Questions to ask clients to build their trust in your business

Communication is unquestionably the foundation of successful business relationships. Kill the communication, and you kill the business. That is a proven fact. But why is this the case? It's because effective communication can bring a slew of advantages to your company in unexpected ways. And a lack of it can be equally catastrophic.

According to a survey, nearly 50% of business owners admitted to losing a customer due to poor communication. Communication with your client isn’t just about sending out information; it’s also about asking relevant questions to help you serve them better.

In this guide, Workee experts will examine nine essential questions to ask clients as a business owners to keep you profitable in business. This also includes questions to ask a potential client and questions to ask a client about a project.

But first, let’s quickly talk about the importance of client questions.

Why you should ask  client questions

Asking your client questions regarding their relationship with your business can help you uncover and address long-hidden issues. Furthermore, you can decipher how your clients feel about the competition, hence motivating you to improve your offerings.

Third, it helps your clients have a better, proper perspective about your business, irrespective of what they heard before.

How beneficial would this be to your business? Well, many! First, you benefit from client retention. Second, you’ll enjoy continuous cash flows.  Third, you enjoy business longevity, meet your business goals, and attract more investors. 

The insights you gather from these important questions for clients can go a long way to improve your business tremendously.

Below are the nine questions to ask clients to enhance your client-business relationship for enhanced business outcomes:

9 essential questions to ask clients

Why did you choose us over other possible choices?

For every product you sell or service you offer, many others are selling the same product or service, probably with better quality. But your clients prefer to patronize and stay with you. There must be a good reason for that, and you need to find out why! 

In planning the questions to ask a client based on their preference for your business, find out the following:

• Why would they consider another business over yours?

• If they have been nursing the thought of making a switch to a rival.

• Why did they choose you or your business over other options in the market?

• The likely alternative solution they would consider if they wanted to make a switch today.

• Why they would prefer the option in (4) above.

With this information, you will know how to structure and make your business better to suit specific and general needs, deal with the competition, and retain your clients.

What are the biggest challenges you’re currently facing?

Finding out the biggest challenge(s) your clients are currently facing goes a long way to show that you care about them and not just their money. It is also one of the key questions to ask potential clients. This is because everyone (prospects) trying to get your product or service has a pain point they seek to solve. 

Getting what you offer could be just one step of the way. How do your clients meet their “other” needs outside of what your product/service meets, especially the most challenging ones? Can you help them achieve their general and specific goals? Can you help them solve their relative challenges? 

Finding and recommending viable solutions to meet these needs speaks volumes of how much you care about your clients. This is one of the best ways to buy you a golden spot in your client’s heart.

How can we serve you better?

There are many things that you can do to retain your clients. One is offering better quality service and experience with your product or service. But how do you know this, especially what your client needs (or doesn’t need) if you don’t ask them?

After one bad user experience, 57% of people stop using a product or service, according to a recent study by SurveyMonkey on Audience insight. This is huge and could be why your business is experiencing a detour in patronage. Thus, this is one of the best questions to ask your client who has been with you for a while.

Asking this question will help you to add or remove features and benefits from your product or service that your clients don’t love. This will help you to keep your business going profitably. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, how user-friendly are our products and services?

One of the key questions to ask your clients is the ease with which they do business with you and the ease of using your product/service. If your clients have to undergo a lot of stress while using your product or service, it’s a time bomb ticking. It’s a matter of time before your clients will switch to a competitor with easier and better quality of service experience. 

Hence, you need to find out if your clients are having difficulty doing business with you or not. Then, you work on the information to provide a better, easier business experience. This can include customer care, product UI/UX, quick access to features, prompt attention to emergencies, etc.

Are you satisfied with our products/services?

You might think your product or service is doing its best to solve the need you created. However, until your clients say so and from the point of utmost satisfaction, you’ve not truly met the need. 

Of course, not everyone will nod and say that your product is great, especially the new clients/customers who are new to your ecosystem. Thus, one of the questions to ask a new client is how satisfied they are with your product or service thus far.

Different people have different problems and different levels of individual satisfaction. Hence, you should expect different replies. But you have to do your best. Where do you start?

It’s by lending everyone that registers a concern a listening ear. Your clients will feel valued, loved, and cared for even if your product is not stellar at the moment or lacks some features they love at the moment. 

While composing the questions to ask a client in this regard, find out the following:

• Would the customer be ok if you closed your business?

• Product or service features that your client loves the most. 

• If the customer would gladly recommend your product to a friend or family member.

• If the customer would be happy to renew their subscription to your product/service once it expires.

What aspects of our products and services would you like to see changed or improved?

It is unlikely that you will receive the response "nothing!" because there is always room for improvement. Furthermore, it does not always have to be your service or product. It could be the attitude of your customer service representatives, the speed with which your product/service is delivered, or even the packaging. You should always identify one or more things that your client wishes to change and resolve them based on popular demand.

What feature or service do you like the most?

It is very helpful to know your client's favorite feature or service. This shows how valuable your customers think your product is and how willing they are to continue paying for it. This information can help you find a good balance between price and features and keep up with the competition.

How best can we reach you?

This is one of the most suitable questions to ask potential clients. This helps to clarify things early in the relationship. Everyone (prospective and present customers) does not have the same preference for a mode of communication.

Some customers prefer to be contacted via email, while others prefer to be contacted via phone calls or social media communication channels.

What's most important is building a healthy and cordial relationship with your client. One of the best ways to achieve that is by employing smart, automated CRM tools that will enable you to reach all your clients as necessary.

The best CRM tool you can consider for your business is Workee.

Why Workee?

Workee is an excellent platform for providing clients with insights into your business through various client communication tools. You can use the workspace or client management tool to meet and network with your clients. Alternatively, your clients can book and schedule video calls and meetings with you. Workee is a modern solution for managing your entire business operations, in addition to client communication. Here are the Workee features that every business owner requires.

• CRM: Workee provides a smart client management tool that synchronizes with your Google contacts to ensure you have all important client contacts in one place.

• Communication: the Workee software includes video conferencing and instant messaging communication tools. This ensures that you can communicate with your clients easily and when needed. You can also integrate other collaboration tools like Zoom and Meet.

• Booking and scheduling:  Workee integrates a sophisticated booking and scheduling system to simplify managing your work hours and appointments. You can also sync appointments and schedules from other calendars to build a cohesive, well-organized system. 

• Free no-code website: Subscribing for Workee allows you to create your personal, branded website at no extra cost.  The great part is that you don’t need expert or technical knowledge to run your website. It’s a no-code website that can be set up in 5 minutes or less.

• Payments: The Workee software supports payment channels like stripe to enable you to receive payments from your clients easily. Additionally, you can keep tabs on all of your financial transactions and generate automatic invoices and receipts.

Ideally, Workee should not be an option for any business owner seeking to be effective. The good thing is it’s affordable, as you can sign-up for free and choose to upgrade to the paid plan anytime you wish. 

Conclusion

The right questions to ask clients are not exhaustive, but we’ve only mentioned a few to give you insights and put you on the right track. Besides, you’d have to ask your client questions that are specifically related to the product or the service you offer. 

The goal is to improve relations with your clients to get the best for them and your business. While asking these questions, it is important to focus on the benefits to your clients and make them understand that it’s aimed at helping them. This will help you get the best feedback to solve your client's needs.