Here is something you can take to the bank: People love to talk about themselves.

As a result, your customers will give you the insight you’re looking for. The problem is – you have to ask them! This is a key issue in that a lot of companies just don’t ask their customers what they think, how they feel, what they want, etc. A lot of people think that market research has to be very complex with long surveys, and thousands of respondents.

Our experience – time and time again – is that you simply need to go out, sit down eye to eye with folks and have a conversation. Of course, you need to have enough conversations to get a good cross-section but in the words of Nike, “just do it!”

For the most part, you’re going to get pretty consistent answers pretty quickly if you actually have a sit-down conversation with people. And ask clarifying questions to get to the root of the issue. For example, “What do you mean when you say that?” or “That’s interesting – can you elaborate a bit more about that?” It’s useful to record the audio of these conversations and then have somebody – who was not involved in the conversations – review the transcripts to identify consistent themes that come out over and over and over again in those conversations.

What we’ve found is that while people have a problem filling out a survey because they don’t get around to it, they see it as a bother, etc. they are often glad (even thankful) to talk with someone from your company if they are approached in a direct, heartfelt conversational style. The approach is the key. When someone calls you with a survey, can’t you tell they’re reading it straight off the paper? No one wants to deal with that!

We’ve covered this theme before in other blog posts but it’s worth repeating over and over; the key to success in service design is to simply talk with your customers. That’s it.