Getting feedback from customers is essential for the operations of a startup business. After all, this feedback serves as the basis of your improvements. But gathering and acting upon this feedback can be a lot of work.
That is where customer advisory boards can be effective partners. They can help you better understand your customer base and engage them. But what are they and how can you effectively leverage them? Let’s find out.
Understanding Customer Advisory Boards
At its most basic, a customer advisory board is a group of customers that your startup company meets directly to discuss policies. They give you direct feedback and insights about your product and company. Advisory boards can give you insights into customer behavior and suggestions for appropriate responses.
Image from KickStart Alliance.
Aside from the advisory role, you can also tap the board as product alpha or beta testers for your product. Here, they become more involved in the development process. They will give you feedback on the direction it should take and other input based on their experiences.
Another role that the customer advisory board might fulfill is as a champion for your brand. It becomes involved in crafting your marketing messages. Its goal is to help you create a message that best resonates with customers like them. They also serve as brand advocates to relay that message.
Why The Customer Advisory Board Is A Must-Have
At this point, you might still wonder whether the customer advisory board is worth the time to develop. Look into the other benefits you can gain from it. These should convince you to incorporate them into your overall business development plan early.
Getting An Honest Opinion From Customers
Okay, so you might already know how your customers will respond to your product. But how do you know that it is indeed right on the mark? Customer advisory boards give you an honest and unbiased opinion on it.
Image from Retently.
That is because the feedback is not filtered through the lens of your sales or marketing teams. The members are often encouraged to be more direct in their comments. It includes even the negative ones that might now show in other channels. With that, you have a better picture of the weaknesses of your business.
A Sounding Board Of Startup Business Ideas
More specifically, the customer advisory board can provide vital insights into new ideas you have come up with. The advisory board can tell you whether any of these ideas are worth the effort and investment. Since they are customers themselves, the board can help you better understand how others receive these ideas. From there, they can tell you the best directions to develop the ideas.
Strengthening Your Community
As mentioned earlier, the advisory board will serve as the core of your customer base. And they will be your most fervent fans. With them onboard, you can have a more effective way of drawing people to your products. Their endorsement carries more weight since they are very much involved with your product development.
Creating Your Startup Business Customer Advisory Board
With all of the above in mind, you would be encouraged to develop your customer advisory board. But you don’t simply pluck out people from your customers and put them in. You need to set it up correctly to get more out of the group.
Defining The Board’s Objectives
While the advisory board will have a variety of functions, you need to be clear about its main objectives. The typical main objectives that you can explore for your CAB are:
- Validating product directions
- Understanding market trends
- Identifying the needs of specific market verticals
- Identifying new market opportunities
Once you have identified the board’s main objectives, you can start defining the relevant subgoals and duties. That will help you map out how the board will function and how you will deploy them.
Recruiting The Members Of Your Board
The next step in establishing your board is recruiting members. Here, you might wonder how large your CAB should be. A good range here would be around a dozen people. You can adjust the number slightly to get more input.
Image from Farland Group.
More than the number, however, you should ensure diversity in the composition of your board members. You would ideally want to have at least one representative from each customer segment you have.
Another handy rule here is the Pareto principle. It states that you should get people from the 20% of your customers that generate 80% of your revenues. That group will undoubtedly have the strongest influence on your board. Ensure that everybody else has a voice.
Interacting With Your Startup Business Customer Advisory Board
Meeting with the CAB goes in the same manner as any other stakeholder meetings you might have. Ensure that you have a comprehensive agenda during your first interaction. That way, board members will know how to respond.
Virtua Solutions’ virtual assistants can help you prepare for that day by organizing all the pertinent materials. That includes preparing the presentations and data that you will use.
Image from LinkedIn.
Additionally, our VAs will be the ones to get in touch with board members for you. That is vital, as constant communication will help keep their interest in participating in the meetings. Here, we can provide them with important pointers in advance so that they can do their research before attending.
Once the board meeting starts, our virtual assistants serve as facilitators. We ensure that there is continuous back and forth during the discussion. This includes encouraging board members to respond to the statements and throw their questions.
After the meeting, our VAs will provide board members with updates on the matters touched upon by the meeting. That can include informing them whether their suggestions were considered and other things that you are planning. Regular updates like these are an effective way to tell members that you do listen to their voices.
Get Your Startup Business Customers Helping More Directly
When managed correctly, customer advisory boards can help you create products and services that best fit the needs of your patrons. Thus, you definitely would want to take your time establishing it. And Virtua Solutions is here to help you out. Contact us today and let’s build that advisory board to help you connect with customers better.