20 February 2023
Social
Pro-active meeting with the customer post-sale, to make sure everything is going well.
Also Known As: Temperature Check; "Love" (as in "It's time to give the customer some love")
Problem: The company wants to ensure that the product/service is continuing to meet the needs of its current customer base, and/or wants to get customer feedback on a proposed new feature or change to the product/service before it goes forward with something that might generate backlash or fail to generate the "splash" or ROI the company is seeking.
Context: It's after the product/service is already in the hands (that is, purchased) of the customer. Your customers are known to the company, and there is a known point-of-contact or easy way to connect with those customers.
Solution: Create a meeting (or series of meetings) with customers, either singly or in a focus-group format, in which the company is able to have frank and honest conversations and hear the responses clearly.
Consequences: Providing a pro-active communication often makes the customer feel like the company is taking an active interest in the customer's success.
Care must be taken when framing the questions to the customer(s), to avoid "leading the witness" to say what the company hopes it will hear. Ideally the conversation will be recorded (or notes taken) so that others within the company who were not present are able to "hear for themselves" what the feedback or responses are.
These conversations often benefit the company only when the customer(s) feel that they can be honest without fear of damaging the relationship, so confidentiality guarantees should be provided (and enforced), particularly to keep the conversations private to anyone "not in the room" at the time of the conversation. (That is to say, both parties should be discouraged to "leak" the conversations to the tech press or social media.)
Variants: