Listening to customers is invaluable if you want to make your business a success. By finding out what your customers want and what is important to them, you can focus your efforts on meeting and/or exceeding those needs and expectations. Putting your customers at the heart of your decision making can help to generate future revenue and improve customer loyalty.
Feedback can come from any interactions with your customers, e.g. emails, phone calls and social media. Paper and web-based surveys can also be used to provide extremely valuable information.
Consider contacting customers for feedback a few days after their visit/purchase. This way it is still fresh in their minds and it shows you care. Alternatively you may like to try putting a link on every email you send to allow customers to share any observations or feedback.
If you are carrying out a questionnaire keep it short and simple. This will increase the likelihood of getting responses and of respondents answering all the questions. Use simple language and ask the right questions – focus on what is important. Find out about customers experiences. What are your opportunities to impress? Where do you need to target improvements?
Not everyone is keen to give feedback, offering an incentive can increase response rates. Examples include entry into a prize draw, discount vouchers, and money off next visit/purchase.
There is little point in going to effort of gathering feedback if you don’t act on the results. Use your findings to respond to your customers’ needs. This may mean updating your service/product offering and/or pricing options. The feedback should give you an indication of where you might profitably direct your effort and resources to increase the success of your business.
Share your findings on a regular basis, what customers are saying (good and bad), and what you are doing about it. Consider featuring results in promotional material and pointing out what you have done to improve. Use the results to influence your future marketing activities. It may be that customers express an interest in additional products and services – be sure to follow up any leads.
If you have any questions or would like assistance with the development of a customer feedback campaign, please get in touch.
