To honor “Get to Know Your Customer Day”, four Hera Hub experts share how they advise their clients on this important topic!

Natalia Tafur

Online surveys can be a great tool to capture valuable information from your clients and prospective clients.  Here are a few pro tips to keep in mind before tackling your next survey: 

  • Before you get started, ask yourself these two questions:
    • What questions would I like answered when the study is done? Keep this to 2 or 3 questions.
    • How are these results going to help me accomplish my business goals?  There’s no sense in asking the questions if you can’t use them to strengthen your business.
  • Less is more. Only ask questions that will help you meet your research goals and produce actionable results. Anything else should be left on the editing room floor. 
  • Make it quick, easy and fun.  Let your customers know ahead of time what to expect in terms of time commitment or number of questions.  Aren’t you more likely to answer a 4 question survey rather than a 20 question survey?  Try to stick to close-ended questions that don’t require too much thought.  Get creative and witty with the answer choices to keep respondents engaged and entertained.  
  • More pro tips. Consider including questions where you pose a statement and then ask the respondents to tell you how much they agree with that statement using a five point scale (Completely Agree to Completely Disagree).  Firstly, number ratings (ex. ‘on a scale of 1 to 10’….) are highly subjective and variable.  One person’s 3 is another person’s 5.  Secondly, the results can be convincing if you want to publish them.  Imagine the impact of a statement like this: 8 out of 10 users agree that my product was more user-friendly than anything else on the market!
  • Do a test run.  Ask a few trusted customers or friends to take your survey and provide feedback. By doing this, you can make sure the questions are well-understood and yield quality responses.  
  • Time is money.  You don’t work for free, so make sure to incentivize your respondents with something of value.  Who doesn’t love a credit they can use at Amazon or Starbucks?  Respondents are more likely to finish the survey and feel like their opinion matters. 

ABOUT THE EXPERT

Natalia is a customer whisperer and thought partner who uncovers what customers are feeling and thinking using a unique set of listening tools. As the founder and chief researcher of Keyhole Research and Consulting, she takes her clients from hunch to high-action insights so they can make smart customer-centric decisions.  To learn more, visit KeyholeResearch.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Lucy Kelleher 

As a business development and client retention specialist, the first question I’m always asked is how often a business should reach out to follow up with their leads and clients. How often should they reach out to stay connected?  My response is always the same.  It’s not about how often, it’s about “WHY”.  Why are you reaching out?  

Once you know your “WHY”, you can begin to work on growing your Relationship Revenue which in turn, will grow your business.  Relationship Revenue is created when you build and leverage your connections with the people and businesses that you interact with to reach your business goals. This is done by combining technology with strategy.

The technology part is the right CRM to store your contact information as well as notes regarding your interactions. Inside that CRM, you will be able to tag or segment your contacts to better be able to identify ways to reach out and connect.  Is it a phone call, text, email? Are they on social media? Connect with them to learn more about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, family, etc.  Everything will then be stored in one place for quick and easy reference.  Your CRM will help you track your contacts, your referrals, and your results. This is the only way you will be able to make adjustments in what you are doing to benefit your business and increase your success.  A CRM will help you enhance and strengthen your relationships because it will increase your value as well as customer satisfaction to help keep you and your business top of mind

Strategy involves creating and nurturing your Relationship Revenue. By building connections with the people and businesses that you interact with, you recognize the value of people and take the time to invest in them.  If you aren’t leveraging your contacts, you are missing out on lucrative business and revenue opportunities.  

Once you have this understanding of who your clients and leads are, how they fit into your business, and have a place to store all of that information, connecting and getting to know them better to deepen your relationship is easy. You can now be pro-active in building these business relationships. 

No matter what your business is, people are necessary for it to grow and succeed. It is critical to build strong relationships but just as important to then leverage those contacts and relationships.  Be sure that your technology and strategy will get you there.

