The magic words that will make customers open up and want to talk to you! Techniques for customer development, user testing, community management, and customer support. (Slides from 2/23 Action Class http://www.appsumo.com/action_class/?class=cindy_alvarez)

1. Get More Useful Feedback
Your Surveys Suck,
Go Talk to Your Customers
Cindy Alvarez
The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

2. Excuses
You’re probably not talking to your
customers because:
• It’s time-consuming
• Not enough data to be statistically
significant
• What if they all say different things?
• That’s X’s job
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

3. “It takes so long...”
Time spent prepping, conducting,
analyzing 3 customer interviews:
2 hours
Time spent updating the homepage
with based on interview data:
5 minutes
Time saved on acquiring the next
100 customers:
3 weeks
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

4. “It wouldn’t be statistically significant...”
If you don’t know what the questions are,
having more answers is not going to
help.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

5. “What if they all say different things?...”
Forcing people to choose between
A
B
C
doesn’t mean they weren’t secretly
thinking D, Q, or Z.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

6. “That’s X’s job...”
Having 1 person who talks to customers
is like having 1 employee do push-ups
and expecting the whole team to be in
shape.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

7. But why would customers want to talk to us?
Customers respond to personal, specific
opportunities:
• to make their lives better
• to vent
• to sound smart
(No mass mails.)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

8. Permission to Speak Freely
By default people will defer to you.
Be explicit that you’re looking to learn/listen:
• “I’m trying to learn about...”
• “Can you tell me how...”
• “I’d like to understand why...”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

9. What should I ask?
http://www.cindyalvarez.com/
communication/customer-development-
interviews-how-to-what-you-should-be-
learning
• 8-10 questions
• Avoid yes/no questions
• Feel free to ad-lib / don’t force it
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

10. What’s the
magic word?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

11. Magic Words #1 - Ask Questions
• When does it happen
• Who is affected
• How do you decide
• What is the process
• (Can I ask) Why is that frustrating
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

12. Sweet Emotion
Stop! Listen for the customer to sound
excited
frustrated
embarrassed
angry
and keep going on that topic.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

13. Magic Words #2 - Validate
“Other people have told
me...”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

14. Magic Words #3 - There Is No Spoon
“If you had a magic wand,
what would you be able to
do?”
(What people tell you is constrained by
what they think is possible.)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

15. UN-Magic Word: YES
Agreeing with people
signals an end to the
conversation.
Instead,
“Just to clarify, did you mean
________________?”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

16. What will this
do for me?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

17. KISSinsights - We built a new product.
Customers were:
• embarrassed at not knowing enough
about their customers
• frustrated at low survey response rates
after high-effort survey creation
• magic wand: “I’d just sit next to my
customers and ask them why they did
that.”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

18. http://www.kissinsights.com (signup is free)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

19. KISSmetrics - We’re building new stuff.
Customers told us:
• process for analytics tasks was ad hoc/
verbal/unscheduled
• we’re frustrated at not following through
on improving our metrics as much as
we’d like to
• magic wand: “I wish I knew what I should
be measuring to meet our goals as a
company”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

20. email saas@kissmetrics.com to find out
more
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

21. Your mission,
should you choose
to accept it...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

22. You can totally do this in the next week.
Reply to all customer support emails with a
question:
• “If we added that feature, how would you use it?”
• “Would it be clearer if we explained it this way [insert
new wording], instead?”
• “Is there anything else that doesn’t work the way you
were expecting?”
• “Can I ask, how would you describe us to a friend if
you were recommending us?”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

23. Also totally doable.
Write down 5 things you wish you knew
about your customers and how they’re
using your product.
Turn those into 5 questions using the
guidelines in this talk.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

24. Stretch goal! But you can do it.
Interview 5 customers.
Share your notes with your team.
Brainstorm how you can address the
issues you discovered.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

25. Want to learn more?
I blog on Thursdays at http://
www.cindyalvarez.com
I tweet about this stuff all the time at
@cindyalvarez
Wednesday, February 23, 2011