If you asked me a year ago what do I know about Customer Feedback, I probably would have said that I’m sure it is important and then I would have quickly changed the topic! The reality is that most people don’t know much about Customer Feedback. If you are one of those people but want to learn more, here are my top 5 things I wish I knew a year ago about Customer Feedback:
1. Don’t ignore negative reviews
This is the #1 thing I wish I knew a year ago: never ignore your negative customer reviews! Even though undesirable, negative reviews are a part of doing business. In fact, a negative review is a great opportunity to learn and you should value it as such! In this situation, it is important not to ignore this feedback, even if the customer is wrong! Address their concerns and most importantly apologize for what has happened. It doesn’t really matter if it was truly your fault, the important thing is that your customer believes so. Who is to say that other customers won’t feel the same way?
Therefore, you should not only reply to their feedback but also make sure that this doesn’t happen again with other customers. If you want to read more about why negative reviews can increase your customer retention, click here.
2. Analyze the data you receive from your customers
Collecting customer data should be done with the goal of analyzing the data and taking actions to improve your customer experience. Once you have collected your data, there are many things you can do with it. For example, compare the answers among your various customer segments and outline the differences in buying behaviour.
Furthermore, the data you collect will give you historical insights as well. How has a product performed this year compared to the last one? How much has your customer satisfaction levels improved this year vs. last? These are all important metrics which you should analyze in order to improve your products and increase your customer satisfaction.
3. Customer Feedback drives growth
Did you know that 67% of customers would leave a company if they have had a bad experience with it (Forbes, 2018)? This combined with the fact that acquiring a new customer costs between 4x-10x more than retaining an existing one shows how important customer experience is!
Collecting customer feedback and implementing changes based on it leads to better customer experience. It also increases customer engagement and loyalty. This, in turn, results in more revenues and company growth. Therefore, make sure that you incorporate customer feedback so that your customer satisfaction levels and your sales will be high.
4. How to get the most out of Customer Feedback?
Collecting customer feedback is not enough, you need to know to properly get the most out of it. Think of it this way: customer feedback can help you find out what are the most common issues that your customers face, if your website if not functioning properly or if your price offerings are not matching what your customers can afford.
Moreover, it is important to always close the feedback loop. This means even after collecting feedback from your customers and implementing it, go back and ask your customers for new feedback on the changes. This will make your customers feel heard and valued and you will show them that they drive change in your company.
Finally, you need to make your whole company customer-centric. Having a customer-focused mindset in every department always radiates to your actual customers. Your clients can differentiate between a company which only cares about money and one which is looking after their customers.
5. Take advantage of technology
Finally, what I didn’t know was that taking advantage of technology can improve your customer loyalty tremendously. Therefore, get a customer feedback tool so that you can track your customers’ satisfaction rates over time. You can also use it to create reports and see which product performs the best. Moreover, you can send personalized customer surveys where you ask for specific feedback in order to better understand your customer’s needs and wants. The better you know your customer, the better services you can order, which in turn will directly lead to more customer loyalty.
These were just some of the things I wish I knew a year ago about Customer Feedback. If you want to learn even more, have a look at our other articles in the blog.