Every product team knows they should spend quality time with customers, asking them the right questions to discover the problems worth solving.
There’s an issue, however!
Engaging with customers in rich one-to-one conversations is challenging. It doesn’t scale easily.
Don’t give up on these interactions! They’re a key foundation for insights.
But, also consider automating customer feedback by inserting a few online surveys at critical customer journey points.
The tactics and timeline will differ by company. The principle is the same, though:
Progressively gain insights by asking a limited set of open-ended questions at a time.
Here are the three critical touch points and the type of questions to consider:
1- Start the conversation
When a customer is signing up or purchasing your product, build an initial rapport to thank them personally and ask a straightforward question such as:
- How did you find out about our product X?
- What convinced you to buy it?
- What is your first impression of it?
2 – Check satisfaction causes early in the lifecycle
After enough product usage, send a quick satisfaction survey with complementary open-ended questions to dig deeper:
- What led you to give us such a score?
- What key goal can you now achieve because of Product X?
- How would you feel if you could no longer use Product X?
3 – Act on inactive and departing customers
That feedback is harder to get but is equally important. So, try the following questions:
- For inactive users: What caused you not to use Product X in the recent past?
- For departing users: What were your top expectations of Product X? Which ones didn’t we meet?
It’s easier than ever to automate such surveys with modern tools and technology, and they can act as starters for deeper conversations.
With proper analysis, you’ll be amazed by how much it keeps you progressing on your product/customer fit.
Try it, and if you ever feel stuck, reach out and let The Sherpa be your guide!