Turning pains into gains: how to properly process customer feedback?

A business that asks for customers’ feedback is a business that cares. Cares about its reputation, the quality of its service, and the quality of its customer support.

When it comes to user feedback, a customer communication team should build a structure and develop just the right approach to not only collect it, but put it to good use and improve continuously. And there are guidelines that can help businesses collect and process it most effectively.

Understand the why’s and how’s

Setting up a system to collect and process customer feedback is not easy, but doable. It requires:

• Additional members of the team, who will process every response
• A CRM systems that can gather and securely hold every answer
• Several tech professionals such as developers and QA engineers who will implement the necessary changes into a product

Understanding why you gather customer feedback and how you will process in the first place is so crucial. Map out your real requirements and reasons, and your journey will be that much smoother.

Utilize every channel possible

If customers can reach out to brands via any channel possible — messengers, chats, email, over the phone, and on social media — then why not use them to ask for feedback?

• Messengers — this may be the easiest way to get customer feedback as fast as possible. It allows a business to request feedback almost immediately after providing them with a service, which is one of the best ways to get the most honest answers.
• Phone — regular phone surveys can help any company ensure a consistently high Customer Satisfaction score and identify issues and resolve them. Phone calls also allow businesses to get as much information about their customer journey as possible, which can help them make necessary changes.
• Social Media — surveys in stories and on social media accounts allow businesses to not only get the core information on what customers think, but actually rid a business of the need to count and categorize every vote. Everything is counted automatically and presented to a Marketing department or a responsible person in an understandable and almost instant manner.

When it comes to customer feedback, there is no such thing as too many channels and too much information — a rule businesses need to live by if they want to decrease their churn and grow their customer base.

Put all apples into one basket

In the hands of a professional customer service team, a CRM system can become a magic wand. Apart from giving a business an opportunity to communicate with their customers and gather all their ticket information in one place, it can help support teams gather and process customer feedback, once again, all in one place.

Why is it important? Giants like Starbucks, L’Oréal, Microsoft, and Apple get an enormous amount of feedback daily. They need to accumulate it in one place, and they need to have a system that allows them to process it quickly. This way, they can make the necessary changes as fast as possible and keep their customer base satisfied at all times.

That is not to say that growing and medium-sized companies can afford to be without a centralized system. In truth, a unified CRM system is one of the requirements and bases for not missing a single response and having every piece of customer communication in the same place. It provides a business with an opportunity to dive deep into its users’ opinions and not miss a single ticket, response or piece of feedback.

Turn feedback into changes

After establishing the goals of the process, utilizing every channel possible, gathering and categorizing customer feedback, comes the time for changes — the most challenging, but the most rewarding part of the process.

As a business owner, it is your obligation to deliver what your customers want and request. The longer you are making your customer base wait for the changes they have been asking for, be it a new product, improved quality of support, or bringing back in stock some user-favorite items, the more likely they are to churn and start buying from your competitors.

Do not ignore your customers’ opinion, and act on it. As tough as it may be, I assure you that the reward and results are well worth the effort.

Practice the “Change and tell” approach

I just love seeing those “You asked — we delivered” messages from my favorite brands and establishments. Especially when I have been the one waiting to be heard.

After you use your customers’ opinions and responses as a blueprint for improving your services or products, be sure to only tell them about the changes, but remember to thank them for taking their time to notify you about their needs and desires. This will help you establish an additional trust and rapport with your customer base, which is simply priceless.

Customer feedback is a powerful tool that can help businesses develop, change, and attract new customers when processed right. In truth, dealing with customers’ feedback is an art of turning pains into gains.