ABOUT THE EXPERT

Lucy Kelleher, founder of Keep Them Loyal, is the leading Relationship Revenue coach, business strategist, speaker and author. Her impressive and expansive background in brick and mortar, networking and direct sales, and online business provide the backbone and the heart of her knowledge in keeping her clients’ customers and contacts top of mind. Her proven and systematic approach turns contacts into consistent revenue and referral streams quickly and with little to no advertising expense.

Connect with Lucy and learn more about how she works with businesses to increase their Relationship Revenue:  Keepthemloyal.com or connect on LinkedIn. 

Gwen Beren

Getting to know your customer is essential when you begin creating online marketing campaigns or delving into optimizing your website for search engines. There are several free tools that can help you create your client avatar or buyer persona or (in plain speak) your ideal client. One of these tools is by HubSpot called “Make My Persona” https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona

A good place to start with this tool is to model your persona after your current favorite client. What kinds of things do they ask you? What did they say about your service during the sales process? Were you the first company they spoke to or did they get several different opinions? All of these things will help you narrow down your ideal client based off of a client with whom you already enjoy working.  Many businesses have several different personas, so don’t be afraid to really get in there and play around with the tool.

Next, you want to create content and marketing campaigns that really speak to your ideal client. How do you know what questions they ask when they’re researching solutions like yours? There’s a little tool called Google that provides a wealth of information. Simply search for your keyword or topic that is related to your business and look on the result page for two things: the People Also Ask questions and, at the bottom of the page, related searches. You can really go down a rabbit hole with this one if you keep writing down questions, clicking on related searches, writing down those questions, clicking on those related searches, and so on.  This method will give you a really good foundation of content that speaks to your audience and bonus: Google has already done your content research for you!

Once you start answering questions on your website that your ideal client is already asking, you will continue to attract more and more of the type of person or business that you love working with.

ABOUT THE EXPERT

Gwen founded Illuminous Marketing in 2012 to assist small business owners in accomplishing their online marketing goals through SEO, social media marketing, and digital marketing strategies. Gwen has excelled in a variety of positions in the marketing industry, creating a Professional Services department in a growing Internet marketing firm, revitalizing corporate marketing strategies, and transforming inbound leads for a sales team of 50+ individuals.  Gwen is a diverse leader with an abundance of passion, who has the unique ability to see the larger, strategic picture while executing details meticulously and thoroughly. Learn more about Gwen at IlluminousMarketing.com and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Darlene Hawley

Did you know it costs five times more to get new customers than it does to retain your existing customers? So, it’s only natural that you take time to truly get to know and nurture those in your community so that you can strengthen your bond and build long-lasting relationships.

But, how do you know if you’re building a strong relationship with your customer? Ask yourself how does my customer feels when they engage with me, and then turn the question around and ask your customer too. Have a conversation with your customers and prospects and ask them straight out if the service or product you’re providing is what they had expected or ask them to complete an evaluation feedback form. 

As an Online Business Coach, I love to check in with my clients and to strengthen our relationship is to get to know them at a deeper level. One way I get to know them better is by starting all of my coaching calls with the chance for them to share what’s on their mind and what’s coming up for them the first 5-10 minutes of the call before we dive into business. This allows them to get whatever is on their mind out and creates a safe space for them to feel seen and heard. Then we can dive into their coaching call with the right focus and mindset to grow their business.

The best part about it is that I’m not just their business coach, I also become their friend and confidant. 

ABOUT THE EXPERT

Darlene Hawley is a speaker, podcast host, personal branding and online business coach who shows ambitious, heart-centered service-based entrepreneurs how to create a profitable online business while making space for themselves and their families.

Her genius is showing entrepreneurs 2+ years into their business how to deepen their business foundation and go after visibility so they can share their message with the world, attract dream clients, and have the impact, freedom, and flexibility they desire.

You can connect with Darlene and learn more about her speaking and coaching at:
darlenehawley.com
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