4 Questions to Ask Your Customers

December 22, 2021
|In Article
|By lawrenceandco

“If you’re not asking the right questions, you could be missing out on 70% to 80% of the most valuable information you could have.” – The Growth Whisperers Podcast

How often have you sought feedback and market intel from a customer in the last month?

Once?

Twice?

10 times?

If you’ve done that even three, four or five times, hats off to you: you’re doing a great job!

I know it’s really hard for most of us – sometimes all of us – to make the time to get out of our offices and meetings with our teams to stay connected to the market and the customers we serve.

Do you have enough first-hand intel to:

  • Make the best decisions?
  • Know what your customers are thinking – and how their minds or their needs are changing?
  • Understand how your competitors are changing in the marketplace, from the eyes of your customers?
  • Know how your business is doing from the eyes and mouths of your customers?

Key Questions to Ask Your Customers

From the book Scaling Up 2.0, for which I was a key driver, here are four critical questions to ask your customers:

  1. How are you doing?
  2. What’s going on in your industry or your neighbourhood?
  3. What are you hearing about our competitors?
  4. How are we doing?

Your key role is to get out there and get this qualitative data to validate your strategy, understand what’s important to customers, learn about the industry and your competitors and your team’s performance.

The Challenge

  • In the next month, get out and ask three or four customers the 4Qs – maybe one each week.
  • Even better, get your whole team to do the same thing.

For more about gathering key intel from your customers, listen to episode 78 of The Growth Whisperers.

Lawrence & Co’s work focuses on sustainable and enhanced growth for you and your business. Our diverse and experienced group of advisors can help your leaders and executive teams stay competitive through the use of various learning tools including workshops, webinars, executive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achieving leaders to have it all – a great business and a rewarding life. Contact us for simple and impactful advice. No BS. No fluff.