How Customer Feedback Can Benefit Your Business

How do you know if you’re doing business the right way? In Dutch there’s a saying that goes like this: “klant is koning“. This translates to the “client is king”, which basically means that as a  business, you do whatever it takes to keep your customers smiling and feeling happy.

Having happy customers means your doing something right, and well, unhappy customers can indicate that perhaps your business might need some improving in certain areas. Your clients can help you on your journey, and with your decision-making process, by sharing their feedback of their experience with your business.

Join us as we explore 4 benefits of customer experience feedback for your business. See the reasons to listen to your clientele below!

Identify Your Needed Business Improvements

If you have customers stating that they love your business and/or products and services, but they wish it had a specific element added on, take it as constructive criticism! Why you may ask? This is because you could make use of their opinion as a guide to show you how to improve your business, products and services.

Not only that, but you can also make use of competing businesses’ customer feedback to see what is working in the industry, e.g. what the customers are “feeling”, and what isn’t working. This can help direct you into making more efficient decisions and changes within your business. Business decisions that are based on your target market’s preferences.

Also, sharing customer feedback with your team can help everyone feel appreciated, when speaking of positive feedback, as well as create a learning opportunity to help your team improve and grow, when regarding not-so-pleasant experiences.

Improve Your Customer Experience, Immediately

Speaking of not-so-pleasant experiences…Bad reviews are the best challenges to tackle for your business. Being able to turn around someone’s opinion about your business from negative to positive, can not only save you a sale, but can also show other customers that you care enough about your relationship with them to work on improving a sour situation. It shows customers that you care and appreciate their business.

“Bad reviews actually give you power as a retailer. They give you an opportunity to use your brand voice, to right your wrongs and to deliver stellar customer service — and to do it publicly, where potential customers can see it.”
– CPCstrategy

So next time you get a bad review, tackle it head on. (P.S. We’ve provided some helpful reads below with tips on handling bad reviews to help you out!)

Maintain Good Relationships with Your Customers

Happy customers can mean lifetime loyalty, which can also mean a more reliable source for making sales and/or pitching new products. The more your customers like their experience with your business and products, the more likely they will be to share your content with the world. (hello free exposure!)

Make sure you let your clients know you appreciate them by paying attention to your customer service practices. Asking them for feedback could make them feel extra special, because you are showing that you value their opinion. Don’t just stop there, look for clues in the feedback that they give, whether in writing or in person, and try to make use of this to build on your customer relationship.

A lot of online retail stores, will gift customers a promo code for their birthdays, and some will even include the client’s most recently-saved (or ‘favorited’) products in the same email. By doing this you show them that you value their business, and that you are paying attention to what they like. It is important to acknowledge that ‘favorited’ products and/or items that are added to a cart are also forms of feedback.

Another tactic that some businesses use is taking snapshots of frequent happy customers and sharing this themselves on social media. This is sometimes called a ‘client shoutout’. What can we say? A lot of people enjoy the extra attention, especially when it comes from a place they love to have some retail therapy at, or a restaurant with their favorite food and drinks.

Customer Reviews Can Get You New Clients

Your business can definitely benefit from happy customers sharing your stuff with their trusted digital followers, as we all know, people love to get recommendations from other people. Think about it: people look up reviews for everything from accommodations to stay at in a foreign country, to the latest electronic devices to buy, to restaurants to dine at, to tours & activities to book, to schools to attend, to what medical professionals to see for health concerns.

We do it, you probably do it, your neighbor probably does it too. It’s a way of feeling more secure in making a purchase at, or investing your hard-earned dinero in, a product and/or service.

Ways to Get Customer Feedback

• Facebook Page Reviews
• TripAdvisor Reviews
• Social Media comments on your posts, direct messages, and commentary on your business through the customer’s own social media account
• For eCommerce businesses check out their saved items and product reviews
• Automated Customer Experience Surveys
  • This service allows you to take the headache out of manually sending and processing customer feedback, and provides instant notifications of feedback so you can take prompt action on them. Any positive feedback received is a great motivator for staff and any negative feedback is delivered quickly and allows you to react in a timely manner and potentially nip any issues in the bud. – view more info

Helpful Reads:

8 Tips How To Handle Negative Customer Feedback – Medium (read article)

Negative Customer Review? Turn It Into a Positive Opportunity – Business News Daily (view article)

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Published on February 22nd 2019.