Why customer conversations are a gold mine for your business and how to collect insights from them

I remember the day vividly. Everyone at home was stunned. A miracle had just taken place. Something that doesn’t happen every day. In fact, it happens only a handful of times in our lifetime. My 10-month-old niece had said “Baba”. Her first word.

My niece had just started talking.

And while almost all the Marketers I know are capable of uttering comprehensible words, very few of them actually TALK to their customers. Most of us prefer staying behind the keyboard and making assumptions about the audience that we are serving.

(Image credits: Jingming Pan)

Your existing customers are a gold mine

Quite often we acquire a customer and the marketing team forgets all about them. Because the job’s done, right?

Let’s focus on acquiring the next one.

Easy, peasy.

Not so fast, tiger.

The customer that you just acquired has been through the entire buying process. He has seen it all. And he has a lot of wisdom to share… 

Conversations with customers give us immense clarity

These conversations make everything better, as they shed a light on – 

  • Why did the customer purchase your product?
  • What was the exact pain that they felt because of which they decided to buy your product?
  • What were the exact objections that they had before buying?
  • What is the problem your product solves?
  • Which features are loved by customers?

These insights are valuable because they tell you how you can improve your strategy, your messaging, your customer journey, your features and so much more.

Below is the list of the questions that you can ask your customers, just after the purchase decision has been made.

Let’s dig in.

Category: Need for finding the solution

Question – What made you seek out the solution in the first place?

Question – What was happening in your life, due to which you felt the need to find out a solution?

Question – What problem were you looking to solve?

Question – How did this problem impact your life?

The answers to these questions help you understand their pain and the triggers that made them start looking for a solution.

Category: Alternatives

Question – How were you solving this problem, before using our product?

This question gives you a clear understanding of the actual alternatives that the prospects have. Competitors don’t always have to be your direct competitors. Sometimes, your prospects are just using excel sheets instead of your product.

The answer to this question helps you get insights on – 

  • Do they know that they have a problem?
  • How are they solving the problem currently?
  • What is the awareness level of your prospects?
  • Do they know that a solution to their problem exists? 
  • Do they know who you are? 

Category: Perception

Question – How would you describe our product to other people?

The answer to this question releases you from the ‘curse of knowledge’. We spend a lot of time with the product and develop a bias. It’s likely that we have a very uni-dimensional, myopic view regarding our own product which could be quite different from how our prospects are viewing them.

The answer to this question helps you in constructing a simple, jargon-free description, that will resonate with your audience.

Category: Life-after the product

Question – How has our product changed your job/life/daily routine?

Question – What has been the most meaningful change that our product has brought about in your life?

The answer to these questions helps you figure out the real value that the customers are getting. This helps you understand the exact transformation that your product is delivering and thus your messaging can become stronger.

Category: Unexpected benefit

Question – What is the unexpected benefit or outcome you’ve realized thanks to our product?

The answers to these questions may just surprise you. It reveals the unexpected value that your customers are seeing in the product. Your messaging game is bound to become strong after this one.

Category: Favorite feature

Question – What specific feature of the product do you like the most?

Nothing much to expand here. This knowledge about the features can be transferred to the Product team.

Category: Emotional benefit

Question – How would you feel if you couldn’t use our product anymore? 

Here we are trying to move from ‘transactional benefits’ to ‘emotional benefits’. Understanding these emotional benefits is crucial.

Example – “I would hate it because I wouldn’t be able to create amazing dashboards that I can send to my boss.”

Category: Objections

Question – Was there anything that would have prevented you from buying this product?

Question – Did you have any hesitations before buying this product? What were they?

This gives you an insight into the objections that the customers have. And yes, every customer has some objection before buying. Rather than pretending that the objections don’t exist, you can aggressively address these objections, head-on.

Ignore your customers and you will miss out on some valuable intel

Looks like you and I can learn a few things from my niece and start talking. We can ask the right questions to our customers so that our Marketing becomes 10 times better.

