A smart businessperson knows that every transaction is the beginning of a relationship with a potential customer for life. The feedback you get from customers after they’ve commissioned your services or bought your product will go a long way toward helping you improve over time.
Reviews can also help you build stronger bonds with customers, so they remain faithful to you, no matter what competitor comes waltzing their way. Here are five failsafe ways of handling customer feedback without losing your cool or missing valuable opportunities:
Collect Date Consistently
If you want to get a bigger picture of your operations and offerings as well as the impact they have, then you need to operate in a perpetual and precise state of data collection. You should know how long it takes your product to make it from your 3pl fulfillment warehouse to your buyer. You also want processes in place that give you a window into the lifecycle of your products or the longevity of your services.
To do all this, you need to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data from your customers to establish their levels of satisfaction. You should be measuring your customer retention rate and response rates as well.
You can gain this data through follow-up emails after purchase, tactful feedback requests, and data from tools like Google Analytics. Once you’ve collected all this information and organized it, you get to dive into the fun part – analyzing it and working the findings into your strategy going forward. Don’t be afraid to delegate this part of the process, as it can be time-consuming and demanding.
Provide an Outlet
If you want customers to consistently give you feedback, then you must take the initiative by providing a platform via which they can share their thoughts and experiences. This can be as simple as setting up social media channels or having a product rating system built into your website.
You can also make use of surveys and a bunch of online tools like customer relationship management applications. There are plenty of tools offering automated solutions, so managing customer feedback doesn’t have to be complicated.
Brainstorm with Your Crew
Your team needs to stay fully up to speed with what goes on in the hearts, minds, and lives of your target audience. The feedback you receive will be a valuable piece of the puzzle, but you and your team should also engage in competitor research to gain a better picture of how your audience is feeling in general.
Look at reviews of competitors and explore relevant social media groups and subreddits. Doing so will give you valuable insights and pad out the details that may be missing in the feedback you receive from your customers. You may discover that your whole industry is letting an audience segment down on a certain pain point. If you solve that problem, you’ll be their hero.
Ensure They Feel Heard
Regardless of where the feedback is coming from, ensure your customers feel seen, heard, and valued. Let them know that their experience matters and that you care about delivering on their expectations and solving their problems. That’s a key step in winning over loyal customers.
Back it up with Action
Customer feedback should form part of a purpose-driven and personalized plan of action. This should involve addressing customer concerns, fixing problems, and improving your offerings. However, customer feedback should also feed into your larger business goals.
Put customer feedback to work for you, and you’ll be on your way to a more sustainable and profitable business.