Credit: Shutterstock photoNo one knows what your customer want better than themselves. Read on for keys to a successful customer advisory board that helps you advance your business.
I organized my first such board by accident. In the early days of my vending company, I hired a marketing company to do a focus group on the food menu. The marketer ran a meeting with my customers while I sat behind a mirror watching them.
As the meeting progressed, I became more and more agitated. The marketer kept asking questions that were of no use to me. I wanted to bolt from behind the mirror and ask my questions.
After the session, I started to run my own focus group. Later, I learned that I had formed a customer advisory board and generated some of the best ideas for my business ever since. Here are four tips to create a successful one:
1. Have anoutspoken member in your group . This person stimulates candid comments. We don't like to tell people that they could do things better. For the first half hour of my first meeting, I felt like I was pulling teeth. Everyone was being way too polite.
Finally, a member saved the meeting. He spoke up and in no uncertain terms had some constructive comments. It was like a floodgate opened. All of the sudden, everyone had ideas on what I could do better.
2.Follow ideas that your customers would actually pay for. Unless they say they would spend their money on an idea, it is a lousy idea. This I learned the hard way. At one meeting, several advisory board members suggested I should sell healthy food in my machines. This sounded like a reasonable idea to me, so I purchased a bunch of these items, putting them in the machines.
I ended up throwing the stuff away as the expiration dates came due. At the next advisory board meeting, I asked the members how many of them bought the healthy food. None of them did.
3. Make sure your members get take-home value. When a customer joins your advisory board, he or she is doing you a big favor. If you want your board members to continue participating, you need to give something back that keeps them interested.
A lot of time it is simply the opportunity to gather helpful information from others. I was on many advisory boards as a customer. The ones I enthusiastically went back were ones that had time allotted for the members of the board to exchange ideas of their business practices. This might not have anything to do with the agenda but provide value for the customers.
4. Rotate membership on your board. By changing members of the board, you bring people with fresh ideas to the table. For example, if you have eight board members, you can change two for every meeting. Of course, you must take care to keep at least one curmudgeon on your board to start the conversation.
Starting and maintaining a customer advisory board is a lot of work, and it was difficult to listen to the criticism. But you learn how to better your company, while building trust and loyalty with your customers. The result is worth the effort. I promise.
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Josh Patrickis a founding principal of Stage 2 Planning Partners in South Burlington, Vt. He contributes to the NY Times You're the Boss blog and works with owners of privately held businesses helping them create business and personal value. You can learn more about his Objective Review process at his website.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
