May 02, 2017

202: How to Generate Customer Insights

In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about generating customer insights. Customer feedback is what you need to be able to build a better product and adjust for the objections that you get from customers—both those who have purchased from you and those who have not. Steli shares the different ways you can get customer feedback and identifies how to get the MOST value from these interactions. Hiten also gives you advice on how you can get your departments interacting with clients to better your product and processes.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:05 – Today’s episode is about generating customer insights

00:33 – The goal is to generate insights that will help you respond to your customers better and earn their loyalty

01:03 – Steli held the first customer meet-up for Close.io in New York

02:12 – Hiten says customers are inundated with similar products, every single day

03:05 – Feedback is important in developing your product

04:01 – A landing page can help get you feedback, but the data you receive is limited

04:48 – Emails might produce more information, but it does not scale

05:12 – Phone conversations will give you more quality and information

05:41 – Person to person will produce the most information

06:32 – There is a tendency for companies to NOT visit customers as this takes too much time

07:34 – Steli shares that he feels reluctant to meet with customers, but after meeting them, he is grateful for doing it

08:27 – Hiten says customers are not just those who have already bought from you, it includes everyone else who hasn’t

09:20 – You should build customer outreach into your schedule

09:45 – If you have Twitter, use it—it’s an easy way to get answers by asking questions

10:15 – Initiate polls and pull customers into a conversation

10:41 – Steli says a recipe for success is to fall in love with your customer

11:08 – The best way to earn a customer is to invest in them, first

12:06 – The type of people that really matter in your business are your customers

13:45 – Steli’s top priority right now is to connect the growing team to their customers

14:25 – Hiten’s suggestion is to do it by department and make sure that customer relations is integrated in all the processes

15:15 – Hiten tells their customers to be open about what they don’t like about the product

15:42 – The team should develop a thick skin, as they will hear negative feedback

16:38 – Critical feedback is not easily given by customers

17:20 – Critical feedback is where you can get the most insight, especially in product development

18:14 – In sales, the postmortem is important in understanding why the customers said “no”

18:31 – Marketing is the hardest to get customer feedback

19:48 – When interacting with customers, it’s not about the positive things they are saying

20:14 – When customers give feedback, it’s NOT about getting a sale—if you start talking, you lose the chance to listen and understand the customer better

21:20 – Ask follow up questions, dig deeper, and care about the person giving the feedback

22:28 – The right mindframe is important when interacting with customers

22:40 – Go to iTunes and give us a review and rating

23:05 – End of today’s episode

3 Key Points:

Make sure that customer relations are built into your schedule.

When receiving feedback, you need a thick skin as you’ll be hearing negative comments.

Customer feedback is NOT about making a sale, it’s about taking the time to LISTEN to your customers.

Steli: Hey everyone, this is Steli Efti.

Hiten: And this is Hiten Shah.

Steli: In today's episode of The Startup Chat, we're going to talk about sheer ways that you and your team can get closer to you...

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By Steli Efti & Hiten Shah: Serial Entrepreneurs, Sales & Marketing Experts, Startup Investors & Advisors, CEOs running multi million dollar SaaS Startups

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