Customer feedback is an important way to understand how your customers perceive your brand. What do your customers like about your product or service? Is there anything that could be improved upon? Customer feedback is the easiest way to gain insights into what matters to your business. That said, actually getting feedback from your customers can be challenging.
Why is Customer Feedback Important?
Feedback is important for the following five reasons:
- Understand Your Target Customers
- Engage with Your Customers
- Improve Your Products or Services
- Get Testimonials and Reviews
- Benchmark in Order to Improve
By compiling feedback from different types of customers, you will be able to find trends in the data to see the areas in which your business needs to focus.
In addition, sharing positive feedback on your website and social media platforms is necessary for expanding your customer base. Studies have shown that up to 90% of customers read online reviews before visiting a business website and 88% of them treat online reviews like personal recommendations.
Not Everyone will Give Feedback
While you understand that collecting customer feedback is important for both you and your customers, there will always be a percentage of customers that won’t respond. These “non-responders” typically don’t provide feedback because they are not able to (e.g., technical barriers) or they do not want to (e.g., motivational barriers). However, this should not keep you from trying different methods to overcome their “nonresponse bias”.
Ways to Get More Customer Feedback
If you can specific reasons that your customers don’t respond to your feedback surveys, address them immediately! If you’re having trouble getting ANY feedback, try these tips:
- Lay the Groundwork. Start by letting customers know that you value their opinion and will be sending a survey. Survey responders want to know what to expect when filling out a survey. The goal of the survey should be communicated to the responder, as well as how long it will take to complete. Some customers may fear repercussions to responding to the survey, so it helps to reassure the customer that the survey is anonymous and to answer honestly. When you ask customers to respond, let them know exactly what you will do with the results. For example, “We want to make sure our hours work for you. If more than half respondents of this survey want us open in the evenings, we will stay open until 9pm on Thursdays.”
- Keep it a Reasonable Length. There is nothing worse for a customer than starting a survey and finding out it is going to take 30 minutes. If the survey has too many questions, many customers will fall off right there. Researchers at SurveyAnyplace found that survey response rates fell by almost 20% when a survey had more than 12 questions or took more than five minutes to complete. To start, try keeping the survey in the range of 3-5 minutes for completion, with a maximum of 10 questions.
- Give the Customer an Incentive. In exchange for their time, give the customer something in return. Incentives can range from entry into a drawing to coupon codes or more. Just be careful that the incentive is large enough to increase overall response but keeps their response authentic.
- Follow Up. Consumers are inundated with emails every day so if the survey is not completed upon your first request, send a follow up as a reminder. Response rates will increase if a reminder is sent. After the survey has been completed, follow up with the customer to let them know their customer feedback was helpful and how it will be used to improve your business.
The customer feedback that you receive can build a better customer experience. With more feedback, your business will be able to deliver the best results to your customers.
