Four Ways to Use Customer Feedback

It’s no secret that a vast majority of consumers today find extreme value in customer reviews. Think about it:

When was the last time you made an online purchase without sifting through customer reviews or looking at ratings first?

In today’s digital environment, it is natural for people to depend upon this treasured type of unbiased feedback to help influence their purchase decisions. In fact, according to a recent Nielsen survey, approximately 70 percent of people say they trust online reviews from complete strangers.

Additionally, MarketingLand statistics show that consumers who are confident that they will make a particular purchase are 90 percent more likely to make their decision after they have read customer feedback from other buyers.

Make It Easy For Your Customers To Provide Feedback

If you are not already using your customer feedback as part of your overall marketing strategy, you might be missing out on the benefits of this powerful tool.

Whether it is via survey responses, online reviews, or social media posts, gathering feedback from your customers and determining the priority level of each suggestion is priceless for providing more value to your current customers.

Here are four ways to help your brand better utilize customer feedback:

1. Make more informed business decisions. We are probably preaching to the choir, but your customers make or break your brand. So why not do your best to give them what they want? For example, if your company’s customer feedback reveals that people are frustrated with your team’s email response times, make it a priority to improve them. Or, if customer feedback reveals that your audience wants additional channels of communication, then open them up.
   
   
2. Take time to listen. Never assume you know your customers. One source of feedback –negative or positive – never tells the whole story. For instance, if you send out a survey, never design it where all of the questions are multiple choice. Sure, it takes time to read and categorize open-ended feedback, but dedicating time to this effort can unfold innovative requests and use cases for your products that you may not realize existed.
   
   
3. Prioritize the feedback. After receiving customer feedback, try to focus on areas that have the biggest impact. Prioritize the projects you plan to deliver by concentrating on those that will have the most significant impact on your most valuable customers.
   
   
4. Turn lemons into lemonade. Unfortunately, negative feedback can be out of your control. If you receive a negative comment about your company, consider responding for the benefit of both your brand and prospective customers who may come across it. Keep in mind, most people just want to know that you are running an honest, transparent company that embraces humanity and the art of caring. By responding to feedback – negative or positive – you have the opportunity to structure your brand’s story while also assuring unhappy customers that you recognize their feelings. Also, empathizing with customers and using their comments to enhance your products or services can be beneficial company-wide.

Finally, one more unique way to strategically utilize customer feedback is to identify needs that have not yet been solved or expressed. It is important not merely to take customer comments at face value; instead, dive in and try to take it a step further. Emerging needs give your brand the opportunity to solve a greater number of customer needs both now and in the future.

Use Feedback As a Road Map

Customer feedback can provide peace of mind that your brand is headed in the right direction. Rather than speculate on what you hope your customers want, feedback allows you the chance to give them exactly what they want.

Your customers’ opinions offer a deeper insight into what is and what is not working regarding your products or services. While you may think you have the best expertise in your industry, your professional knowledge is never as valuable to business success than genuine customer insights.

The bottom line: Your customers’ opinions can help you guarantee that your product or service is actually meeting their expectations, solving their problem, fulfilling their needs, and, most importantly, helping you to move your business forward.

Talk to one of Issuetrak’s Product Experts today to see how you can better manage your customer feedback.

About the Author
Lisa C. Dunn is a writer for TechnologyAdvice.com. She is a freelance writer, copywriter and ghostwriter who develops high-quality content for businesses and non-profit organizations. For over 20 years, she has worked with numerous PR and digital marketing agencies, and her work has been featured in well-known publications including Forbes, VentureBeat, Mashable, Huffington Post, Wired, B2C, USA Today, among others.