After I finished last month's column, I realized I left out a critical piece of information. In January I wrote about how leaders and managers actively use question-asking within their organizations to formulate their evolving business strategy. I advised you to cultivate curiosity within your organization, to ask open-ended questions, to link question-asking with organizational learning, and to reflect your understanding of answers back to your team members to be sure you were on the same page.
Be sure to broaden your question asking to include your clients and customers. Some of your best strategic ideas will likely come to you by doing this task well.
Leading a team or an organization requires you to have a good sense of what is going on in the day-to-day business you conduct. If you are adept at asking questions, you have a solid base of information upon which to work. However, questions you ask of yourself, your team and your organization all have one thing in common: such questions are designed to look at your business from the inside out. Without asking clients and customers important questions, you will never really get a sense of how your organization appears from the outside in.
Some organizational leaders tend to resist this important work. Some are afraid that asking questions may create an opportunity for complaint, or make clients feel hassled and look for another provider. Some might fear looking unprepared or unknowledgeable. I would argue that even if these fears are true, wouldn't that be specific strategic information you would want to know?
My investment management firm has become known in our industry as an organization which solicits client feedback well. Over the years I have learned that there are three secrets to success when asking questions of clients: Ask questions you are genuinely interested in, ask respectfully, and ask consistently. You will not only strengthen your base of strategic information, but deepen your customer relationships as well.
Ask questions you are genuinely interested in.
Get your team or organization together and map out the questions that your customers can help you with and to which you most want to find the answer. Have you been considering a new product or service? Are you thinking about making a change to your client service structure? Is your fee or price reasonable and competitive? Ask questions that will push your business forward, not just questions that will give you a benchmark comparison such as a satisfaction survey.
Ask questions of your customers respectfully.
Whether in person or in a survey, make sure you take the time to introduce why you are asking these questions. Don't assume your customer will respond; ask them if they could take the time to assist you. If you ask questions that you are genuinely interested in, you can explain that you need and value their distinct perceptions. If possible, offer to share the responses to your questioning process with them afterward. Help your clients to understand that their contribution to the process affected your organization. Thank them.
Ask questions of your clients consistently.
Get in the habit of asking questions of your clients and customers on a consistent basis. The more you engage with the folks who pay your bills, the better. If you are genuinely interested in the questions and answers, and if you ask them respectfully, consistently asking questions of your customers will deepen your organization's relationship with them. Don't overburden them, but do make asking genuine questions a part of your client service standards.
There are different ways your organization may choose to ask these questions. Some questions may be best suited to face-to-face meetings while others will have most impact if customers answer an anonymous survey. No matter the method, if you use these three keys to client question-asking, you will build better relationships and likely see a solid response.
Good strategy is about doing things satisfactorily. Great strategy is about anticipation, opportunity and growth. You need to use the perspective of your customers to compete and win, and help you build your organizational success.
Stuart G. Danforth is chairman and principal of Danforth Associates Investment Management in Wellesley. He writes and speaks on topics including financial strategy, investment decision-making and entrepreneurial tactics. He can be reached at sdanforth@danforthassociates.com.
