Nowadays, companies use real-time feedback from their customer base to uncover opportunities to improve their marketing, branding, and customer retention. And if you are in the business side of things, you might be wondering what is the best way to get this valuable feedback. 

The Value Of Customer Feedback in Today’s Business Landscape

Businesses don’t just collect star ratings and customer reviews for the fun of it. Customer feedback is a marketing tool in itself. The truth is that the more positive ratings your brand gets, the more business it generates. Publicly viewable user ratings and comments can do more for your business than thousands of dollars worth of advertising.

However, not all feedback is used for social proof or marketing purposes. In many cases, gathering inputs and responses from your customers can help you gain insight into your specific market’s preferences. This market insight can then be used to further improve existing products or services, or assist in the creation of future ones. 

How To Obtain Customer Feedback - Various Methods

In the past, the process of obtaining feedback can be a bulky and tedious process. Not only does it involve a lot of manual data input, it also requires a great deal of tabulation (as in the case of feedback forms in hard copy). 

Today, on top of manual methods, there are various other options for gathering customer feedback assisted by semi-automated online tools: 

Surveys

You may opt for the classic feedback or survey form on a printed sheet, or you may use an online feedback system that customers can easily access. Or, you can do both. Some companies even use third party survey apps like SurveyMonkey, while others build their own app!

In some cases, it’s also a good idea to add a little bit of motivation for customers to give their feedback. For example, if you’re a donut store, you can offer a free donut or a meager discount for those who fill up the survey.

Reviews

Reviews have very strong branding signals, and they influence customer behavior a great deal. In a 2021 report by PowerReviews, it showed that over 99.99% of customers read online reviews as part of their shopping process. Interestingly, 96% of the consumers specifically look for negative reviews (or reasons not to buy). 

What do these stats tell us? Well, it means that reviews are very powerful little assets that can make or break your business! It might seem like a daunting thought that your business is at the mercy of a few negative reviews. But that humbling truth will also challenge you to give the best level of service possible to your customers.

Some popular online review platforms are: Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Glassdoor. Ecommerce brands and platforms also usually have their own built-in way to gather product reviews from verified buyers.

Social Media

Social media can be used to gain instant feedback without handing out too much control towards the often subjective comments of some customers.

For example, you can create simple polls with a predetermined set of options. You can ask your customer base about their user preferences such as color, style, or functionality. You can ask them about things that they particularly liked, instead of what they didn’t like. This way, you can uncover market preferences with “less risk” or potential damage to your brand.

Getting Customer Feedback On A Regular Basis

Obtaining feedback from customers is not a one-time thing. As time goes by, so do trends change and the needs of your market can shift as well. This is why you need to gather customer feedback on a regular basis in order to ensure that you are still providing what your market needs.