In theory, asking current customers for advice and opinions should be pretty easy. If you are in business to please the customer, then it would seem that would be the first place you would look for feedback. Need to raise your prices? Wouldn’t hurt to ask customers about it first. Want to change the way you do something? If its going to effect the customer, you should bring them in to the conversation.

But alas, asking these kinds of questions of customers is just something that most of us don’t do. The best of us toy around the edges by sending out customer surveys from time to time, but we get nowhere near the focus group level of larger corporations. Focus groups get a bad rap, and justifiably so. I am not advocating that you try to create a vanilla company that pleases every one.

For a small business, your customers are a pretty specific and handy focus group. They are also the most important thing to your business. So, treating them right and including them in the process isn’t a bad idea. You should not be afraid that by asking for customer input you will be giving up the uniqueness of your business. You wouldn’t let that happen, would you? But you do need to know what customers like and dislike, and how they will handle changes, etc.

In my experience, there are two reasons why small businesses do not ask their customers for advice. The first is hubris. These are the type of people who take advice from no one. Apparently, that’s how Apple operates, and it works out. If you want it to work for you, you had better be pretty unique.

The main reason, though, that businesses do not ask customers for advice or opinions, is because they have no steady back and forth communication channels built. The only communication comes during the sale, and it is often one way.

With the tools available now, there is no excuse not to be having ongoing conversations with your customers. But if it were just the tools that were holding businesses back, we wouldn’t be needing to have this conversation. While the tools have changed, mindsets have been slow to follow. The business world is moving in the direction of more communication. Conversation marketing is more and more important.

However, most businesses are not used to staying in contact with customers. And if they do, they have not maintained it on a personal level, where there is give and take. Asking questions of your customers is a great way to start this.

I think it would be a good thing to institute a question of the week with customers. Instead of a long survey at the end of every sale, you could send short, up to the date and pertinent questions to your customer base. Things like, “thinking about introducing a new flavor of ice cream, would you prefer wild cherry or vanilla caramel?” or “gas prices are going way up again, how should we handle increased delivery costs?” The more comfortable you get with your customers, the more pertinent questions you can ask.

Imagine if you did this regularly. Wouldn’t your customers feel more in touch with you? They would feel like they have influence and connection with your company. And you would have all of the information you need to make any hard decision. You wouldn’t be guessing so much. Sounds like a win-win to me!

So, why don’t you try it. Asking customers things shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Just start doing it. In the process, you will also be able to ask them for things like online reviews, referrals, and more business. And they will be able to ask you things back. It will be a good relationship.