Let's Collect Some Targeted Customer Feedback in Five Minutes

Even if Claude lied to me

Photo by Picture Diaries on Unsplash

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AI Lied to Me, So I Am Writing This Post About It

AI tools such as ChatGPT and Grok can be wonderful in helping you logically solve problems and clarify your thinking around topics. On Monday, I was asking Claude to help me formulate a list of topics from Backstage Pass for the rest of the month.

I asked for ideas around customer engagement, and Claude offered a few examples of company’s utilizing interesting customer engagement tactics, including Starbucks’ ‘One Question Method’. Claude explained that Starbucks adds a variation of this question across all customer touchpoints: “What one food item could we add to your order to make it complete?”

Claude went on to explain that Starbucks uses this decide how to expand the menu. I ask for more information, and Claude gives pages and pages of marketing strategy around its ‘One Question Method’, including exact sales growth from using the method.

I went to Google and did some checking and quickly learned that…Claude had made the whole thing up. Total fabrication. This is why it always pays to fact-check AI tools.

Undaunted, I still want to talk about the idea, because it sounds good in theory, and it can easily be applied to your Substack.

What’s the One Question You Have About Your Substack?

If you could have your readers and subscribers answer one question about your substack, what would it be? Here’s some examples:

• How many articles should I write a week?

• Should I charge for my Substack? How much?

• What should I write about?

• How long should my articles be, and what format?

Let’s say your top question about your Substack is how many articles you should write. Is one a week enough, or should you increase to two? Three?

If you think about it, Substack already gives you multiple touchpoints to collect reader feedback:

• Notes

• Welcome email sent to new subscribers

• Each issue of the newsletter itself

What I like about this approach is it lets you focus on one area of your Substack at a time. My friends

Sam Burgess

and

Morgan Jungels

are always writing about the power of focusing on one area of your business at a time, and not trying to do everything all at once.

And here’s a tip: Sometimes, loyal readers may not want to give feedback that they believe highlights a potential problem for you. For instance, let’s say you write one issue a week for your Substack. Sarah, who loves your Substack, would like to read 2 posts a week from you. But she doesn’t want to tell you that, because she doesn’t want to appear to be complaining about you writing one a week.

So if you write a Note that asks ‘How many new articles do your favorite Substack writers publish each week? 1? 2? More?’, Sarah may feel comfortable saying she likes to read Substacks that publish 2 new issues a week. By asking a general question, you shift it from being feedback on YOUR Substack, to instead, Sarah is just sharing her preference.

Collecting reader feedback here can be super easy. Start by focusing on ONE area of feedback that would be most helpful to you. Then make sure you are leveraging as many touchpoints as possible. Set a timeframe to collect your feedback, then take the results and incorporate any changes you wish to make.

Pro-Tip: When you make changes based on reader feedback, make sure you clearly communicate to readers that these changes were THEIR idea! Let them know that you will be changing your posting frequency based on their feedback. That communicates to your readers that you value their feedback, and will act on it. Which encourages your readers to give you MORE feedback in the future.

Using this approach allows you to tackle a list of improvements and changes to your substack, one item at a time. Additionally, you are letting your readers advise you on the changes THEY want to see, which means they will be more likely to engage with your substack as a result.

Try this, make a list of the Top 3-5 areas you want readers to give you feedback on, and ask questions related to each area (one at a time) on your Welcome emails to new subscribers, your substack articles, and in Notes. When using Notes, reframe the question to be more inclusive of all substacks. Instead of asking “Should I write 1 or 2 articles a week?”, ask “Do you prefer to read 1 or 2 articles from your favorite substacks?” By asking readers to comment on THEIR behavior, you will likely get far more responses, and some interesting insights into how other substack writers are approaching publishing frequency.

Good luck, and see you Thursday!

Mack

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Backstage Pass teaches you how to better connect with your customers, readers, clients, or donors. The lessons shared here draw on my experience over the last 20 years building customer engagement strategies for companies like Adobe, Dell, Club Med, Ingersoll-Rand, and countless others. I give you real-world research, examples and tactics that show you how to create customer engagement efforts that drive real business growth.