Customers have strong opinions about brands and businesses, and they’re typically not shy about sharing them. This is actually a good thing for growing companies. After all, the better you understand your customer base, the more effectively you can connect with them. Today, we’re going to focus on just that practice. Here’s how you can use customer feedback to actively improve your business and find more success across the board as a result:
Fix the Problems!
On one level, using customer feedback to enhance a company should be very straightforward. If consumers complain about a certain feature or issue, then companies should simply act to solve said problem. Easy enough, right? Well, yes and no. While it’s definitely important to address problems that consumers bring up on a regular basis, it’s just as vital to use customer surveys and reviews to diagnose potential issues on the horizon. Fixing a problem before it starts will enable businesses to maintain positive customer relations and avoid unnecessary trouble and costs.
Use Consumer Language
Every business wants to create a brand that has a strong identity. One of the best ways to do this is to repurpose the terms and phrases that your customers use in your own marketing and advertising material. By listening to what customers appreciate (or dislike) about your company, you can tailor a message that sounds as if it was made just for them. At the end of the day a target market for Hot Topic may look quite different from an Old Navy target market, for instance, but everyone still appreciates a personal touch.
Roll Out a New Product
Not only can customer feedback tell a company how their audience feels about their current products and services, but quality feedback should also inform how a business progresses. Indeed, forward-thinking professionals should take the data they glean from customer interviews and use it to reshape their current products or services. This could even lead to the development of a new product.
Track Your Results
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Rather, the choices that companies and consumers make today will have an impact well into the future. As such, it’s imperative for businesses to track consumer feedback over a long period of time. It’s possible that your team has underestimated or completely missed a big issue that’s flown under the radar for some time. Equally, it’s also possible to “overcorrect” and change too much about your marketing/customer service process. So whether you’re trying to make more sales or create engaging online videos, always track your results over time!
