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A definitive list of questions to ask your clients. To understand clients and to get meaningful client feedback.

When you are offering technical service to clients, knowing why a client is unsatisfied is the first step toward the solution. For that, you need to ask the right set of questions to dig into their pain points and straighten the facts. Thus, you need to master the art of questioning. More specifically, know when and what questions to ask your clients.

And this is exactly what we’re gonna cover in this client relationship questionnaire.

[Free Questionnaire]
45+ Key Questions to Ask Your Clients

Grab your free copy and ask your clients the right questions to collect valuable feedback before, during, and after the development phases of their product/service.

Get your Questionnaire

Questions to ask before the development phase

The phase between the client approaching your agency and you building the client requirements is crucial for you as well as your clients. As clients need to explain what they want. And you will need to help them answer the right set of questions.

Remember, most customers know what they like, what they don’t like, what their problems are, and what they don’t need. However, they don’t know what it is that you can produce for them that they may end up wanting. Many people do not realise the need for something until it actually exists.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

– Henry Ford

Having a checklist of what needs to be asked always helps as it ensures you that you have all the necessary information before you start the hard work.

Never assume you know it, Just ask for it.

– Brian Tracy

Let’s lay down some of the key objectives of a web-designing and software agency.

Agency Objectives

  • Understanding clients and end-user needs.
  • Understanding the client’s business model.
  • Understanding challenges (discovery, competition, delivery, time constraints).
  • Understanding how the client visualizes the finished product (any prior thoughts, likes or dislikes).

Here are some of the key questions you should ask your clients before you start coding a single piece of line.

Questions to ask your clients:

  • What is the problem statement and what are all the pain points being addressed (by the solution)?
  • How are you different from your competitors? Is there anything unique you’re offering to users?
  • If there’s nothing different, how is your product or service better than others in the market?
  • Are you an eCommerce or service-based business?
  • Do you provide cheaper deals, better customer services or anything else that affects end-user decisions?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • What is their age group, gender, occupation, interests, etc.?
  • What are the skill levels of these users, and how tech-savvy are they?
  • What core features and functionalities do you expect? – responsive design, multilingual support, cross-browser support, social media integrations, etc.
  • What discovery channels (where your users can find your product) are you planning to use?
  • What are the biggest challenges you see in terms of resources, distribution and ROI?
  • What is the expected time to market and why? Would it be a deal-breaker?
  • Who is the closest competitor in terms of popularity as well as market share?
  • What are your immediate goals? Is it to spread awareness about the product/service? Is it getting visitors’ contact details for cold email marketing or for setting up a demo etc. This will help the UI/UX team to design the solutions accordingly.
  • What is your budget?
  • What would the approval workflow look like with your team? Who are the decision-makers? Generally, how long would it take to decide?
  • How often would you like to receive updates on the project’s progress?
  • Is there anything extra you would like to see in the finished product?
  • Are there any other things you would not like to see in the finished product?
  • Are there specific platforms, devices, or operating systems the software needs to run on?
  • Are there any existing systems or databases that the software needs to integrate with?
  • Do you have a preference for Agile, Waterfall, or another development methodology?
  • How are you planning to measure the project’s success? Do you wish to set up Google Analytics, some CMS or a helpdesk service?
  • Are there any specific security measures or compliance standards that the software needs to adhere to?
  • How will sensitive user data be handled and protected?
  • What are your expectations for testing, quality assurance, and bug fixing?
  • What long-term goals do you wish to accomplish? What are you expecting to achieve in the future?

[Free Questionnaire]
45+ Key Questions to Ask Your Clients

Grab your free copy and ask your clients the right questions to collect valuable feedback before, during, and after the development phases of their product/service.

Get your Questionnaire

Questions to ask during the development phase

I’m sure you would have heard plenty of vague feedback comments from your clients during different iterations of the development cycle. Like: ‘I don’t like this, but I don’t know why, ‘It is good but can you make it better, ‘Can you Photoshop it’…But such feedback never helps you. Let me say this — It’s not your client’s mistake, they are not doing it deliberately. 

