All of the information, insights, and input you can collect from your customers, also known as customer feedback, is an essential asset for any organization. It serves as a resource that can help your company grow and prosper in many different ways if you know how to use it right.
But with all the different ways to collect feedback. It can be easy to get overwhelmed and confused about where you should start, or even why you need to do this. If you haven’t taken customer feedback seriously, now is the time to do so.
Here are all the reasons why you should do it and the best methods to do so.
Customer interviews
There are many ways to collect feedback, but you want to be sure that the information you get is as genuine as possible. You need to reach out to customers directly and interview them.
When you conduct customer interviews, you will get quantitative data that stems from personal experience and helps you understand the feelings behind every customer decision. This type of feedback collection, facilitated by feedback collection tools, allows you to identify and change any false assumptions that you have developed over time.
When you sit down to talk to your customers, have the following things in mind:
- The dialogue should start with open-ended questions. When you ask open-ended questions, you’re giving the person you’re interviewing a chance to be flexible with their responses and go into detail. The answers you get are also less likely to be biased.
- Go into specifics further down the line. The open-ended questions you ask at the beginning will allow you to ask more detailed questions as the dialogue evolves.
- Be good at active listening. To get insights that will be helpful, you need to be receptive and open. Maintain eye contact during the entire interview and repeat the key takeaways you hear to make sure all of the information you’re processing is correct.
You can make the process of these interviews quicker and more effective if you use the right software such as Sonar. It will allow you to do remote video interviews and analyze all of the data from it effortlessly so you can later use and share it.
Social proof
As a business owner, you probably pride yourself on having a great worth ethic, high-quality products, and a company that always puts its customers first. But even if you know all of that, potential customers and leads don’t. So you need to find ways to prove your business’s worth to them.
While advertising plays a big role in making customers notice your business. Today’s consumers don’t trust advertisements the way they used to. But they will trust other customers who already saw what your business has to offer.
Feedback from previous customers is a reliable source of information for new customers who aren’t sure about whether or not they want to do business with you. And this is where social proof in the form of reviews and testimonials comes in. As much as 93% of potential buyers would read online reviews first before deciding to purchase a product or not.
That’s why you need to make sure to have as many positive reviews and testimonials on your websites as possible. Take a look at the Growthink review page where they have some great testimonials, for an example of what that looks like.
Social media
Most businesses have a social media presence nowadays. And while social media is incredibly useful for building your brand identity and advertising. It can also be a reservoir of honest customer feedback.
Keep a close eye on what your followers are saying on social media. Whether it’s on your official business profiles or outside them. People are usually very candid when they leave reviews and comments on social media. So you can get a true insight into what your customers think.
You can use these comments to find out what your customers like or dislike about your business or products and all the ways they want you to improve. Additionally, you can reply to every comment to show you’re willing to listen to their feedback and that you put customer experience first.
Customer retention
One of the reasons why you should keep a close eye on all forms of feedback is to improve customer retention.
The probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60% and 70%, while that number falls between 5% and 20% for new customers. Selling to customers who are already happy with your brands and products is much easier and more affordable.
This is one of the reasons why customer retention is so important and why you need to focus on it. And the feedback about product will tell you how satisfied your customers really are. Ask for their opinions regularly to find areas where you need to improve and keep retention at an all-time high.
Final thoughts
You can learn a lot from your customers. The importance of customer feedback is much bigger than it was just a decade ago and it will undoubtedly keep rising.
If you want to show your customers you care about what they have to say and are willing to improve based on their feedback. You need to always listen, and be smart about how you use the information you collect