Kaya Reader

A few weeks ago inside the ICC, we were having some deeper conversations about Client Experience & Client Journey Design.

Those conversations gave me some useful feedback about the way I was thinking about onboarding and what information people might need at different points in their journey with a business.

And it got me looking at one of my own client journeys differently.

So this week, when someone purchased one of my Aboriginal artwork digital usage licences, I took the opportunity to update the emails they receive as part of that process.

I added more information.
I made the sequence more supportive.
And I refined the journey based on what I'd learned.

That might sound like a small thing.

But this is exactly why I keep coming back to feedback as leadership data.

Because feedback isn't only something we collect in a form at the end of a programme.

• Sometimes it's a conversation.
• Sometimes it's a question someone asks.
• Sometimes it's something you notice repeatedly.

And sometimes it's a piece of information that makes you realise:

I have a little note on my desk that says:

Decide fast.
Move clean.
Serve deeply.
Measure honestly.
Refine weekly.

I've had it there for about a year now, and I'm realising that refine weekly has become less of an intention and more of how I actually work.

I don't need my business to be perfect before I move.

I need to be willing to pay attention to what I'm learning and let that information influence what I do next.

Are you asking questions that actually give you useful information?

Think about the last time you asked someone about their experience of your business, formally or informally.

Perhaps you asked:

Those questions can be useful.
But they don't necessarily tell you much about someone's experience.

• Someone could give you a 9/10 and still have struggled to participate fully.
• Someone could love your content while finding your communication overwhelming.
• Someone could finish your programme feeling like it was transformative for them, while another person quietly leaves because something about the experience didn't work for them.

And that's where feedback gets really interesting.

Silence doesn't always mean everything is fine

One of the things I keep coming back to in my work is that we can't only pay attention to the people who tell us what they think because there are also the people who don't.

Someone might not feel comfortable telling a business owner that something wasn't accessible.

• They might not know how to raise an issue.
• They might worry about being difficult.
• They might simply decide it's easier to leave.

So when we're thinking about inclusion, accessibility, and the human experience of our businesses... the quality of the questions we ask matters.

Because we can only learn about experiences we've created space for people to tell us about.

This is where an inclusive lens changes the feedback form

I'm not interested in helping you create a prettier feedback survey.

I'm interested in helping you ask questions that allow you to learn something meaningful about the experience of interacting with your business.

Questions that help you understand:

• What worked?
• What didn't?
• What made it easier or harder to participate?
• Where did someone feel supported?
• Where did they encounter a barrier?
• What did you intend to create? and...
• What did they actually experience?

And then comes the leadership part:

Because feedback collection without reflection, decision-making, and action is just data sitting in a spreadsheet.

This is something new I'm trying

I'm opening 3 complimentary places for business owners who run a program, course, workshop, masterclass, group container, or similar client experience.

I'll help you create a personalised feedback form designed to gather useful qualitative information about people's actual experience, including inclusion, accessibility, support, and potential barriers. And I'll explain what the questions are designed to help you understand and what you might consider doing with what you learn.

The first 3 places are complimentary. After that, this will be a $397 AUD paid service.

[Reply to this email with “FEEDBACK FORM” and tell me what you're running.]

No complicated application. Just start the conversation.

The ripple

When you create a better experience for the people inside your business, that's already meaningful.
But it can go further.

• They experience what it feels like to be considered.
• You learn what you couldn't see before.
• You make different decisions because of what you've learned.
• And other business owners get to see that there is another way to design and lead a business.

That's how individual choices can become part of something bigger.

We don't create social change in one giant leap. We contribute to it through the choices we keep making.

And every business owner who chooses to lead differently adds another example of what's possible.

Until next time… keep listening for the experiences your business makes possible.

P.S. A little ICC perk I love: members receive discounts on my paid offers. So when something in your business needs a little more hands-on support from me, you get member pricing. 🦋