What do your customers need to know?
Last updated: October 2026
Your customers don’t always know what they need to ask
Sometimes, your customers know exactly what they want.
Or at least, they think they do.
A while ago, my husband and I needed to replace some wall lights in our house. We wanted something in the same style as the ones we already had, so when we found a fitting that looked almost identical - but used an LED rather than a halogen bulb - it seemed like the perfect solution.
We found it at an independent retailer and were ready to buy.
But right before we left the shop, we discovered the fitting was a sealed unit. When the light eventually stopped working, we wouldn’t be able to replace the bulb. We’d need to replace the whole thing.
It wasn’t something we’d considered because we didn’t know it was even a possibility.
We’d assumed the light fitting would work in the same way as the ones we’d had before. We hadn’t thought to ask whether the bulb could be replaced, how long the fitting was expected to last or what our options would be when the light eventually failed. Nor that we’d be limited by the warmth and strength of the bulb.
We didn’t know to ask because we didn’t know those options existed.
The more we found out, the more we realised that the fitting wasn’t right for us. Sustainability was important to us. So was being able to replace a bulb rather than throw away an entire light fitting. And we wanted to be able to choose the type of bulb we used too.
None of those things had been obvious when we first said, “We want a light like this.”
And that’s the interesting bit.
We knew what we wanted the product to look like. But when we walked into the shop, we didn’t know everything that mattered to us about buying it.
We only discovered some of those things because we were given information we hadn’t known to ask for.
Your customers can be in exactly the same position.
They aren’t always going to arrive knowing exactly what they need to ask. They may know what they want to achieve, but not know what they need to consider along the way. They may not know what options are available, what questions they should be asking or what information could help them make a decision.
And that’s where your experience matters.
You know things your customers don’t
You know your business inside out.
You know how your products work. You know what your services involve. And you know what the options are and what people tend to ask.
Your customers don’t.
That’s not a criticism - they’re not supposed to know.
They might only need your product or service once or twice
They might be completely unfamiliar with your industry
They might not know what questions to ask because they don’t know what information is available to them
That’s why waiting for customers to tell you what they need isn’t always enough. Sometimes, you need to help them work it out:
The questions you have to answer again and again
The things you find yourself explaining
The points where customers get confused or hesitate
The things that seem obvious to you because you deal with them every day, but aren’t obvious to someone coming to you for the first time
They’re all clues.
They can tell you what your customers need to know, even when they don’t know how to ask for it.
Listen for what people actually need
Understanding what your customers need to know doesn’t necessarily mean sending out a survey or creating a detailed customer persona. Sometimes, it starts with paying attention:
Talk to your customers
Ask questions
Listen to the words they use
Notice the things they struggle to explain or where they hesitate
If someone asks you the same question over and over again, that’s a clue.
If they keep getting stuck on the same part of your process, that’s a clue too.
If someone says, “I didn’t realise you could do that”, it’s another clue.
If a customer says, “I’m not really sure what I need”, that’s an opportunity to help them work it out.
People don’t always open up straight away
They may not want to admit that they don’t understand something or know how to explain what they’re looking for. They may even think they’re asking a silly question.
That’s where building trust comes in.
When people feel listened to rather than sold to, they’re more likely to tell you what’s on their mind. And that’s where you can start to understand what they really need from you.
You don’t have to know everything about every customer. You just need to be curious enough to listen and pay attention to:
The questions they ask
The questions they don’t ask
The things they misunderstand
The things they wish they’d known earlier
All of these can tell you something about what your customers need to know.
Turn what you learn into better content
Once you start paying attention to what your customers need to know, you have something much more useful than a list of blog post ideas. You have a better understanding of what your business needs to communicate.
Instead of sitting down and thinking:
“What should I write about this week?”
you can start with a much more useful question:
“What do my customers need to understand?”
That could be because:
They’re not sure which of your services is right for them
They keep asking about the same part of your process
There’s something you know is important, but customers don’t realise they need to think about it
You’ve noticed that people regularly misunderstand something about what you do
All of these could become useful content - and that doesn’t always have to be another blog post.
It could be any one of these things:
a clearer service page
an FAQ
a case study
a guide
a useful explanation on your website
a short video
an email
a sentence or two that explains something more clearly than before
The point is, the format is less important than the information you’re trying to give people.
When you start with what your customers need to understand, you have a much better chance of creating content that’s genuinely useful to them - not just content that fills a space on your website.
Plus, you might just find you have far more useful things to say than you realised.
Put the information where people need it
Once you know what your customers need to understand, the next question is where they’re going to look for that information.
They might:
already be on your website
be searching for an answer on Google
be comparing different options
be reading your blog or looking at a case study
be trying to work out whether your service is right for them
not know where to look at all
That’s why useful content isn’t just about what you say. It’s also about where you put it and how easy you make it to find and understand.
The information might belong in:
a service page
a blog post
a case study
a guide or FAQ
clearer wording on your website
You don’t need to force everything into a blog post or create content for the sake of being visible. The aim is to give people the information they need, in a place where they’re likely to find it, and in a way that makes sense to them.
That’s where your website, content and search visibility start working together.
Good content helps people make sense of things
Good content isn’t always about persuading someone to buy from you. Sometimes its job is simply to help them understand.
It can help them work out:
what’s possible
what they need to consider
what the different options are
what might matter to them
whether your product or service is right for them
what they need to do next
And when you make that information easier to find and understand, you’re doing something helpful. You’re helping someone make a decision without trying to make the decision for them. You’re also showing them that you understand the things they might be struggling with, including the things they hadn’t thought to ask.
That’s where good content can build trust.
You’re not just telling people what you do. You’re helping them understand why it might be important to them, what they need to think about and what their options are.
Sometimes, that’s enough to make someone think:
“This person understands what I need.”
And that’s a much stronger place to start a relationship than just trying to persuade someone to buy.
Need help working out what your business needs to say?
You don’t need to keep coming up with content just for the sake of having something new to publish.
I can help you work out what your customers need to know, what information is worth creating and the best place for it to live.
