How to Gather customer feedback online
Answers
Explanation:
If you run your own business I know you do your best to please your customers, satisfy their needs, and eventually to keep them loyal to your brand. But how can you be sure that your efforts bring desired results? If you do not try to find out what your clients actually think about your service, you will never be able to give them the best customer experience. Their opinions about experience they have with your brand is helpful information that you can use to adjust your business to fit their needs more accurately.
There are plenty of ways you can leverage customer feedback and profit from it. In this entry I will try to explain why collecting customer feedback, whether prompted or unprompted, is crucial in managing customer satisfaction and loyalty, in customer retention, improving products and services, and in many more areas of your business. Sit comfortable and continue reading to discover benefits of customer feedback.
What is customer feedback
Customer feedback is information provided by clients about whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with a product or service and about general experience they had with a company. Their opinion is a resource for improving customer experience and adjusting your actions to their needs. This information can be collected with different kinds of surveys (prompted feedback), but you can also find opinions and reviews your clients post online (unprompted feedback) and collect them using Internet monitoring tools. Both sources are important to get a full picture of how your clients perceive your brand.
Top performing companies understand an important role that customer feedback plays in business. They consistently listen to the voice of their clients. Not only they search for opinions they clients publish on social media and reviews they provide on websites designed for gathering feedback (e.g. TripAdvisor), but they also deliberately ask for feedback using distinct kinds of surveys. If you want to stay ahead of competition you should never stop listening to customer feedback whether it is positive or negative, prompted or unprompted.
Here are the top seven reasons why customer feedback is important in business.
1. Customer feedback helps improve products and services
When you initially introduce a new product, brand or service to market you probably have an idea about customer needs. Market research that you conduct before introduction gives you an idea if potential customers would be willing to buy it and also they can give you some tips on how you could improve it. However, only after your customers use your product or service you can learn about all the advantages, flaws and their actual experience. On top of that, their needs and expectations evolve with time.
Customer feedback is an insight into what is working well about your product or service and what should be done to make experience better. You might have the best expertise in the industry in which your company operates, but your professional knowledge will never be more valuable to business performance than customer insights. Their opinions help you ensure that the end product will actually meet their expectations, solve their problems and fulfill their needs.
2. Customer feedback helps you measure customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction and loyalty is a crucial factor that determines company’s financial performance. It is directly linked to many benefits, such as increased market share, lower costs, or higher revenue. Many studies confirmed close connection between customer satisfaction and business performance. Therefore, there is no doubt that you want to make sure your clients are happy with your products and services. Naturally, the best way to find out if you meet their expectation is to get their opinions. Using rating-based questions you can easily estimate the level of satisfaction and consequently predict your company’s financial condition in the future.
One of the most accurate methodologies that has helped many companies measure, manage and improve customer satisfaction is NPS. The metric is based on one simple question that investigates how likely it is that a customer would recommend a brand to a friend. Response options for the loyalty questions are based on a 0–10 point rating scale, with 0 representing extremely negative and 10 representing extremely positive. This methodology is both simple and universal, so every business can apply it in customer satisfaction management.
3. Collecting customer feedback shows you value their opinions
By asking your clients for feedback you communicate that their opinion is important to you. You involve them in shaping your business so they feel more attached to your company. Listening to their voice helps you create stronger relations with them. This is the