Last Updated on October 30, 2024 by Owen McGab Enaohwo
Nowadays, getting consumer feedback appears like a hassle-free task. However, what comes before, regarding the questions to call for and after, concerning feedback explanation is challenging.
Will enterprises use feedback to boost their services/products? Or to enhance the consumer experience? To quantify client contentment? After responding to these queries, businesses will have a transparent objective on the path to follow based on the earned feedback.
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As per Phelon Group’s managing partner, Whitney Wood, “businesses obtain or ask for customer feedback, but only a few convert the feedback into meaningful stuff. Only a small percentage of enterprises take necessary actions to let customers know something was done after sharing their views. “
Businesses that don’t recognize the impact of customer feedback can have issues with their name since the negative review moves more rapidly than the pleasing one. Also, negative feedback chases customers and, therefore, lower profit for the company.
This detailed post will cover the easy ways to incorporate customer feedback in business and cover its benefits.
Let’s get started!
Customer Feedback Definition
Customer feedback entails what consumers share regarding their encounters with (the company’s) services/products. For consumers, customer feedback allows them to voice their views. For enterprises, customer feedback gives them a chance to obtain unique ideas and maintain enhancing the consumer experience within the company.
Take the customer feedback loop as an approach that concentrates on consistent brand advancement based on the users’ views and proposals. This strategy can assist you in pinpointing the elements to remove and the ones to maintain. Therefore, through the customer feedback loop, you can train yourself to attend to your customers’ voices, concentrate on their requirements and incorporate positive changes.
Managing the feedback loop involves a four-stage strategy:
- Asking for consumer feedback
- Feedback analyzation
- Acting on the comments
- Following up on the consumer’s input
Generally, this strategy allows you to begin your organizational change and get more consumer-centric. Knowing what the clients need makes it easy to provide the correct products/services and boost your sales.
Customer Feedback Benefits
You need consumers’ feedback without considering the kind of enterprise you operate. This feedback gives you an overview of your progress and an understanding of how consumers view your services/products.
Note that research and feedback don’t mean the same thing. Research assists you in understanding your market, while feedback helps you understand your services/products.
When you request consumer feedback, you allow the consumers to share their opinions about your services/products. Other benefits of consumer feedback include:
Service & Product Improvement
Several companies assess their potential audience and the market when launching new services/products. They do this based on the market study, but it’s not guaranteed that things will always fold up as expected. Only feedback can assist you in understanding the audience’s preferences and needs.
Satisfaction Measurement
It’s only honest feedback that can assist you in identifying your consumers’ thoughts about your services/products.
Consumer satisfaction and customer loyalty are impactful for any business that aims to remain competitive in its specific field. Boosted consumer loyalty means lower costs, higher revenue, and more significant market share.
Customer satisfaction and business performance optimization are two elements with a direct connection. A company will always find it challenging to remain afloat if it can’t satisfy its customers. Therefore, ensuring the consumers are 100% satisfied with the services/products you offer is indispensable.
Asking the customers for opinions is one way through which you can understand their thoughts about your services/products. You can measure their satisfaction using various techniques, including customer surveys.
Consumers Feel Valued
Most consumers prefer purchasing from enterprises that value them. And one easy way to make these consumers feel special is by requesting them to share their views about your services/products and let them understand the importance of taking that step.
You can even share their opinions on social media channels and tag them. Note that most consumers enjoy sharing feedback about their service/product experiences.
However, when asking for this feedback, you must know the right way to follow. Also, remain careful when requesting consumer feedback. Never force the consumers to share their views and avoid convincing them to share only positive reviews. Instead, you should encourage them to remain honest when sharing their opinions.
One Way To Retain Clients
Satisfied consumers are more loyal, meaning it’s easy to retain them. However, don’t expect unhappy clients to weigh up before leaving your company and looking for an alternative.
Not responding positively to feedback or requesting feedback is why clients leave companies. If you aim to retain your consumers for an extended period, focus on their thoughts about your services/products.
Requesting feedback allows you to manage grievances properly and keep more customers. Listening to your customers’ opinions makes it easy to offer top-notch and more customized quick fixes for their particular requirements.
