The right way to collect 'real' feedback from customers

They say feedback is breakfast for champions.

If you are an entrepreneur, you better be 'good' at collecting feedback from your customers

I clearly remember how I 'sucked' at it.

In my first business, I made over 175 calls to customers who had used our service for the first time (for free)

I had questions like - 'What did you like about the service?' 'Where can we improve?' 'Will you use it again?' 'How much would you pay for it?' 'How likely are you to recommend it?'

Lo and behold, over 90% said the service was very good and they will definitely use it the next time

Majority of them said they were ready to pay 1.5X of what we were planning to charge

After some number crunching, I told my business partner "Even if we don't advertise and just rely on repeat users, we'll still do crazy business next month"

Next month arrived

Only 5% renewed

But hey...they all said they will...

*Shocking*

And that's when I realised this - Customers lie

Ok, let me rephrase. Customers don't like to tell the truth either

That's because we've all grown up thinking that we should be nice to the other person

You definitely don't want to tell your spouse that he/she is fat 🤐

We don't like to have uncomfortable conversations. So we prefer to not tell the truth!

Also, when it comes to price, who is ready to look small by saying they will not be able to afford it. But when it comes to actually paying up, well...it's a different story then

So, if you really want to get 'real' feedback from customers (on call/face to face), you need to focus on 3 important aspects -

1) Watch for 'how they say it' vs. 'what they say'

There's a golden rule in communication called 7/38/55. What this means is - Only 7% of your communication is the words you use, 38% is tonality and 55% is body language. So a whopping 93% of your communication is not related to your words at all! But, as people, we focus only on the words we hear. When a customer says 'Good service', we take it at face value and actually believe that the customer found it good! We need to check the tonality of the customer when he said 'yes' - was he excited or was it flat. If it was flat, then he probably didn't mean it. So the next time you are talking to the customer, be more conscious of their voice/body language.

2) Watch out for 'One word responses'

When you ask your prospect 'how was the service' and the customer just tells you just one 'good' or 'nice', there's a problem! Answering with just one word is the shortest way to escape. It means the customer hasn't really thought through the question and wants to just get away with it. When you hear a one word answer, you should probe further. Even then if you receive one word answers, then there's no inclination from the customer's end. Also, never place too much of a premium on oft repeated adjectives like - good, nice, great, happy etc. Unless the customer actually explains the 'good' part of the service.

3) Are they asking you enough questions?

An interested customer will always have lots of questions/concerns. You may think 'oh man, he's got a lot of problems'. He does. But this also means he's equally interested. And if you can solve his problem, he'll be a loyal customer! On the contrary, if the customer isn't 'involved' in your feedback call/meeting, he's passively interested in your product though he may 'say' otherwise. Another way to measure this is to check how much time he is spending with you. Is he trying to end the call or he is giving you the chance to finish your questions. Is he giving you ways you can improve or is he just being a 'yes man'.

So the next time you are with a customer, size him down correctly, lest you want to be shocked!