How can you boost sales? Ask your customers!

Recently, I listened to a great webinar by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing. He conducted this for free during the celebration of Small Business Week and I wanted to pass along one of his particularly good pointers.

As small businesses, we are always looking for ways to improve our processes and procedures in order to grow our business.

The burning question:  How?

The answer:  Ask your customers.

After each customer experience you have the opportunity to not only ensure client satisfaction, but to also gather high-quality marketing insights. A bonus, you’ll gain stories you can use as testimonials to your prospective clients. The best way to do this is to ask every customer the following questions:

1.       What made you decide to hire us?

2.       What’s one thing that we do better? What did you like most about the experience?

3.       What could we do better? How can we improve?

4.       Would you be willing to refer us?

5.       If you were looking for our company, what would you “Google”?

Reaching out during a follow-up call or in a final client meeting provides that added-level of client devotion that can lead to engaged customers, i.e. customers that refer others to your business. Customers, just like everyone else, appreciate the extra attention and the value that you place on their opinion. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Even if you’ve been in business for 20 years and have yet to conduct this type of customer survey, it’s never too late! Set a plan in place and start enhancing both your client experience and your business.

Until Next Time

-         Megan