Customer feedback can not only mean increased revenue for your business, but also helps maintain your brand and your reputation.
Your customers are your biggest assets.
I believe customer feedback is the coiled spring that catapults your company forward. It will continually adjust your trajectory while keeping you on target.
Reid Hoffman – founder of LinkedIn
Client feedback can greatly help your business to identify:
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- areas for improvement for short and long term goals
- important areas being done well for continued focus.
Benefits of obtaining customer feedback
To demonstrate, we highlight the six most important benefits of obtaining customer feedback.
Continued Improvement
The aim of a business is to stay in business for the long-haul. Therefore to exist for the long term, a business needs to be willing to:
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- have a continuous improvement approach, and
- understand the pain points affecting customers.
Motivating Team Members
Conducting customer service feedback activity can help you in managing your teams. For example:
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- motivating your team members
- aiming to exceed targets
- cultivating a healthy work culture
- recognising your team’s efforts
- focus on any areas for improvement
- highlighting areas that are working well for individual and team feedback.
Customer Service Experience
Online surveys or asking customers for feedback on service offerings are valid approaches. So, it is equally important to understand the client or customer experience.
And this type of feedback will enable adjustments in areas such as:
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- increasing loyalty,
- producing new referrals, and
- providing the best service – every time.
It’s also a chance to show you value your clients’ and customers’ input.
Marketing activities
Part of ongoing marketing activities
Customer feedback should be part of the usual marketing activities for a business. If not, the company has failed in the fundamental number one rule in marketing – communicate with the client.
Say a business spends thousands on ads and wonders why its sales figures are in a slump. The client should always have clear direction on their goals and where their budget is going. Communication is paramount!
Every company should invest in a customer feedback system such as:
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- engaging surveys,
- phone calls, or
- an experienced third-party conducting research on its behalf.
Just one single change in customer experience can mean a significant increase in revenue.
Providing Customers with a platform to voice their opinions
Improving customer service can be achieved by giving customers enough opportunities to say what they feel.
Providing a number of opportunities allows you to gather positive customer feedback and take care of the negative feedback. As a result, giving an opportunity to provide, acknowledge and action any pain points.
Retention of unhappy customers
At some point, you are likely to receive negative feedback in research. Or, you may not be aware of the negative aspects because your clients have not informed you – or complained – directly.
Some businesses do nothing about negative feedback. Instead, if you know the problem, you can convert it into an opportunity to drive more business and retain an unhappy customer.
Furthermore, taking these measures can help avoid the spread of similar opinions that could impact potential customers.
Pause for a moment and reflect:
The pandemic has brought about massive changes, which has impacted
consumers and businesses globally.
As the world slowly shifts to a recovery mode, it is more important than
ever to understand the consumer’s changing needs and satisfy them.
It is critical to understand their purchasing behaviour.
Customer Deals with a third-party
This year may be the right time to engage a third-party’s services to explore your customer’s experience.
So, what are some benefits of using a third-party to obtain feedback on behalf of your organisation?
Unbiased
Speaking to an independent third-party enables a more tailored, neutral conversation for a research participant.
Also, a client or customer can feel a little less apprehensive when completing a survey online rather than speaking to a representative or the owner of the company itself.
Participants may be more likely to open up and share their thoughts on how they truly feel the service was delivered.
As a result, this provides deeper or more accurate insights for increased benefit to the client’s business.
In addition, third-party conduct research without any bias. It is possible for bias to seep through if a business conducts its own customer service feedback activities.
In that case, there is a higher chance of getting to the root cause of any negative feedback or issues a customer has faced.
Time-saving
Your business can focus on other priorities while the experts create the appropriate approach based on their industry experience.
They handle conducting the research and provide any insights on customer feedback received in a timely manner.
Our approach to research
FWD Focus conducts research backed by experience in the market research industry. Our mission is to encourage thoughtful and detailed responses that help your business deliver the highest level of customer experience.
We take steps to listen to your customers and provide research feedback for your business that will allow you to take the next step forward.
We’d be happy to discuss how we can help you obtain customer feedback to benefit your business.