The Art of Customer Feedback: Mastering the Balance between Convenience and Timing
People today are busier than ever (and less willing) to provide customer feedback. How do you gather customer feedback in the most convenient, effective way in order to increase customer feedback rates? The answer sounds easy – by providing the simplest feedback option at the right time. In our blog this month, we are looking at how to take this easy answer and implement it effectively for your business.
Why Collect Feedback?
Collecting customer feedback is an important part of running any business. Gone are the days when customers walked down Main Street to visit specialized shops that each served their own purpose (think the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker). Today there is major competition facing every business, so understanding your customer and tailoring their experience is more important than ever.
What are the Barriers to Collecting Feedback?
According to Daniel Sullivan in this CMS Wire article, there are many reasons why businesses fail to collect customer feedback, and it all comes down to the customer's decision whether to provide feedback or not. They might have privacy concerns, feel they don't have the time, or they just don't think it will make any impact. Sullivan says that the most effective customer feedback requests are customized and convenient for that customer.
Customer Experience (CX) is King
Each customer's customer journey is different, so it makes sense that their customer feedback cycle would be as well. Keep in mind each customer's convenience and concerns as you build your customer feedback processes. Stay flexible in your customer feedback collection options and tailor them to customer segments. Brainstorm the different ways your customers like to engage with you – some may prefer email communications while some may prefer other methods like SMS (texting). If your product includes an app or dashboard, some customers will be more effectively reached there. Social media listening, though harder to quantify, is another option to collecting customer feedback.
Click here to read more on this topic from CMS Wire, including the role of AI is customer feedback.
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash