In this era of social media, companies who embrace customer feedback and “believe” the words of their customers earn the right to growth. They realize that customers turn to each other more than to advertising and campaigns. Here’s how one “beloved company,” CustomInk fearlessly listens to customers and how it fuels their growth.
Earn New Customers Through Past Performance.
CustomInk prints T-shirts for well over 100,000 groups and families per year. Each order is assigned a designer who personally reviews and inspects each shirt, because, let’s face it, there’s nothing worse than having your typing error printed on 1,000 T-shirts. For example, if you accidentally mistype the word “annual” as “anual” in your T-shirt design, someone at CustomInk who has reviewed your design will catch that typo for you, sparing the obvious pain and suffering you would have otherwise felt when you opened the box of 1,000 T-shirts for your “Anual Fun Run.” But CustomInk doesn’t want potential customers to take their word for the fact that they deliver this level of service—they want their customers to speak for them. So whatever a customer types in as his or her post-purchase online feedback appears word-for-word on the front page of CustomInk’s Web site. And, in this case, to show the authenticity of the comments, customers’ typos stay.
Customers Should Be Completely Informed.
Founder Marc Katz said, “We thought about cleaning customers’ reviews and making them more like testimonials, but we decided that doesn’t mean anything to the customer. Any company can pick a few great reviews. It’s the fact that we leave these uncensored and show all of them. It’s the 1 in a 100 few unhappy comments that show these are real.” So CustomInk puts its money where their customers’ mouths are. Customers tell other customers if they believe CustomInk is the place to trust for T-shirts for their charity event, or the T-shirts that their grandpa and entire family will wear at his 100th birthday party.
Revenue grew 77 percent from 2006 to 2009, fueled by customer feedback.
CustomInk believes and trusts customers to speak for the company. This brave decision to “bare” customer feedback has fueled significant double-digit growth every year since their inception. Revenue of $13.5 million in 2004 is now nearly $62 million in 2009. And this growth is largely organic, driven by customer love, and with no backing of venture capital. For its 284 employees, living up to customer accolades energizes them; people want to be part of a company that believes its customers. Consider giving your customers a forum to connect and convince each other to become your customers. It does take some daring, and trust in your customers’ words. But it is a powerful way to engage your company in customer feedback and to drive accountability in resolving the issues that customers bring up.
Do You Dare to Bare What Your Customers Share?
CustomInk decided to put uncensored customer reviews on its Web site because they believe in the truth of their customers’ words. They trust customers to guide potential customers.
- Do you trust current customers to guide future customers with their feedback?
- Do you censor customer reviews? Do you believe in the truth of your customers’ words?
- How would you rate your intent and ability to believe feedback?
- How would your customers say you are doing? Do customers rave about how you trust them today?
- How does your decision to believe and share customer feedback compare with this beloved company?
- Do your decisions for believing in the truth of your customers’ words earn you “beloved” status today?
- Consider one way to give your customers a forum to connect and convince each other to become your customers.
