Why You Need Customer Feedback (And 3 Ways To Use It)
Feedback isn’t just something you should ask for when you get a one-star review. The best small businesses collect customer feedback from day one, integrating it into their business model.
As a business, it’s your job to keep customers happy by solving their problems. But you’ll never understand customer problems without asking for feedback. Even if you nautrally shy away from feedback, it’s necessary to create a thriving business that goes the distance.
The benefits of gathering customer feedback
Customer feedback is more than just reviews. It includes testimonials, surveys, and even casual conversations with your customers.
But why should small businesses care about gathering feedback? Proactively asking for feedback helps you:
Understand customers’ needs: What do your customers like and dislike? How can your current product or service be even better? This helps you build something that addresses customers’ most pressing concerns.
Find what’s broken: When was the last time you went through your digital course to look for broken links? Customers are going through the experience right now; they can identify what’s broken so you can fix it quickly.
Attract more customers: When you receive positive feedback, share it on your website, social media, and email list. Since 57% of customers will visit a website after reading a positive review, this increases your chances of finding more customers!
Earn more: Seriously. When you know what customers need, you stop investing in models that don’t work. This means you spend your resources on products and services that people want to pay for, which puts more money in your pocket.
3 ways to improve your business with customer feedback
The more customer feedback you collect, the better off your business will be. But how do you use this feedback, anyway? Follow these quick tips to improve your business with customer feedback.
Tip #1: Update your communication options
Are customers complaining about your email response times? Or that your phone lines are always busy?
As tough as this can be, you need to give customers immediate answers. That might mean adding live chat to your website or integrating Calendly on your website for faster scheduling.
Tip #2: Clean up the user experience
If your product falls into pieces after a week of use, you’re giving customers a bad experience. If you have a digital product, glitches and slow speed can wreck a customer’s experience.
Take it seriously when customers tell you something is wrong. That might mean going back to the drawing board with your product design or totally redoing your website to deliver on user expectations.
Tip #3: Roll out new products and services
The cool thing about customer feedback is that it helps you identify unfilled needs. For example, if you sell handbags, customer feedback might show you there’s a huge demand for vegan leather products. Not only will this help you find more customers, but it can help you become a pioneer in your space!
The bottom line
Here’s the truth: successful businesses listen to their customers. These are the people who buy from you; their honest opinion is worth its weight in gold. While it might sting to see negative feedback from your customers, use it to improve your business. That’s the key to building a small business that eventually becomes a big business.