I have personally worked with multiple clients at zipBoard and although it might sound harsh, it’s almost always up to us to make sure we get the right feedback in the way we want them. Let me show you how.

One word: Context. It matters. And here’s how you can get contextual feedback on, say, a website.

Client collaboration and bug tracking for web apps in zipBoard
Contextual feedback on webpages in zipBoard

The problem is that the clients don’t understand design the way you do. So, to get meaningful feedback from clients you need to ask specific and to-the-point design questions.

Context matters

Agency objectives

  • To get insights into the user experience.
  • To know  if clients are able to communicate with the end-users
  • To get confidence in the concept.

Here are some of the key questions you should ask your clients in the development phase for better contextual feedback.

Questions to ask your clients

  • Is the CTA clear and loud? Can you focus on the right place?
  • Is the navigation easy? Do you know where to click next?
  • What is it that you remember after viewing the design?
  • Is the color scheme suiting the target audience’s interests?
  • Do the white spaces work or do they make you feel something is missing?
  • Are you able to understand what you’re trying to sell, without sounding too salesy?
  • Can you provide an example of something similar you’re looking for?
  • Is user onboarding correct or too noisy/distracting?
  • Is there anything that irritates you or makes you feel confused?
  • Is there anything extra which is not required?
  • Note: If you’re also providing the copy for them then ask: 
    • Is the copy giving enough details, too many details or too few details?
    • Does the copy cover all elements that need to be highlighted? Is it reflecting all the use cases and scenarios?
    • Is the copy text readable in terms of fonts as well visibility with respect to the background?
    • Is it giving too much information too quickly?

[Free Questionnaire]
45+ Key Questions to Ask Your Clients

Grab your free copy and ask your clients the right questions to collect valuable feedback before, during, and after the development phases of their product/service.

Get your Questionnaire

Questions to ask in the post-development phase

To have lasting relations with clients, you need to make them feel you care about them and that they matter a lot to you. You need to make your clients comfortable enough to share their genuine feedback about their experience, your processes, and skills your team might need to improve. This lets you know where you can improve to serve your clients better in future.

Agency Objectives

  • To know the client’s experience during their journey with you.
  • To know if the workflow and collaboration processes are up to the mark or not.
  • To know if you need to add any skill to your skillset or if you need to catch up on some upcoming trends.

Questions to ask your clients

  • Are you satisfied with the end-product? Why?
  • What do you like and dislike the most?
  • What could we have done that we didn’t?
  • Could you rate the process for each phase?
  • Were you informed about each development in time or do we need to improve collaboration?
  • Have we delivered what we promised?
  • Would you like to work with us again?
  • How likely would you refer us?

Here’s how you should go about asking questions to your clients:

Conclusion

There is no magic template to guarantee success. It’s when you do it, that you get to know how to improve on it. What you need to remember is :  ask your clients the right questions at the right time. Asking questions to clients helps agencies understand what is to be made, for whom it is made, how to make it, and how to approach it. 

On the other hand, it helps clients to prepare better specification documents for agencies, communicate their insights at the right time and understand their product better.

Client feedback is a crucial for delivering projects faster. zipBoard makes it easy to manage and track all this feedback so that your team can collaborate better. Annotate on designs, live websites and HTML prototypes, add comments, track changes, get everyone in sync on your team. Be it a designer, developer or manager, zipBoard is easy enough and useful for everyone.

Updated on August 15, 2023 for readability and relevance by Dorcas Kpabitey.

Gaurav is a SaaS Marketer at zipBoard. While earning his degree in CSE at KIIT, Bhubaneswar, he rediscovered his inner love for creativity as he got into his first social internship. If he isn’t busy working, you can find him around his friends/family or enjoying a good football match or a passionate discussion over it, whichever works.

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