Customer feedback is one of the most effective ways to ensure the continuous improvement and growth of your business.
To grow your customer base and survive the fierce competition, it’s best that you offer better solutions than other players in your respective industry. And customer feedback paves the way for you and helps you identify the shortcomings that require improvement.
You may get some idea of what your customers think about your products or services through their reviews. However, only 6% of customers end up writing them.
Therefore, you often have to reach out to your customers and ask them to share their thoughts on what you offer them.
There are many ways you can do it and collect valuable feedback from your customers. This article showcases some of the most effective ways that you may want to consider.
1. Feedback Survey
A feedback survey is one of the most commonly used ways businesses collect important information from their customers about their products or services.
Here, you ask a series of questions from your customers and strive to collect relevant insights that help you improve your offerings.
There are two types of surveys that you can leverage to gather customer feedback: open-ended and close-ended surveys.
With open-ended surveys, you give a free hand to your customers when it comes to sharing their thoughts or opinions.
The questions in this survey are not paired with limited options. So, you collect a variety of responses from your customers, which can be really enlightening.
The benefit of using this survey is that you can dive into the details, and the ideas you get for improving your solutions are not limited to your own thought process.
However, the problem with this survey is that analyzing open-ended responses can be really tricky and time-consuming to draw conclusions from.
Close-ended surveys, on the other hand, make it easier for you to collect and analyze data. However, the limitation to using this survey is that you give certain options to your customers to choose from. And that can limit your ability to collect detailed insights.
2. NPS Survey
An NPS survey is used by businesses to identify customers who are dissatisfied with what’s offered to them and likely to switch to other alternatives.
An NPS survey uses a rating scale and helps you identify how likely your customers are to recommend your solutions to others.
Based on the score your customers select for your products or services, you can call them detractors, passives, or promoters.
Detractors are the customers who are dissatisfied with your service and less likely to recommend your solutions to others.
Passives are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and may likely switch to other alternatives if offered better deals.
Promoters are your brand ambassadors, the customers who actively promote your solutions to others and are less likely to quit using them.
It’s reported that reviews influence the buying decisions of 55% of people. So, knowing how many of your customers are likely to recommend your solutions to others may be useful.
Plus, an NPS survey helps you identify customers who are dissatisfied and likely to switch. So, it fuels your retention strategies and helps you come up with personalized offers.
3. Reach Out
Asking your customer service representatives to reach out to your customers is another effective way to collect customer feedback.
Your representatives can reach out to your customers via phone or email. They can also use different social media channels to gather relevant information.
This serves two purposes. Your representatives can collect your customers’ feedback for you and facilitate your access to relevant insights. Plus, they can calm the dissatisfied customers and convince them to give you a chance to redeem yourself.
Sometimes, all your customers want is to be heard. So, a little empathy from your representatives may go a long way and turn the odds in your favor.
4. Social Media
Social media has billions of users, and 43% of them use different channels to research things they want to purchase.
People use different social media platforms to share their opinions about the products or services they currently use. This information comes in handy for new buyers and helps them make informed decisions.
Businesses can use this to their advantage and gather the relevant insights they need to improve their solutions.
Your customers are already talking about the solutions you offer and sharing their experiences. All you have to do is be vigilant and keep an eye on what your customers are saying.
5. Free Trial
Collecting feedback from your current customers isn’t the only viable way to improve your solutions. You can also ask your potential customers, especially when you offer digital solutions.
All you have to do is leverage your email list and ask your potential customers to take your solutions for a spin.
Once the trial period ends, reach out to them and ask them for their recommendations on how you can make your solutions better.
Since you offer them to try your solutions for free, you may get an overwhelming response from your recipients. And that information can pave the way for you to be better than ever before.
It’s a Wrap
There you have it: the five effective ways to collect feedback from your customers. If you have been looking for ways to collect customer feedback to improve your solutions and ensure continuous improvement, the recommendations in this article may come in handy.
