We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.
One thing that consumers love other than buying or using a product/service is sharing their thoughts on the said product or service. Let's say you operated a ride share company with hundreds of drivers in your employ and wanted to hear from the customers—how would you proceed? Regardless of the medium, customer feedback is a great way for customers to proffer suggestions on how your business can improve its service delivery.
It's vital to note that customer feedback does not only encompass the products and services offered. Customer experience, too, is a medium through which a customer can express their feelings about using your product or service. Now, back to the rideshare company example—suppose most of your drivers were impolite, kept customers waiting for too long, and arrived late at their respective destinations. If you organized a survey to get a clear understanding of your customers’ feelings, you're likely to have more negative comments than positive ones.
With such comments, you can effectively devise newer strategies to improve customer satisfaction. In today's world, the customer plays a key role in determining the superiority of your business over the competition. Gathering customer feedback is not an easy task but the reward is great.
Before requesting feedback from customers, it's wise to know the category of feedback you want. For instance, if the feedback is for a particular product or service, then utilizing a slide-out survey form is ideal. However, if the feedback is directed to customers who recently bought something through your e-commerce site, then your best bet is a customer satisfaction score (CSAT). This entails using a feedback form designed to allow customers to rate their experience with your product or service. Most feedback forms with the rating feature are typically between 1-5 or “Excellent” and “Very Poor”.
Besides learning about their experience with your products, you can use customer feedback to know if the customer is likely to recommend your business to a prospective customer. Read on to learn more.
The Meaning of Customer Feedback
This refers to the data, ideas, concerns, and suggestions relayed to you by your customers on their experience using your product or service. With customer feedback, you can strive to improve the areas that they didn't like to facilitate an excellent customer experience for them. Do note that most businesses have strengthened the quality of products offered through customer feedback, mostly through pessimistic feedback.
Why Should You Invest in Customer Feedback?
Thanks to customer feedback, your business can learn what customers think of your services. Your marketing staff and other workers can know how to increase the number of loyal customers. Customer retention and customer health are two concepts that are vital for a great business. Below are some reasons why you should prioritize customer feedback:
- It allows you to engage with customers.
- Customer feedback enables you to understand their wants and allows you to satisfy them.
- With customer feedback, you can receive first-hand reviews of your product or service.
- You can devise realistic means to rectify issues and boost the quality of services provided.
Factors to Consider Before Opting for Customer Feedback
Before proceeding with customer feedback, you must contemplate certain factors like:
- The area of your product or service that you feel will require improvement.
- How do you intend to work with the information gathered from the customers? Most customers are unwilling to participate in surveys or other mediums of customer feedback because they feel businesses do not work with the information. You should be prepared to invest in the aftermath of customer feedback, like providing solutions to the problems identified.
- What medium of customer feedback best suits your business?
How Often Should You Seek Customer Feedback?
While it is a clear fact that customer feedback is a necessity for customer retention and customer health, you must be careful to not request feedback often. After receiving feedback, it will take you some time to work on the suggestions and problems identified. Seek feedback regularly, but not too often.
Below is a guide on how often you should seek customer feedback based on the types of customer surveys. They are:
1. Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Also known as “relationship surveys, these are surveys that prioritize interactions between customers and your business. For this kind of survey, seek feedback at least twice a year.
2. Onboarding Surveys
This is primarily for new customers and aims to know if the product or service offered matches their desires. For this type, feedback can be gathered on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis depending on the size of new customers.
3. Project Completion Surveys
If your business is the kind that has clients placed on a per-project basis, your ambition will be to retain clients and boost your ROI. To check that each project was conducted in the best possible way, a survey of this nature is necessary. It's wise to begin the survey immediately after the project is deemed to be complete.
Should Customer Feedback Involve Compensation?
While it is true that by promising compensation for the participation in customer feedback, many customers will participate, you must be careful. A safe way of compensating customers for agreeing to take surveys is through a loyalty program. A loyalty program refers to a marketing strategy that's built to inspire customers’ confidence in what your business provides.
One of a loyalty program's concepts is the loyalty card which is a card that recognizes the customer as a participant in the program, thereby granting them access to certain rewards. Compensating customers for performing certain operations whether online or offline is a smart strategy that guarantees their zeal to offer feedback on your services.
Final Thoughts
Customers are the heart of any business and you must always build your business around the customers. We recommend that you not only gather information but work with the data to increase their satisfaction with your business. A happy customer is the first step to realizing massive profits, so subscribe to the idea of regular surveys today.
