Do you know the greatest obstacle of knowing what our consumers actually think of us? Fear!
We always fear our customers will tell us that our service or product stinks, that we shouldn’t have stepped into this business at all. However, the truth is – most of the companies never get to hear that kind of demoralizing feedback. The researches have revealed that companies that follow strong devotion towards customers and depend on their word of mouth feedback are on top of their business as they work on customer satisfaction. They are ready to cut all corners to create a happy customer and receive customer feedback to carry forth their good work. Thanks to the customer feedback apps that drive their service expectations, product development, and marketing strategies.
Some of the better-known global names have integrated consumer feedback within their process of decision-making by asking the shareholders to determine the product names, marketing plans, operational decisions, and street-team strategies generally made by the executive committees.
Some of the retailers send weekly surveys to millions of their customers seeking their feedback on their recent experience at the store, including even the minute details like – how clean were their bathrooms. Almost all of these companies attribute their success to their utmost focus on gathering feedback from customers.
Some businesses, however, feel there is no need to proactively gather customer feedback as they feel it has its own set of flaws. Also, they say if customers are dissatisfied, they will complain themselves, hence taking feedback proactively isn’t necessary. The other party feels we must seek customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction level by using the latest types of customer feedback software.
Research says, companies that work on feedback and try to understand what their customers love and whatever they would improve would enable their operations efficiently and quickly.
Get over the fear of receiving negative customer feedback and take that bold move in creating volunteer referrals, using these 10 Golden Rules of the Customer feedback:
Start believing your customer has good ideas
Have you ever seen someone among your staff respond to an innovative idea and say, “our customers don’t need that”. If any member feels innovation isn’t something the customers need, then you have most likely chosen the wrong employment sector. There are also some that argue that customers remain incapable of knowing the exact parameters that make any product/service worthy. Hence, taking customer input is meaningless. Asking your customer to participate in your idea-generating and problem-solving endeavor is hence, an act of courage and not a weakness.
Collect customer feedback whenever you get the opportunity
Every interaction with the customer is an opportunity for feedback. Utilize your customer feedback software and avoid the failure metric which says, we don’t wish to bother our consumers. If your customers are busy, they will decline politely.
Focus on continuous betterment
Every business comes with two purposes – innovation and marketing. Make a list of your highly affiliated, highly passionate customers so that they can improve a certain aspect of your business each week to help you build monthly speed. You will observe a quick spread of word around when your company’s quality would start getting better, especially if you are grateful to the specific customers for the assistance they provided.
Get proactive in seeking good plus bad feedback
The initial lap is rather easy. The latter question usually brings the element of fear. Get finesse in your question by seeking to know, what is that one thing you want to improve or change regarding your experience with our service or product? Utilize the several types of customer feedback survey software that are there to create receive the best feedback without hassling your customer.
Avoid being spendthrift in collecting customer feedback
Multiple-pager surveys that take up almost six months and make huge expenses may be impressive for the CEO and others in management but are outdated by the time your date arrives. Short and fast surveys deliver better rates of response and give you the space to react quickly to the issues in question. Solve just one or two of the problems at one point in time and not everything at once. Inform your customers how their feedback made direct contributions to your changes.
Look for real-time feedback
Some of the best-known hotels have three daily routines:
Reviewing revenue targets
Manage their people
Call 10-15 customers
With this daily schedule, he doesn’t get to hear his problems last. Most often, he gets to know it first. Obviously, he has a pressing need to resolve the issues quickly. When someone at the helm of the company has resolved customer complaints, word spread really fast.
Make providing customer feedback easy
Companies that use feedback software employ several input points: personal, websites, email, cards or receipts (received at point-of-purchase), tele-calling, and conferences. It is all about making the work seamless for customer so that he/she can give feedback easily and not according to your convenience.
Use technology to help your efforts
Online survey tools make the process of gathering feedback rather easy using the web. These tools are typically efficient, fast, and cost-effective. They can automatically tabulate data and you don’t need a techie to launch them. Your data is rather complete almost within some 48 hours of reaching your customers.
Share your customer feedback across the enterprise
Responsibility for your customer feedback goes beyond the department of marketing. It is a theology and practice that extends from the executive suite to that of the sales force plus everyone that lies in between. Accordingly, make sure that everyone in your organization knows what customers are wondering about by sharing the feedback of customers, decisions of service and product will receive better-informed state as a result.
Utilize feedback towards making quick changes
It is not possible to change the entire product/service in a day, but you can certainly make it easier to work on by continuous and small changes. Customers who send the word across to friends or family love a responsive business, mainly the ones that keep them within the loop trying to figure how the feedback they gave was used.
To conclude:
Customer feedback is the magic wand for businesses to grow. Those businesses that love to use the customer feedback software and understand how their customers respond to their product or service are the ones that can actually reach a certain level of success. After all, the customer is the king and it all depends on the type of feedback they give.
