5 Reasons why customer feedback is important for your business. Depending on the line of your business, the feedback you get can vary a lot. It might be problems with customer service or delivery taking too long. Those are things you wouldn’t know without getting valuable feedback from customers.
Before we get started with our list, let’s rehearse what customer feedback is. Customer feedback is information from your customers, whether they like or dislike your product or service. It could simply be “How well we could fulfill your needs today” or it could be something more comprehensive.
It is very important to collect customer feedback at every stage of your business. Whether you are just starting out or have been operating for years, customer feedback can bring a lot of value to your business. Now, let’s get to the reasons why customer feedback is important to your business.
1. You can improve your product or service based on feedback
First of all, your product or service can change a lot when time goes on. Hopefully, this change is for the better. Customer feedback is a great way to get actual information from your customers, about what could be done better and what they want.
If your business is just starting, and you have put out and MVP which stands for minimum viable product, customer feedback is essential. Development of your product isn’t nearly completed, and you put it out to get feedback you can use to finish it.
Even if your business has been operating for years, customer feedback can offer some great ideas on what could be improved. The world is developing and customers needs are changing. Some industries require constant change in order to survive.
2. Your customers get a feeling like they can make a difference
When you ask for your customers for feedback, they can feel like they can make a difference. This way you can increase customer loyalty, if you apply some suggestion ideas your customers gave you.
Another benefit is that your customer can feel like you remember them. When you ask how things went, it becomes easier for them to answer, than to email you directly about what didn’t go so well.
Imagine how good you would feel, if you had a chance to be a part of developing a product. Even if you didn’t get paid, you had your part in doing that. Your opinions matter. When your customers feel like their opinions matter as well, they are more likely to give you feedback.
3. You will know exactly how good your customer experience is
Even if you think that everything is going great in your business, that can be far from the truth. The new customer service employee might not be as nice to the customers, as they were in the job interview.
Customer service is a very important aspect of your business. This is why you want to get constant feedback on it. It is the face of your business, sometimes the only part your customers see. I have a post about how important customer service really is. You can read it here.
There can be other aspects that require your attention other than customer service. That might be anything from manufacturing and packaging all the way to delivery. If you promise 3-day delivery and the packages usually arrive in two weeks, something is wrong. That could only come up after some angry customer emails or doing surveys.
4. Reviews are very good way for future customers to get information about you
Reviews are very important things to help your future customers make decisions about whether to buy your product or not. I personally pay more attention to the reviews than what the seller has written on the product information.
If the reviews are positive, I am more likely to give the product a shot. On the other hand, if it has below a 3/5-star rating, I will try to find something else with better reviews. Reviews are a very important aspect of marketing.
If your reviews are bad, you should do whatever you can to improve those. Read the reviews and act on them. If there are quality problems, switch manufacturer. If your reviews are thrash, it becomes very hard to sell anything.
5. Customer feedback can help you make better decisions
The last thing on my list is that customer feedback can help and should be a part of when making decisions in your business. No matter how small or big the decision is, if you can get some data from customer surveys to back them up, that’s good.
You will be deciding to improve your business based on facts. Not just your imagination saying that this will improve the business and the customers must like that.
It is true, that not everything can be gathered from surveys. However, you can get a pretty good image of what is working and what should not be changed unless necessary.
How to collect customer feedback
There are several ways for collecting customer feedback. It depends on a lot of your industry what you should use. Some examples below.
If you sell your product online, you can follow a few weeks after the purchase via email, on how the buying process went and if they are satisfied. Let’s assume they answer, you could offer 10% discount on their next order.
If you have a physical store, having a simple feedback machine near the exit that simply has smiley faces to sad faces, the customers can press. On top of that, you could have a more comprehensive box, where people can give their feedback for.
If you operate in a business-to-business field, you can regularly give a call to your biggest clients and ask if everything is going well. This can help out several ways and they are more likely to stay as your customers.
No matter what your industry is, you can use online polls and feedback forms that you send to your customers. Give them a reason to answer as well, such as a discount or chance to win something, within legal boundaries, of course.
Final words
One of the best ways to know, whether your customers are satisfied or not, is if they come back and buy more. If they are not satisfied, they are less likely to return.
Sometimes, customers don’t have a choice, and return because you are the only supplier, even if they are not satisfied. Sooner or later, there will be options available, and if your customers are not satisfied, they won’t hesitate to go to your competitors.
If your business is larger, and you don’t get in touch with your customers regularly, customer feedback becomes much more important. If you are not there every day seeing the customers yourself, you might lose the image of how well things are.