Customer Feedback: Why You Need It

September 14, 2020

Customer feedback is essential. Organizations that listen to their customers grow faster.

Customer feedback is a powerful guide that provides you with critical insights. You can use the feedback to improve your products, revise your service delivery strategy, and optimize customer satisfaction.

What is Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback is a summary of how your products and services help the customer and whether they meet their requirements. Customer feedback is helpful information or criticism that pertains to your products. Collecting customer feedback involves acquiring the customer's opinion about your company, products, or services.

The best way to develop a better customer experience is to act on customer feedback. Even though companies that listen to their consumers grow faster, collecting customer feedback is not a short-term growth hack. Acting on customer feedback will take your business to a whole new level.

Why is Customer Feedback so Important?

1. Highlights the Aspects of Your Product that Need Improvement

Like any other product developer, you know your products by heart. You understand every feature and application. It may be hard for you to identify the imperfections of a product. This is where the customer comes in.

Customers know whether a product suits them or not. They can tell you their least favorite feature and why. Once customers realize that you truly listen to them, they will give you a second chance to improve. In this way, you can delay and mitigate churn.

2. Collecting Feedback Makes the Customer Feel Appreciated

Few things make that customer feel important. Asking for customer opinion and acting accordingly is one of those things. Collecting feedback makes the customer feel valued as part of the product creation phase.

Customers who feel listened to develop a positive connotation towards your brand. They will always direct their experience back to you. This positive relationship between your company and the consumer can encourage more sales.

3. Positive Customer Feedback Generates Personal Recommendations

Word of mouth advertising is a powerful marketing tool. Referrals are the cheapest and most effective form of marketing. A study by Kellerfay revealed that personal recommendations are the top motivators for purchasing decisions. Referrals don't just affect the finalization of the sale, but also every step of the purchase cycle.

Face-to-face interactions are responsible for eight out of ten recommended purchases. About 2% of people that turn to your website from recommendations are acting on what they read about your company from social media.

A customer who delivers positive feedback will probably recommend your products or services to colleagues, friends, and service. Give your customers a listening ear, and they will deliver positive feedback.

4. Feedback Interactions Encourage Customers Retention

You can sell products to customers, but that does not guarantee that they will come back. Taking feedback from customers help in customer satisfaction and that results in customer retention. Information from the market or competition can help you polish aspects like quality, price, and advertising. However, there are certain aspects that only the users of your products can point out.

Insight from your customers will reveal the factors that you did not consider—for example, shipping costs, customer consultancy services, and safe packing.

At the start, you may get positive reviews. Pay attention to unique customer insights. It may help you grasp the concept of the customer's desired approach. Act on the feedback, and you will earn happy repeat customers.

5. Feedback Can Push Sales

In the SaaS industry, competition is only two clicks away. It does not take much for a customer to deviate. You want to tackle any misunderstanding or problems immediately. The unhappy customers who express themselves through feedback are opportunities for a second chance.

There are dire consequences for failing to address their frustrations. The unhappy customer can leave a negative review on your social media page or post an anonymous comment on one of your forums.

The feedback form is the only appropriate place for negative reviews. Here, you control who sees the comments, and you have an opportunity to act accordingly.

You must develop an action plan to address unhappy customers. An effective strategy involves contacting the customer, addressing the issue, and setting a date for following up. If the problem is severe, you can work on a reasonable form of compensation.

6. Feedback Help in Customer Acquisition

I am sure that you've been in a situation where you had to make a purchasing decision. One of the first things you do is check online reviews pertaining to the product that interests you.

A study by Invesp revealed that about 90% of consumers read online reviews before logging onto a business website. About 88% of consumers trust online reviews.

Quality customer feedback can win you some new users. Keep your finger on the pulse. Ask your consumers about their opinions. Act on the feedback accordingly. A satisfied customer is happy to recommend your services for free.

7. Customer Feedback Can Help Build Brand Loyalty

Collecting feedback and acting on it helps build a positive relationship with the customer. The consumer will perceive your organization as a friendly establishment that cares about its customers. This relationship can evolve to inspire brand loyalty.

When and How to Seek Out Customer Feedback

To get the most accurate feedback, you need to know ho to seek out customer feedback at the right time. Ask the wrong questions, and the respondents will ignore the questionnaire. Place the survey form in the wrong place, and nobody will bother to respond.

There are different methods of collecting customer feedback. These techniques include:

  • Surveys
  • Reviews
  • User Experience Tests
  • Customer Calls
  • Customer Support Chats

How to Create an Effective Feedback Form

1. Define Your Goals

For a survey to be effective, you must have clear objectives. Think about what you want this exercise to accomplish. Write down the kind of information that you are hoping to extract from your customers.

2. Ask Less and Clear Questions

Every question you draft should help you accomplish a goal. Here's a tip for you, ask less and straightforward questions. To avoid confusion, select one field and ask questions related to this discipline.

Avoid questions that require a lot of texting. You can provide multiple choices or use graphical tools like emojis. Below is an appropriate example:

3. Keep Things Short

The ideal survey should have five to ten questions. The customer has a short attention span. Bombard them with a lot of questions, and you risk losing them. To keep things short, avoid redundancies. Do not ask for answers that you already know.

Below is an example of redundancies in McDonald's feedback form. The receipt already has the information on the date, time, and restaurant number. There is no need for the fast-food giant to ask for the information again.

3. Incentivise the Process

Offering incentives is an effective way of increasing survey engagement and gain more responses. Incentives can come in the form of discounts, gift vouchers, or redeemable points.

About 85% of customers say that they would spend more time on apps and software if they offered gamification elements. Gamification can make feedback collection a fun activity. In this way, you are increasing your response rate and providing value to the customer.

4. Test Your Feedback Form

Before you can deploy your feedback form, you must test it. Proofread to ensure that the document if free from errors. Test your material on multiple devices.

Uses of Customer Feedback

Showing the customers that you care about their opinion is one part of the job. To retain these dissatisfied consumers, you must act on their complaints and suggestions.

The whole purpose of collecting feedback is to improve how you conduct your business. Respond to the feedback through your actions. Customer feedback is perhaps the most neglected service among SaaS businesses. Only 52% of customers are confident that brands will act on their feedback.

Acting on customer feedback could be your way of edging ahead of the competition. With the right strategy, you can transform dissatisfied customers into your best consumers.

Customer Feedback is Important

Collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback is essential. Not only does this process help you understand your customers, but it also boosts customer loyalty and engagement. Positive customer reviews can help you attract organic traffic to your website.

It is time that you expressed how much you care about your customer's input. Your efforts will ultimately contribute to building a stronger brand. Always remember that your customers are your advocates.

By being proactive in listening to customer opinions, you can significantly improve your business in the long run. There you have it, customer feedback, and why you need it.

Go out and collect some feedback. Do not forget to act on the insights you get.



About Insivia

We're a SaaS Growth Agency scaling SaaS & technology companies through brand positioning, integrated marketing, web design, sales and retention.