How to Create a Client Feedback Loop

One of the best ways to create authentic relationships with your customers, get honest feedback on your product and surface game changing ideas is to create a Customer Advisory Board (CAB). Here are the lessons I’ve learned about how to create and run a successful CAB. Your personal involvement as CEO is critical. If you lead it yourself, customers will engage at a deeper level. They’ll be more honest, more vulnerable, and more likely to become evangelists for your company. No one else can unlock this dynamic the way a CEO can. Be clear on the persona. Is your CAB for buyers, users, or budget holders? At BetterCloud, our sweet spot was Directors of IT. Not the CIO, not the IT admin. Know exactly whose voice you want in the room and tailor everything to them. Skip the compensation, give them “status”. Don’t pay CAB members—it gets messy. Instead, make them feel like insiders. Give them a title, early access to roadmaps, VIP treatment at events, and public recognition. People want to feel valued and influential, not bought. Set a cadence you can maintain. I tried monthly meetings once. That was a mistake. Quarterly is the sweet spot. One in-person gathering per year—ideally tied to an industry event—goes a long way in deepening relationships. Structure matters. CABs aren’t just roundtables. They’re curated experiences. Keep meetings tight (90-120 minutes), show real products that are still in the development process (even rough wireframes or high level ideas), and create space for interaction. Done right, they become the ultimate feedback engine. Build real relationships. Your CAB shouldn’t just exist in meetings. Build one-on-one connections. Text, email, check in at events. Keep it small enough that people feel seen and valued. When they have a direct line to the CEO, they stay engaged—and they speak the truth. Done right, your CAB becomes more than just a feedback mechanism. It becomes a strategic asset. It can shape your roadmap, sharpen your positioning, and strengthen your customer relationships in ways no survey ever could. For a deeper dive and detailed tactics behind each of these, check out the full writeup on the Not Another CEO Substack.

Learning a >lot< more about your customers takes 3 steps and ~1hr/wk. It's very unsexy, but very effective: 1️⃣ Step 1: Talk to your customers (30 minutes) Scary, but true: I mean on the phone. Every week, rank your customers by spend. Call one customer from the top 25%.   Ask these Qs: ➝Why did you choose us? ➝What drove you to purchase? (Something we did?) ➝What social media and/or newsletters do you consume? Over time, this is guaranteed to give you two things: A short list of top problems to solve The marketing channels you should be active in 2️⃣ Step 2: Conduct online research (15 minutes) Talking to current customers may not reveal other problems in the marketplace. . .   You need to think about future customers.   I have an assistant do online research and present me with screenshots and findings: Quick tips here: ➝ In Saas? Review G2, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  ➝ Services? Review forums. ➝ Products? Review Amazon and Reddit.   3️⃣ Step 3: Leverage Marketing Automation (15 minutes) Surveys. Use them. I have, and I recommend everyone does.    Three easy situations: ➝ If someone subscribes. . . Ask what drove them to. ➝ If someone buys a product. . . Ask if you solved their problem. ➝ If someone views a PDP but doesn’t buy. . . Ask them why. Record the results. Review them every week.    Every week, write down every customer problem you identify.    Not just the issues themselves, but the language used. That should directly inform your marketing and copywriting—don’t guess on phrasing or terminology.   There you go: 1-2-3 and you've built a customer feedback process.

“You don’t have a revenue problem. You have a truth problem.” That’s what a customer told me last week — and it hit hard. The real issue isn’t sales. It isn’t marketing. It’s that nobody’s asking customers what they actually want. Revenue follows truth. Find it. Extract it. Build around it. Here’s the 5-step process to extract truth 👇 1️⃣ Track what users do, not what they say Heatmaps, session replays, feature usage > surveys. 2️⃣ Create real-time feedback loops Non-negotiable cadence: 15 user calls a week. Minimum. 3️⃣ Force depth in your truth-seeking Don’t ask: “Do you like this?” Ask: “What’s one thing you wish this product did differently?” 4️⃣ Turn feedback into micro-experiments Ship small. Test. Iterate. Repeat. 5️⃣ Build a feedback war room Get marketing, sales, and product acting on insights together — in real time. The best companies copy and paste user demand. 👉 How are you running feedback loops in your team?