How to Make Sure You’re Netflix and Not Blockbuster

If you’re new around here, I started a membership program for creative entrepreneurs, Sunday Society, a year ago.

If you’re not new around here (heeeeeeey girl!), you’ve probably heard me talk about Sunday Society once or twice (or 37 times).

What can I say? It’s my most favorite thing. I even love it more than Gilmore Girls…gasp!

Anyways, the program is based around two to five live calls each month. The video calls are a combination of business consulting and group coaching and teaching.

On the very first call, I talked about what members could expect from Sunday Society and one of the things I said was that I would change and transform the program based on what worked, what they liked and what they needed.

I’ve learned a lot about what the members need to be successful and I’ve made changes based on what I’ve discovered.

If you’re running a business and you don’t gather feedback on your products and services, you’re missing a huge opportunity to improve and grow.

You should interact with your customers frequently to see what they love about your brand and products and what they wish was different.

If you create in a vacuum and think your product can’t be enhanced, you might wind up like Blockbuster instead of becoming Netflix.

Here are five questions you should regularly ask your customers to see what you can do to improve:

1. What’s your favorite part of ___________ (insert offer)?
2. If you were recommending my __________ (insert offer) to a friend, what would you say?
3. Why did you choose my _________ (insert offer), instead of buying from another brand?
4. If you could change one thing about ___________ (insert offer), what would you change?
5. Is there anything else I could do to make your experience better?

As an example, I’ll walk you through the major changes I’ve made to Sunday Society based on member feedback.

First, I host a workshop every month.

When I started Sunday Society, I knew that I didn’t want it to be a collection of online courses, because there are many online courses already out there. But, the further I got into running the program, I realized that it would be helpful to teach a workshop every month on a very specific topic.

I’ve hosted four workshops so far:

• Plan Your Next Launch
• Write Click-Worthy Blog Post Titles and Email Subject Lines
• Simplify Your Business
• Write Your Welcome Email for New Subscribers

(If you decide to join Sunday Society, you get immediate access to these workshops along with related worksheets and workbooks.)

The reason I decided to include a workshop each month is because some of the best calls were the ones that were the most interactive and I wanted the members to have a chance to do the work during the call–instead of after. When they do the work together, there’s an energy created from the group that makes it more exciting.

Second, I host a call each month to check in with the members’ goals.

At the start of the quarter, the members share their top goal for the next three months. I write down each member’s goal on an index card, so that I can easily access them during the calls. Each month, we check in with how they’re doing with that goal.

The reason I added this type of call is because many members need help with productivity. They need a push to accomplish their big goals.

During these calls, we talk about the wins they’ve had so far and anything standing in their way of reaching their goals.

If they have questions or need feedback from the group to keep moving forward, this is a great chance to get those questions answered or get the feedback that they need.

The members know that I’m going to ask them about their progress on these calls, so it gives them another layer of accountability.

Third, I host at least one call per month on a Saturday.

The calls are scheduled on different days of the week and different times of the day to give all members a chance to participate.

The first couple of times I hosted a call on a Saturday many members thanked me. Members who have day jobs appreciated the opportunity to join the call live (I also host evening calls for this reason).

Because of the amount of members who came to the Saturday calls and thanked me for having them, I decided it needed to be a monthly thing. In the month of June, we’re having two calls on Saturdays and two calls on weekdays.

There are other changes that I’ve made, but those are the main three that I believe have made the program better and more effective.

What changes have you made to your products and services based on customer feedback? Have you been open to customer feedback or do you always ignore criticism?