In order for your business to succeed and remain competitive, you need to make sure that your customers are delighted with your service or product. If your customers feel like they’re not being heard or taken care of, they become easy pickings for your competition. If you’re already monitoring your customer journey and regularly collecting feedback using a customer experience management platform, then you’re already halfway there. In this blog I will be talking to you about why you need a customer feedback program and most importantly how to effectively implement one.
Customer feedback can be a game-changer for any business, as it gives you insight into your customer’s behavior and intentions and makes it possible to monitor and take proactive action, ultimately improving the customer experience and driving business growth. With so many customer feedback platforms available out there, it’s easy for you to feel overwhelmed when trying to choose the right one for your business. But hopefully with a bit more insight into what, why’s and how’s of customer feedback, you should be able to make a more informed decision.
If you’re a B2B business contemplating a Customer Feedback Program for your business, then do read our blog on, ‘Why Customer Feedback Programs are Essential for B2B Companies’
Customer feedback platforms
Simply put, customer feedback is the information, insight, issues and input shared by your customer about their experience with your company, people, products or services.
A customer feedback platform is a software that allows you to automatically create and distribute feedback surveys as well as collect comments in real-time. You may then analyse these insights and take appropriate action to provide an excellent experience to your customers.
Key features of a well-designed customer feedback platform include Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys, text and sentiment analysis, omnichannel feedback, and so on.
Why does your business definitely need one?
Don’t you want to know your customer’s opinion on what you’re getting right and what you could improve?
The best way to understand the drivers of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction is to get feedback from customers themselves. The lack of knowledge about what drives customer satisfaction makes it impossible to maintain customer loyalty.
Doubt it? Here are some facts:
- Customers are 2.6x as likely to purchase more from a company after a 5-star experience.
- For 94% of consumers, a good customer service experience heavily impacts positive recommendations.
- Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profits by between 25% and 95%.
Customer feedback platforms allow customers to provide feedback on how to improve your products and services via feedback forums. Furthermore, its survey widget allows you to conduct NPS surveys, while the feedback widget allows you to collect ideas and feedback.
The platform will then analyse this data and highlight important trends, strengths and opportunities, allowing you to adjust and optimise your customer experience. In short, gathering and actioning feedback is the best way to keep your customers engaged and at the heart of everything you do.
Hopefully you’re now convinced as to why you need a customer feedback platform. Next, let’s talk about how you can use them effectively.
A tool is only as effective as its user, and we want you to make the most of your feedback platform. Here is the process I find most effective
How to use Customer Feedback Platforms effectively (OR) How to get the most out of your customer feedback platform?
There’s a strategic process for gathering and implementing customer feedback, and it’s called the A.C.A.F. customer feedback loop. The customer feedback loop allows businesses to collect customer feedback and then use that feedback to improve the customer experience.
The A.C.A.F. customer feedback loop
A: Ask for feedback from your consumers on your products or services
C: Categorise the feedback into different groups that are relevant to your business.
A: Act on feedback by sharing it with people within your company who can make improvements.
F: Follow up with customers who give feedback on your plans to show that you are actually listening.
There are a few practices for creating a customer feedback loop that works as you work on developing your customer feedback strategy.
Make sure you are using the right channels to reach your customers.
It is essential that you meet your clients where they are. After all, unless your customers are heavy social media users, you’re not going to get a lot of useful feedback if you run your surveys on social media.
Use customer feedback to improve your product or service.
Once you collect feedback, it is important that you act on that input. Customers want to know that you are paying attention to what they have to say and that you’re committed to making the necessary changes to keep them satisfied.
Implement changes quickly.
Respond to customer feedback as quickly as possible. Start by addressing the low-hanging fruits. And, always try to be specific about the timeline of any major changes you want to implement.
Communicate changes to customers.
Once you make improvements based on customer feedback, let them know. This is your chance to brag about how good you are at giving your customers a voice in their experience with your business.
And don’t forget to communicate these changes on all the right channels.
Summary
The feedback you receive from your customers is one of your most valuable assets. The right data can help you discover new opportunities, and make better business decisions. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t get close to getting the most value from their customers as they don’t properly optimise the feedback they get.
With the right tools, you can integrate customer feedback into your strategy and reap huge benefits.
Resonate can assist you in enhancing ROI from your customer feedback and provides actionable insights by bringing up all responses, feedback, and analytics into a single platform. If you’re looking to foster lifelong customer loyalty and get all your internal teams rallied around the needs of your users, reach out to us and we will definitely know how we can help.
