How to Talk to Customers More Frequently

Talking directly to customers is the cornerstone of successful design processes. This is a truth that many founders acknowledge yet often overlook in their haste to scale and innovate. It's a task that founders, founding teams, and stakeholders should guard zealously, resisting the urge to delegate too soon.

Hands-on engagement with those who use your product fosters a deep understanding of your users' needs, aspirations, and pain points. Holding onto this responsibility ensures a more intimate connection with your customer base, driving your project's progress exponentially.

When prioritizing conversations with your customers, you unlock a treasure trove of insights, leading to a more precise product-market fit. Below, we delve into strategies for increasing the frequency of these invaluable interactions.

Asking for Customers’ Feedback (and time) is an Uphill Battle

The effort to reach out, engage, and solicit customer insights is time-intensive and often met with silence. Many customers are preoccupied with their schedules and priorities and may not see the immediate value of providing feedback.

Unless your product or service holds a place of paramount importance, providing feedback may not rank high on their list of priorities. Acknowledging this reality is crucial.

It emphasizes the need for a strategy that reaches out and resonates with the customers. It is essential to communicate the critical role their feedback plays in shaping your services or products.

It’s about making them see the value of your business and their future experiences. Expressing genuine appreciation for their time and insights goes a long way in encouraging them to give feedback willingly.

Have Customer Conversations Come to You, Rather than Asking for Them

In today’s fast-paced world, actively seeking customer feedback resembles an endless pursuit. However, creating a scenario where the tables are turned and customers initiate conversations with you is possible.

The aim is to transform customer interactions into a seamless part of your daily routine, mirroring the ease and familiarity of texting a friend. This approach streamlines the feedback loop and deepens customer engagement. Here are some effective strategies that transform passive feedback collection into an active dialogue, ensuring customer insights flow directly to you, unprompted and genuine:

Offer Your Time for Free

Offering your time for free is not just generous; it's a strategic move signaling your deep expertise and commitment in your domain. This gesture is a powerful magnet for customers seeking insights and solutions only you can provide.

When customers eagerly engage with you, it indicates your valuable knowledge and their trust in your authority. Such interactions provide direct access to customer need sand confirm the alignment of your solutions with market expectations. The approach draws customer conversations to you and reinforces your standing as a sought-after expert in your field.

Open a Line of Communication During Onboarding

Integrating a direct line of communication during onboarding is a strategic move that brings customer conversations directly to your doorstep. Various brands, including us at NUMI, have embraced this approach, blending it into our customer engagement model.

For instance, we transform the checkout experience into an ongoing conversation by automatically initiating a shared Slack channel with each customer. This approach facilitates effortless communication and encourages a steady flow of feedback and insights from the moment of purchase.

Similarly, Graza enhances customer interaction by sending a personalized text message shortly after purchase, effectively maintaining its brand's voice and ensuring alignment with customer expectations. This approach keeps the conversation alive and reinforces the customer's importance to the brand.

In a different yet equally impactful way, Trade Gecko distinguishes itself by sending a text-only email and a LinkedIn request from the founder following a purchase. This interaction creates a memorable touchpoint that leaves a lasting impression on the customer.

Another effective strategy is leveraging in-app chat to invite customer feedback. It offers a non-intrusive, less formal, and more convenient way for customers to express their thoughts and suggestions, encouraging open and spontaneous conversations.

Join Online Communities

Platforms like Facebook Groups, Slack channels, Discord servers, Telegram Groups, WhatsApp, Subreddits, and specialized forums offer fertile ground for engaging directly with your audience. Once you join these forums, configure notifications to alert you when your product or field is mentioned.

Notifications will help you remain pro active since you can quickly roll up your sleeves and provide immediate, valuable responses to customer inquiries or discussions. Such consistent and helpful participation cements your reputation as a trusted community expert. Over time, this visibility and reliability transform you into a go-to resource, fostering trust and encouraging more customers to seek you out for insights and solutions.

How to Do Customer Outreach at Scale with Webinars

Executing customer outreach on a one-on-one basis is challenging and time consuming. Enter webinars, a powerhouse tool for amplifying your outreach efforts at scale. The beauty of webinars lies in their unparalleled scalability and the unique blend of personal engagement and digital convenience.

By gathering a broad audience in a single session, webinars provide a dynamic forum for disseminating information, fostering collective learning, and gleaning individual insights. Here are some tips to help you maximize the impact of your webinars, ensuring they serve as a potent vehicle for customer outreach:

Choose an Ideal Format

A practical webinar should strike a perfect balance between presentation and interaction. Aim for a structure where 25% of the session is dedicated to a concise, impactful presentation of your topic. This portion sets the stage, providing valuable insights and information to engage your audience immediately.

The remaining 75% should be allocated to a live Q&A session with attendees. The Q&A session encourages active participation from the audience, providing invaluable direct feedback that can inform and refine your product development.

Simplify Registration

Create a straightforward registration form on your website, requiring only essential information that facilitates engagement and personalization. The form should capture the attendee's email and name. The email is for disseminating vital webinar details and follow-up content, and the name is for personalizing communications to enhance the attendee's experience.

Your form should also have a "Questions you have" section to invite pre-webinar inquiries. This crucial element provides insights into your audience's expectations and concerns, allowing for a more structured and relevant discussion during the webinar. Tailoring content to address these questions can improve engagement and satisfaction.

Promise Customers a Recording

Guaranteeing a recording of your webinar for all registrants, irrespective of their attendance, can enhance customer outreach. It shows that you acknowledge that potential attendees may need help with scheduling conflicts, preventing them from joining the live session. When you promise to send a recording post-event, you offer a compelling reason for customers to register.

Ensure the Joining Process is Simple

Once your audience registers, the path to participation should be as frictionless as possible. You should provide them with a direct link to the webinar call and ensure that this link is compatible across various devices. This inclusivity guarantees that every potential attendee is sidelined due to technical limitations.

Furthermore, accompany this with a straightforward, easy-to-use link that allows attendees to add the event to their digital calendars. This gesture aids in integrating the webinar into their personal or professional schedules, reducing the likelihood of missed attendance due to scheduling oversights.

The Bonus: Personalized Follow-Ups

Leveraging the distribution of webinar recordings as a touchpoint for personalized follow-ups can amplify your customer outreach impact and deepen engagement. Address each attendee or registrant individually, dedicating attention to customizing responses to their posed questions. This tailored approach underscores your commitment to meeting their unique needs and strengthens the connection between your brand and its audience.

Perfect Your Product Design by Talking to Customers Frequently

Perfecting your product design is an iterative process that hinges on frequent, insightful conversations with your customers. For startups, the insights gleaned from these dialogues serve as the bedrock for achieving product-market fit and propelling your product from concept to reality. Transforming these insights into compelling, user-centric designs requires working with an experienced designer.

At NUMI, we will connect you with world-class designers who can weave customer feedback into your product's design fabric. Hire an expert today and elevate your product with designs that resonate with your audience.