Do you have a customer centric business?

Your customers give life to your business, but it’s easy to become disconnected from them as the demands of the business grow.

Here are 5 ways to stay connected to your customers even as you grow.

We tend to think of our customers as a monolithic group, and this hurts our relationship with them. We send the same emails, offer the same discounts, and talk to them in the same way. When in fact the reality is that people come to us for dozens of reasons.

Ideally, we would build a one-on-one relationship with every customer, but of course, this would be close to impossible at scale. But one thing we can do is invite our customers to have a conversation with us. Here are a few ways how:

1. Schedule Weekly Customer Calls

One of my favorite low-hanging fruit opportunities is to schedule weekly calls with your customers. Having just 2x 15-min calls per week allows you to stay on top of how customers perceive your brand, while building those one-on-one relationships. How many times have you received a call from the founder of a company, let alone anyone? Those are experiences they’ll remember forever.

2. Ask Questions in Your E-mails

Most marketing e-mails are one-way conversations. Start asking questions to actually get people to respond and you’ll learn a world of information. Here’s another post by Damien Law:

“Yesterday, I sent out the email below to our customers who placed an order once, but never came back again. We really wanted to find out exactly WHY they never bought again.

Some said too expensive, some said not enough flavors… BUT, quite a few of them said they didn’t like our ORIGINAL recipe. 😬

Turns out… a lot of them didn’t know that we’ve actually reformulated to a new and improved product! 🍪 (taking out the sugar alcohols + adding in more protein)

After I let them know about the changes, I’d say 50% of them went and placed an order! 🎉 Not bad at all. Sometimes, all it takes is one email, and one conversation to regain a customer back :)”

3. Build a Private Facebook Group

People are always searching for a like-minded community of others who enjoy the same things they do. Michelle Tew, founder of Homiah Southeast Asian cooking sauces created a Facebook group for her customers to share recipes. After two weeks the group has grown to 300 members!

4. Include Your Customers in Product Development

Damien Law does a great job of including customers in his journey, and here’s how. “After launching V1 of Effin’ Good Cookies we wanted to understand what our fans liked, didn’t like, and wanted us to improved. We used the Foodbevy Product Market Fit calculator to design a survey and found that the number one feedback was to get rid of the slight weird lingering aftertaste. We listened to the feedback and decided to do a complete reformulation to create a new and improved recipe! Now we’re one step closer to reaching product market fit!”

You can use the Foodbevy Product Market Fit Calculator here.

5. Segment Customers Using Zero-Party and First-Party Data

Zero-party data refers to information about the customer that they provide about their personal preferences. You can collect this data by using quizzes and customer surveys. Then map this data to their customer profile in Klaviyo. Do you have vegan and non-vegan products? Don’t send a steak recipe to a vegan customer.

First party data refers to information you collect about their actual behavior on your site or email list. Has a customer purchased 15 times from you? There’s are VIPs! Don’t send them the same generic email as everyone else. Personally reach out to nurture them and make them feel like part of the company.

Wrap Up

Building a community around your business is crucial for success, and staying connected to your customers is a big part of that. By including your customers in product development, building a private Facebook group, segmenting customers using zero party and first-party data, scheduling weekly customer calls, and asking questions in your emails, you can build strong relationships with your customers that will help your business grow. Remember, a customer-centric business is a successful business!