Many companies are just now starting to delve into the world of customer feedback. Some of them see the theoretical advantages of collecting and managing customer reviews, but might not see the real-life applications. Therefore, we have prepared a handy list with 5 real-life, practical lessons about customer feedback. Read below to find out more:
1. Listen to your customer
Listening to what your customer has to say and asking for feedback is probably the most obvious real-life lesson about customer feedback. Richard Branson, the CEO of The Virgin Group, says: “At Virgin, we know that the best way to drive positive change is to learn from our mistakes and hear what our customers have to say. Our companies thrive off customer feedback. It helps us to innovate and disrupt, and keeps us relevant.”
Your customers’ voice is what should matter the most to you and you should constantly ask for and monitor the feedback you get from them.
2. Measure performance by using customer feedback
Hema, the largest franchise operator in the Netherlands, claims that customers are “central to their organisation” and therefore uses a customer feedback tool to measure performance. This way they can create graphs and charts showing them the most crucial trends in their customers’ feedback and take actions to address those. As we mentioned in our earlier article “How to Win Big in the Customer Feedback Industry”, using a tool for monitoring and controlling your customer feedback can massively help improve your brand image and help your business grow!
3. Improve the product
Draft, a marketing company founded in 2015, uses their customers’ feedback to improve their product and to add features to it. After suggestions from customers, they have introduced geo-targeting, a chatbot to handle the long customer service waiting times, as well as have made various small adjustments to their service and products.
Not only have they optimized their products and services so that their actual customers would use them more, but they advertise this customer-focused attitude on their website.
Another good example is Salesforce, who even went a step further and created a collaboration platform for customer suggestions for new or changed features. Once a suggestion for improvement is submitted, consumers can vote for it. Then, once it gets a certain amount of votes, it is reviewed by the development team and possibly implemented. Thus, they make their customers feel involved in the product development and like their specific needs are being addressed.
4. Increase revenue
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is used by many companies, but none as effectively as Apple. In fact, Apple used NPS surveys to generate over $25 million in additional revenue in 2017! Thus, they find out which customers are detractors and try to improve their experience in the store. By addressing the issues mentioned by the detractors, they improve the in-store experience for all customers, which ultimately results in more revenue. Furthermore, detractors-turned-promoters actually spend more money on Apple products and services than the original promoters. Apple has times and again achieved the highest sales per square foot compared to other American retailers, due to their constant focus on the customers’ store experience.
5. Hire inspirational leaders who encourage feedback
Bill Macaitis (former marketing executive for Slack, Zendesk, and Salesforce) stated in an interview with Hotjar that in order to be successful with customer feedback management, you need to start with your team. By hiring inspirational leaders, who are empathetic and listening to their team, a company can ensure that the feelings of being heard and valued are passed down to the customers. A customer success employee can perform their job much better if they experience the same level of care and understanding from their managers.
These were 5 simple real-life lessons about customer feedback from actual, successful companies. Implement those in your company today and enjoy deeper connections with your customers and more returns. As Jeff Bezos famously said: “If you do something good for one customer, they’ll tell 100 customers”!