I remember the day vividly. Everyone at home was stunned. A miracle had just taken place. Something that doesn’t happen every day. In fact, it happens only a handful of times in our lifetime. My 10-month-old niece had said “Baba”. Her first word.

My niece had just started talking.

And while almost all the Marketers I know are capable of uttering comprehensible words, very few of them actually TALK to their customers. Most of us prefer staying behind the keyboard and making assumptions about the audience that we are serving.

(Image credits: Jingming Pan)

Your existing customers are a gold mine

Quite often we acquire a customer and the marketing team forgets all about them. Because the job’s done, right?

Let’s focus on acquiring the next one.

Easy, peasy.

Not so fast, tiger.

The customer that you just acquired has been through the entire buying process. He has seen it all. And he has a lot of wisdom to share… 

Conversations with customers give us immense clarity

These conversations make everything better, as they shed a light on – 

  • Why did the customer purchase your product?
  • What was the exact pain that they felt because of which they decided to buy your product?
  • What were the exact objections that they had before buying?
  • What is the problem your product solves?
  • Which features are loved by customers?

These insights are valuable because they tell you how you can improve your strategy, your messaging, your customer journey, your features and so much more.

Below is the list of the questions that you can ask your customers, just after the purchase decision has been made.

Let’s dig in.

Category: Need for finding the solution

Question – What made you seek out the solution in the first place?

Question – What was happening in your life, due to which you felt the need to find out a solution?

Question – What problem were you looking to solve?

Question – How did this problem impact your life?

The answers to these questions help you understand their pain and the triggers that made them start looking for a solution.

Category: Alternatives

Question – How were you solving this problem, before using our product?

This question gives you a clear understanding of the actual alternatives that the prospects have. Competitors don’t always have to be your direct competitors. Sometimes, your prospects are just using excel sheets instead of your product.

The answer to this question helps you get insights on – 

  • Do they know that they have a problem?
  • How are they solving the problem currently?
  • What is the awareness level of your prospects?
  • Do they know that a solution to their problem exists? 
  • Do they know who you are? 

Category: Perception

Question – How would you describe our product to other people?

The answer to this question releases you from the ‘curse of knowledge’. We spend a lot of time with the product and develop a bias. It’s likely that we have a very uni-dimensional, myopic view regarding our own product which could be quite different from how our prospects are viewing them.

The answer to this question helps you in constructing a simple, jargon-free description, that will resonate with your audience.

Category: Life-after the product

Question – How has our product changed your job/life/daily routine?

Question – What has been the most meaningful change that our product has brought about in your life?

The answer to these questions helps you figure out the real value that the customers are getting. This helps you understand the exact transformation that your product is delivering and thus your messaging can become stronger.

Category: Unexpected benefit

Question – What is the unexpected benefit or outcome you’ve realized thanks to our product?

The answers to these questions may just surprise you. It reveals the unexpected value that your customers are seeing in the product. Your messaging game is bound to become strong after this one.

Category: Favorite feature

Question – What specific feature of the product do you like the most?

Nothing much to expand here. This knowledge about the features can be transferred to the Product team.

Category: Emotional benefit

Question – How would you feel if you couldn’t use our product anymore? 

Here we are trying to move from ‘transactional benefits’ to ‘emotional benefits’. Understanding these emotional benefits is crucial.

Example – “I would hate it because I wouldn’t be able to create amazing dashboards that I can send to my boss.”

Category: Objections

Question – Was there anything that would have prevented you from buying this product?

Question – Did you have any hesitations before buying this product? What were they?

This gives you an insight into the objections that the customers have. And yes, every customer has some objection before buying. Rather than pretending that the objections don’t exist, you can aggressively address these objections, head-on.

Ignore your customers and you will miss out on some valuable intel

Looks like you and I can learn a few things from my niece and start talking. We can ask the right questions to our customers so that our Marketing becomes 10 times better.