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What if you could figure out a way to know how your product was being used by your customers?

There are ways.

You could send a survey. Which might get returned. Those often get ignored (the response range is 5-30%). For a high-ticket items, it might even be considered bad service.

You could make a call or send an email. And you should. Regular post-purchase checkins should be a thing. Their answer depends on when you call, or when the email is read or where their head is and if they are honest or even remember.

Maybe the client ghosts you because they are busy or annoyed because the product sucks.

But most of the time people just fire and forget.

Crazy idea:

What if (and this is a bit dystopian) your product had a little tiny tracking chip in it? Creepy, right? Bear with me.

You can see how the customer is using the product. And more importantly, if they are using the product.

If they weren't using the product, or they were using it the right way, you can reach out to them with a note on how the product can be used to maximize the benefit. Because you would know what they were missing.

Unlike a weekly "how to" email, this would be directed right at their pain points.

For instance: If you were a personal shopper, you could see if people wore the outfits you recommended. The chip could tell you when the outfit left the property. You could create a custom email asking them if they wanted to do a return/rebuy on one outfit.

If you were a house painter, imagine the paint having technology to be able to send you a message with what the homeowners thought of the job. Rather than send them an obligatory "free touchup" coupon, you could pop by the house with your paint and ask them if they needed any touch ups.

Yes, this is creepy.

You are winning big when you can know your customer's problems before they tell you.

I'm trying to make a point.

With software-driven companies, this is normal. You can measure how people use your product. This is common practice

What's not common practice is using that data to create a better customer relationship. Most of the time it's used to improve the product (which is great too and benefits the customers).

Why is a customer not using a part of your product?

• they don't like it
• they don't understand it
• they don't know about it
• they don't need it.

Every one of these answers is informative in its own way. And if you can know about it without asking, you are three steps ahead.

In the past, working in tech startups, I've worked with analytics software to see which customers used which features. We would have monthly checkins and specifically dig into the features that were not being used. You want to answer the question - why aren't you using it? You want the customer to get the most out of their money. Of course.

You want to avoid Churn.

Churn is when a customer stops using your product and switches to a competitor. If a customer isn't leveraging what you do, they would move to something better.

So understanding how they are using your product and enjoying your service, and educating them on how to get more from it, is key to avoiding this.

Don't play a guessing game if you don't have to.

if you can come up with ways to seem omniscient, you can head off bad experiences early. That's great customer service.

Think about how you can leverage these ideas for yourself.

So the next time someone needs a room painted, or a new outfit, they remember.

- Matt

PS: I'm launching Startup Growth Workshop next Tuesday, and it's free. It's a workshop so space is limited. You can sign up here.

Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you: ​ Work with me. I take on select clients to create and scale businesses working 4 hours a day using the concentric automation method. ​ ​You can book a call with me here.