If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that we make assumptions about our customers every day. First we wonder something, like “I wonder why Tuesdays are so slow,” or notice what we decide is a trend, like “we sure seem to get a lot of calls at 4:30 trying to schedule service.” In my case, when someone unsubscribes from my blog, I wonder why they’re leaving.

After we wonder something, we make an assumption. It might be perfectly accurate, but we also all know about the ASS + U + ME joke. We think we might know, but we aren’t sure. That’s a tough place to use as a springboard for decisions.

But the truth of the matter is, we rarely ask. Probably lots of reasons why, but for whatever reason, we don’t. Sometimes I think we don’t ask because it seems time-consuming. Or maybe we’re afraid of the answer. But we rarely cross the line from wondering to actually finding out.

I’ve been writing my blog for almost six years. Every so often, a small handful of people unsubscribe. It has never been very many, and fortunately, more come than leave. Nonetheless, it bugs me. I wonder what I could or should do differently. I worry about the content mix. I fret about frequency. But I had never asked.

A few months ago, I drafted a short message that looks like this:

I’m sorry to see that you’ve decided to unsubscribe to Drew’s Marketing Minute. I am constantly trying to hone the blog and make it as valuable as possible to my readers.

Would you mind taking 15 seconds just to tell me why the blog wasn’t meeting your needs?

Was it:

• That you decided to subscribe via RSS feed reader instead

• The content wasn’t interesting to you

• You got too many posts a week

• Not enough content

• Something else?

I sincerely appreciate you giving the blog a try and wish you continued success. Thanks for taking the time to help me improve Drew’s Marketing Minute.

Now, every time I get an unsubscribe notice, I send that little note. I’ve probably sent a couple dozen so far. Here are some interesting (albeit unscientific) results:

• Almost everyone writes back.

• About 50 percent were switching to RSS readers (I only get notices from email subscriptions).

• About 30 percent were trying to quiet their information overload, and my blog didn’t make their cut (they said it with more tact).

• A few subscribed for a short-term need, like a class or a project at work.

• A few thought I posted too often.

• And one guy gave me an insight I would have never gotten elsewhere.

The insight was: “I’m a skimmer, and because your subject line is always just the name of your blog, I can’t determine if I want to read it or not.”

That got me to wondering if I could get my titles to appear in the subject line. I went to the software that publishes my blog and discovered that it does indeed offer that functionality. Naturally, I added it.

Thanks to the subscribers who have decided to leave, my blog is better for those who are staying.

What question should you be asking your customers that you haven’t taken the time or made the effort to ask?

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached by email at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2012 Drew McLellan