Your customers have firsthand experience with your products and services. Therefore, they're in the best position to tell you what they want and what they don’t want. 

Making business decisions without hearing from them could be damaging for your company's reputation. So by hearing directly from your customers, you’ll be able to implement their feedback and reap the benefits immediately.

Why Does Your Business Require Customer Feedback?

Getting feedback from your customers adds additional insight that you simply can’t get from your metrics. These are some of the benefits from collecting customer feedback:

• Better services and products 

A major shortcoming of a market survey is that information can be misinterpreted. As such, it may lead brands to poor product releases.

For instance, when Coca-Cola reviewed their market data before producing New Coke, they didn’t get enough firsthand opinions from their customers, who totally rejected the product.  The good news is that, after they pulled New Coke, customers were happy that their opinions had been heard and they remained loyal to the classic formula.

• Increased customer satisfaction 

You can't discover the actual performance level of your products unless customers give feedback. 

A business that releases non-satisfying products regularly will lose customer loyalty. Consequently, it will go out of business. 

By improving products based on user feedback, we can gain the trust and loyalty of our customers.

• Stronger customer relationships

Your customer feels important when they see that you want to listen to them and address their concerns. When you seek their opinions, you can make your customers feel like you are going that extra mile for them. Ultimately, this can be a crucial part of theircustomer success process.

However, don’t just seek out the positives, listen to their negative opinions also. 

Feedback authenticity is what matters.

Check out our blog to see how sales can increase customer satisfaction.

• Improved customer retention 

People always stick to what satisfies them. Therefore, your customers will remain loyal if your product meets their expectations.

By simply listening and paying attention to your customers, you can improve your retention strategy considerably. 

Check out our blog for the best tips on customer retention.

Positive recommendations 

It shouldn't come as a surprise to find that people are more likely to trust a brand that others already recommend. Customer ratings and reviews influence your ability to get more buyers. 

For instance, people won't download an app that has too many negative reviews. You can avoid poor ratings by implementing reasonable suggestions gathered from customer feedback.

• Inform potential buyers 

These days, most consumers know commercials are fake and exaggerated. Customers now turn to verifiable sources, notably feedback from fellow customers. Encourage old clients to leave informative feedback on your services. That way, potential clients can find the information they seek. Nobody wants a service if they can't find reasonable information about it.

What Are the Smartest Ways to Collect Customer Feedback?

Customers don't have much time to provide feedback. UK research reported that only 1 in 26 unsatisfied buyers share their complaints. 

This reluctance is due to the use of inappropriate channels and approaches. Here are 7 smart ways to collect feedback from your customers that can benefit your business:

Long form-based surveys are popular email tools meant to get a customer talking about a product. However, most businesses make the mistake of asking too many questions.  Customers, upon discovering that your survey is loaded with questions, will rush their answers and you won’t get what you’re looking for. Considering this, it's recommended to keep your survey short with between five and ten questions that are sure to get a response. Experts suggest asking questions in such a way that they may generate different opinions.

When it comes to app functionality, consumers may hardly ever contact your support address — except when there's a big problem. 

An effective tool you can use for gauging your customers' experience can be by introducing your short survey while the customer is using the app. The best time for such surveys is immediately after a user uses a specific feature. That way, their response will be precise and genuine, making for reliable feedback.

The feedback button on your webpage is the most actionable way to hear what your customers have to say. People enjoy sharing what they think, but they also like to save time.

When customers see a feedback button on your site, it shows them that their opinions are valued and that you truly care and take into account what they have to say.

Some would say that the best way to truly understand your customers is by speaking to them. There is so much to be gained by listening to the customer's voice and tone over the phone. 

Through a well-handled phone call, you can find out what your customers' thoughts are on your products. However, it's essential to come off as genuine and solution-oriented. Make sure your customers know that you honestly care about what they have to say. 

Research suggests that people are most likely to respond to your call between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. or 4:00 and 5:00 p.m.

Reaching out directly is similar to a phone call, but it's even more personal as you’re meeting the customer directly to get their opinion.

This direct approach allows you to gauge your customers' concerns through their tone and facial expressions. 

You can make this work by starting with your customer service tracking list. Is anyone local? Invite them to lunch and share ideas with them. Then, you may use their responses to form reasonable opinions about your target group that you can’t get from analytics, surveys, and tests. You can also encourage them to share their feedback on your Google review. Make sure to embed Google reviews on your website so that other's can easily see them too. 

Tracking user activity helps build the perfect experience-sharing platform for customers. This channel is often used on social media sites that offer the largest marketing reach such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

People often feel free to express their opinions on social media because it's more enjoyable. 

Having a page where customers can interact with each other and share their thoughts about the product is an excellent approach. You can create a sense of community around your product as your customers interact online.

These are recorded sessions of a random person using your product for the first time. This user doesn't have any sentiments about your brand or your products. You may fix certain parameters to ensure the tester fits your target audience.

Usability tests can be especially helpful if you're launching a new app or introducing a new feature. They help you immediately identify red flags, as well as green ones.

Conclusion

Customer feedback consists of the opinions and recommendations your customers have to offer. They come as reviews, ratings, inquiries, comments, and in numerous other ways. This data is vital to your company's growth, sustainability, and profitability. 

By collecting reliable feedback from customers, your business will continue to thrive and achieve its goals.