Speaking to your customers is pretty obvious, right? But when you do it isn’t always so simple to decide. Some of the most interesting sessions we run are ones where our clients meet with a group of their regular customers to co-create their latest product or service – if you’ve never tried this, we can’t recommend it highly enough. We won’t deny it can be a little frightening the first time you try it – but you may be surprised, not just by how willing your customers are to engage in the process, but by what you discover when you really let them loose on your business.
Always treat customers as individuals, and use their points of view to tweak your business. When working in the shop, I’d often show new things to customers simply out of interest, without any sales pitch, just to see what they thought.
It’s free, it’s courteous, it’s effective.