How customer feedback can make your business better

How can you improve your relationship with customers? It’s simple, really: improve customer service. Your product or service can be the greatest there is, and your employees may all be top recruits, but the only thing customers will remember is the direct interaction they had with you.

It’s more than likely that your business will already have strong customer relationships. However, all businesses need to constantly be thinking about how customer service can be improved. Any improvements will go a long way with customers; if they see you’re constantly trying to be better, they’re more likely to remain loyal.

Why is customer feedback important?

Measuring the satisfaction of your customers helps determine whether your product or service meets their expectations. Spending time gathering feedback is important because it gives you the information you need to better the business by improving customer experience. It’s getting harder for businesses to retain existing customers; by offering an amazing service, customers are much more likely to come back and recommend you to others.

In a survey we conducted earlier this year, 48% of respondents said finding and retaining customers was the biggest barrier to growth for their business. By collecting feedback, businesses can find out why their customers are leaving and what they can do to prevent further churn.

How can you improve customer service?

The simple answer… ask them! There’s no reason why you can’t request feedback from your customers. Find out from them what they currently like about your company, what can be improved on and any other recommendations they may have.

Survey

An easy way to understand customer sentiment is by sending out a survey; you can offer customers an incentive to spend 5 minutes providing feedback that will help improve your business. This can be done in person, via email, via phone or even on social media. At Nimvelo, we’re always grateful to receive feedback to help make our service better, which is why we try and send out a survey once a year. Not only do customers feel like their advice is valued, but the data allows you to grow as a business and improve on your weakest areas.

Social media

Another way to speak to customers is through social media; if a customer is happy or upset they may take to social media to either praise or condemn your company. By monitoring what customers are saying, you’ll be able to react quickly and fix the issue before it becomes a more serious problem. To see how some of the pros do it, check out this article from Buffer.

One-to-ones

If you have some customers that you have developed a particularly good relationship with, you could contact them directly for feedback. Ideally this should take place either in person or on the phone, enabling you to have an open and frank discussion, which should yield some valuable results. This would also have a positive effect on the customers, as they would feel appreciated and held in high regard.

Got any advice?

As a business owner have you attempted to gather feedback from your customers, and if so, was it useful? Would you personally prefer businesses to ask you more about what you want before they make big changes that could affect you? Pop any comments into the discussion box below!

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