Sometimes, we are too close to our business to know what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. We need to get some external advice.

To achieve this, you can set up a client advisory board. How do you do that? It’s very simple. You phone, say, four or five clients you know who love you, and perhaps four or five clients you’re not sure of. You don’t know whether they love you or not. And you simply say to them, “Good afternoon, I need your help.” Now, they’re irresistible words, aren’t they, “I need your help”? And they will say, “Sure, what can I do for you?”

You say, “I’d like you to accept an appointment to our client advisory board.” And of course, that appeals to their ego, and they’ll agree to it almost immediately. Then they’ll certainly say (well, hopefully they will!), “What do you want me to do?” And that’s when you tell them—and use these words exactly “We want to have a board, an advisory board of people whose opinions we respect and value to tell us what we’re doing right in our business, what we’re doing wrong in our business, what we should be doing that we’re not, and what we’re doing that we shouldn’t be, and so on.”

Next, you find some neutral territory for them to meet—the board room of your accountant’s office or a meeting room at your library—to get them together about four thirty, five o’clock. Make sure you’re there to welcome them and introduce the chairman. You see I reckon it’s important you have a neutral chairman, otherwise, they will probably tell you what they think you want to know. It’s what you need to know that’s important!

So, introduce your neutral chairman, perhaps a retired headmaster of the school, perhaps somebody who does a bit of counselling. People like that, people that can just get the discussion rolling without inserting their opinion or leading the discussion.

After you’ve introduced the chairman, it’s time for you to go. Oh, just one point—ask for their permission to record the interview. It means you can listen to what they’ve said and make sure you follow through on their suggestions and ideas.

Then it’s up to the chairman to take them through the discussion. It might be to look at your advertisements, it might be to consider aspects of your service, it might be to ask them what bugs them about your business, or what your competitors do better, and so on. Pretty soon, he or she will get the discussion flowing fairly freely—great stuff, and it will be very, very beneficial to you.

Now, very importantly, whatever ideas, thoughts or suggestions you get, you must carefully consider and decide whether you’ll accept or reject them. Either way, let the participants know what you’re doing as a result of their input… it’s important because otherwise, they’ll feel they’ve wasted their time.

To be continued… two important questions your chairman must ask!