Do You Really know Your Customer?

The answer might be no. Here's a three-step way to get to know them betterand transform your business as a result.

- RICHELLE DEVOE

Do you know what your customer wants? Most entrepreneurs would say yes. But I have bad news: Most D of them are wrong.

When businesses interact with their customers, they're often just confirming the things they already know (or think they know). It's like learning a love interest's favorite color-maybe that's useful in some way, but it hardly tells you about your true compatibility.

When you ask the right customers the right questions, however, you can unlock insights that can transform your business.

I see this happen all the time. I'm in the "customer insights" business, meaning that I identify a company's best customers, methodically survey them, and then gather insights that the company missed. These insights then drive new marketing campaigns, new product ideas, and new million-dollar ideas and here's the craziest part: All this can be done in just 10 phone calls.

To do it, I follow a three-step process:

STEP 1/ Find your best customers.

The best marketing and product ideas will come from your very best customers-which is to say, the customers you want to attract more of. These aren't necessarily your most vocal customers. Instead, they're the ones with the highest lifetime value, highest average order value, and who have had the best results from your product or service.

To find these people, you'll need to dig. Pull numbers from your point-of-sale system, identify customers who have left verified reviews, or run surveys asking people how satisfied they are. Once you've found your best customers, it's time to...

STEP 2/ Get them on the phone.

You (or someone on your team) need to speak with 10 of your best customers. This is your chance to have their full attention, where you can sense the amount of energy and excitement (or frustration) they have in their tone of voice.