought? Time to take a step back and think about your customer. Customers are the most important part of our businesses. They’re the reason we are in business.

Sometimes you may want to do more intense research. Many times, you can make it more simple. You can infuse quick, easy, and informal ways to learn more about your customers.

This could include:

1. Send a quick survey.This can be to a list of people who have opt-ed in to receive your emails and communications. You can ask questions about your company and services i.e. What they love about your company? Do they have a favorite product? Why they chose your company? Are there certain products they wish you made? Or ones they have tried that they don’t love as much? Each of these can help you hone your product offering, and help you invest in the areas that your customers love. You can also use these surveys to learn how to better reach your customers or new customers. You can ask where they learn about new products? Who do they get product recommendations from?
2. When customers call or email customer support, you can ask quick follow-up questions. If a customer calls in and asks, if you offer a specific product or service, you can learn a lot with a few follow up questions. You can ask what features they are looking for and what would be valuable to them. Maybe there is a price point they have in mind. Asking these follow up questions ensure your customers feel heard at the same time as they give you valuable information on how to make the product better.
3. Add a feedback or chat button to your website.This is a quick way to get feedback while people are on site. Not everybody will take the time to connect, but if most chats are coming to your team at a particular point in the check out or search process, then you may have the opportunity to improve that area of the site.

Overall, what matters is getting real-time, on-going feedback. Creating a great customer experience, mean that we are delivering value and meeting customer needs. Building a dialogue and feedback loop using the ideas above, can help you learn more about:

– “Who is buying your product?”

– “Who is using your product?”

– “Who is not buying your product?”

The more you learn about your customers the better you will be able to serve them. This can help create a great customer experience. Experiences are what people share. So if you want people sharing more about your business, give them a great customer experience to share.