Quick question: When was the last time you asked for customer feedback?

Using all the powers of my crystal ball, I’m guessing it’s been a while.

You see, most folks fall into one of two camps. In the first, you have the “set it and completely forget it” course creators. They’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into their creation and — other than showing up to offer their customers support — they never want to look at the contents of their course again.

In the other, you’ve got the people who are constantly fiddling, updating, and adding new bits of content to their course.

But neither camp thinks to do the one thing that would really improve their customers’ experience: seeking customer feedback.

Which is exactly what we’re talking about today.

TUNE-IN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PLAY

I understand the reluctance.

After the effort you put into your course, the last thing you want is invite negative comments about your baby.

Because this is gonna sting.

Here’s the thing though: asking for customer feedback (and doing so regularly) is like a health check for your course — alerting you to problems and allowing you to fix them before they become too serious.

Gathering real-time data on what’s working and what could be better is a true win-win. 

Making the tweaks that’ll help people move more smoothly through your course is obviously going to give them a far better experience. And when your program meets and exceeds expectations, delivers on its promises, and is a joy to work through, you’re going to have no trouble at all selling it.

Of course, it’s incredibly difficult to create a course that ticks every box the first time around — which is why conducting regular customer surveys is so important.

There are a few ways to do it. Automation is an option, obvs. You can ask questions at certain stages of your program, or send emails at the mid-way or finishing points to get live feedback.

But here’s my favorite: conducting a once-a-year survey to all current customers where I ask everyone for their thoughts.

This works so well because it gives you a snapshot of what’s going on at that precise moment — and you really can’t beat real-time customer feedback.

And you can always offer a giveaway to incentivize people to join in. Because you’re only doing this once a year, that’s totally manageable.

The key to making these sessions work…

You’re going to want to keep the questionnaires short and sweet. Preferably something they can complete in 3-4 mins tops (let’s face it, attention spans aren’t getting any longer!). And if you’re asking people to do you a favor, make it as easy as possible for them to help you out.

Then you need to think about what to ask.

There are a ton of questions you could ask, and the ones you choose are going to depend on the type of information you think will be most useful for you in the moment.

So have a think about where you are with your course right now.

Are there changes you’re thinking of making but not sure if it’s more needless tweaking? Are there modules you’re thinking of deleting or adding but you need validation before making the leap?

There might also be things that your gut is telling you to ask. Like whether you’re sending too many emails. Or you’re wondering if people are still enjoying using Facebook as a community.

But whether you already have a list of questions you want to ask or you’re totally floundering right now, there are three questions that I think pretty much every customer survey should include.

We take a much deeper dive into this in this week’s podcast, where we explain why they’re so effective and show you how to ask them in a way that gives you data you can really use to make your course the very best it can be.

Click here to listen to this short and sweet pod episode — and don’t forget to share it with anyone else who might find it helpful.