Karl Craig-West

How to find out what your clients really want!

During the course of my work the number of my clients who begin the consultation by suggesting that they no longer know what the customer wants often surprises me. And they are often taken aback when I ask them when was the last time they asked their clients what they want.

One of the biggest mistakes you could ever make in business is to assume that you constantly know what the customer wants. And I would be willing to bet that as few as 15 percent of businesses of all sizes actually go to the trouble of listening to their clients enough and finding out exactly what their requirements and needs are.

So what should you do? It’s simple - Ask your clients what they want.

Now the way to go about this is really quite straightforward. One way of doing it is to ask them to fill in a customer satisfaction survey. Another way is to make a point of listening to them throughout the sales process and constantly be aware of what they are trying to tell you (you should be doing this anyway but it’s often missed).

Most of the time I advise that, if you run a small business, you personally call your clients in turn at least once every six months (preferably more regularly) to ask them how things are going and find out how you can better serve them.

The aim here is to build in better and closer relationships. Not only that but a relationship that will enable your clients to feel comfortable in telling you what it is they want. It could well be that your client wants a particular variation of what you offer but didn't know that you were able to supply it. They could want a different shape, size, or different information that you provide.

Whatever they want they will tell you if you make it abundantly clear to them that you want and appreciate their feedback. And when you find out what they want you may well become the only supplier they will ever choose simply because you took the time to find out what they wanted and then made the effort to supply it to them.