Easy Ways To Incorporate Customer Feedback In Business
1. Focus On Consumer-Oriented Brainstorms
It’s eye-opening to read through consumer comments, especially the negative opinions and reviews. Don’t expect positive yields every moment, but prepare yourself (once in a while) to come across a suggestion that allows you to understand your consumer base deeply.
Consumers highlighting their opinions about your services/products will share ideas you should concentrate on in your advertisements. Consumers explaining the issues they handled or failed to address with your service/item will share crucial opinions on how you should develop a new solution or fix the present one.
Yes, no consumer can cover their greatness path fully. But let consumer feedback be the start of your brainstorming process. The study, design, and implementation will still be a challenging exercise. However, clients can give you an overview of the starting point, and in the space where unique opinions generate huge earnings, that can be more than enough.
2. Improve Your Google Ranking
These don’t form the only areas where consumer suggestions/comments play an impactful role. Google features a unique review program, and therefore, it’s only logical that they apply it as one of the ranking factors. Also, it’s not evident if Google reviews impact SERP ranking, but it falls under local search ranking signals.
Each moment you visit Google and search for a local-related query, the first thing you’ll come across is a map featuring a business list. How high the store will rank on the search will rely on several factors, such as the user’s proximity and the quotes featuring the area address. User-related reviews also contribute a lot to the list.
Therefore, this minute step can boost your SEO efforts – if you motivate your consumers to populate the Google My Business site with positive reviews. You can create small cards with invitations to share thoughts and QR codes directing them to the Google My Business site. Position those cards at each table if you operate a restaurant business or near your store’s counter.
Moreover, consider leveraging the social proof power on the SERP. Populate the Schema markup with rich snippets, which can position you as the only SERP site that displays user reviews. This case can make your site attract leads from your business competitors, including those ranking on the first pages.
You must provide user reviews using Google Shopping to sell your services/products. Google Shopping allures potential consumers who’re prepared to purchase, and the review rating and product costs stand out as the sole discerning factors. Generate more reviews by motivating the customers to share their comments at least once weekly.
3. Populate ads With Social Proof
People give reviews the same trust they give their colleagues. You can utilize positive reviews in advertising if you have received several five-star ratings. Most websites apply this technique.
Most eCommerce sites now feature a part that displays testimonials. This step is a significant effort because this part alone can boost conversion rates by over 30%. However, most individuals don’t maximize the customer reviews’ full potential.
You must ensure the reviews are more customized to achieve this conversion rate. Add the reviewer’s photo, include their Instagram handle or social media profile link, and tag their name.
Consumers will see that the reviews are honest and convince them to purchase your services/products. Update your advertisements, sites, and newsletters with authentic reviews to boost your conversion rate.
4. Proactive Public Communications
PR involves several things other than the news company receiving your press release. In this highly computerized space, everything you do on the internet is generally public communication. Each moment you receive negative feedback on the internet, even on a page you’re yet to know, it’s all a public relations case.
Most people always go through online reviews before buying anything. Prepare not to close your sale if these individuals receive several negative ratings.
However, you can solve this issue in two primary ways without deleting those reviews. These two ways focus on proactive public communication. First, you must motivate your esteemed consumers to share their honest suggestions/comments. The odds are those negative comments won’t appear impressive if you have several good ratings accompanying them.
Receiving several good ratings is the most preferred, but another option is to consider. A low rating on a channel that allows you to share your opinions presents an excellent PR opportunity. Respond to the customer. Apologize for making them go through that inconvenience and say sorry by offering a gift or promise to address that issue.
Final Thoughts
Generally, the primary reason to request consumer feedback is to improve the standard operating procedures that translate into better service. Taking an additional step to request consumer feedback and apply it correctly is the only way to help you deliver 100% customer satisfaction. Most customers prefer brands that call for and implement consumer feedback properly.
About the author
Rithesh Raghavan is the Director at Acodez, a Digital Agency in India. With a rich experience of 15+ years in Digital Marketing, Rithesh loves to write up his thoughts on the latest trends and developments in IT and software development.