Do You Really Understand Your Customers?

By Michael D. Rubin, CEO & Founder · Updated September 2026 · 722 words

Most owners know their customers less well than they think, because what customers say in passing differs from what they would say if asked directly. The owners who understand their customers best talk with the important ones regularly, ask specific questions and turn the answers into changes. For an owner planning a sale, the next step is making sure those relationships belong to the company, not just to you.

Customer feedback is some of the most valuable information a business can collect, and most of it costs nothing. It tells you what to keep, what to fix and what to offer next.

Why personal contact still matters

Most customer interactions are now digital: online orders, emailed invoices, automated reminders. That is efficient, and it is exactly why a personal call from the owner or a senior manager stands out. Customers rarely hear from the owner of a company they buy from. When they do, they tend to speak more frankly and feel more connected to the business.

Ask yourself when you last called a good customer, or had lunch with one, without trying to sell anything. If it has been a while, start with your largest accounts and work down the list.

Questions that produce useful answers

General questions get polite answers; specific ones get useful answers. Write the answers down and look for patterns across customers. One complaint is an anecdote, but the same complaint from several customers is a priority. Questions worth asking:

• Why did you choose us originally, and would that reason still hold today?
• What is the one thing we could do better?
• What are you buying from someone else that you could buy from us?
• If we disappeared tomorrow, who would you call, and why?
• What is changing in your business over the next year or two?

Close the loop on what you hear

Feedback builds loyalty only when customers see it acted on. After a round of conversations, pick the one or two changes that came up most often and make them. Then tell the customers who raised the issue what you changed and why; it takes minutes and shows them their opinion mattered. Keep a simple log of what you heard, what you did and what happened next. Over a few years that log becomes a record of a company that listens, useful to your managers now and persuasive to a buyer later.

The relationships behind the customers

Understanding customers is part of a wider habit: keeping every relationship the company relies on in good shape. That includes your banker, CPA, attorney, key suppliers and landlord.

Contact them when nothing is wrong. A short call, an update on the business or a handwritten note costs almost nothing and builds goodwill you will want when a problem arises, or when a buyer's lender, attorney or due diligence team needs their cooperation during a sale. Owners who are visible, out meeting customers and suppliers rather than running the company from a back office, usually find those conversations easier.

Make relationships transferable before you sell

There is a catch. If customers are loyal to you personally, a buyer will worry they will leave when you do. The answer is not to step away from customers but to widen the relationship. A buyer who sees customers staying year after year, served by a team, will pay more than one who sees customers attached to the owner; see how to sell while protecting customer and employee relationships. Steps that help:

• Introduce a manager or account lead to each important customer and involve them in regular contact.
• Keep customer history, pricing and preferences in a company system, not in your head or your phone.
• Put recurring work under written agreements where your industry allows it.
• Track retention and repeat business, so you can show buyers the pattern with numbers.

How MDR & Associates presents your customer base

When MDR & Associates prepares a company for market, the confidential marketing package explains the customer base, its mix, tenure and repeat business, without exposing customer names early. Details are released only to buyers who have registered, signed a confidentiality agreement and shown they can fund the purchase. That protects the relationships while showing what they are worth. See the firm's approach to sell-side representation and business valuation, then request a free valuation snapshot.

Where this fitsSell your business in Texas →

Questions owners ask next

Should I survey customers or call them?

Both have a place. A short survey reaches many customers and shows trends over time. Personal calls to your most important accounts produce the frank, specific answers surveys miss. Many owners run a survey once a year and call their largest customers every quarter or so.

When should customers learn that the company is being sold?

Usually after closing, or shortly before it for a few key accounts when a buyer needs comfort they will stay. Telling customers early risks them hedging with competitors. Your advisor and the buyer will plan together who is told, when, and by whom.