You know your brand and you’re proud of what your company does, but how do your customers feel? At the end of the day, unless you give the people who matter most a chance to share their thoughts with you, you won’t know what makes them tick or what turns them away.
You might be stunting your growth by not giving the people exactly what they want. This is why getting customer feedback is so essential to your company’s success.
What is customer feedback and why is it important?
Before we dive in, it is important to understand what customer feedback is. Customer feedback is information you get directly from your customers about their thoughts, experiences, and feelings towards your company. It can be related to the brand itself, a certain product they purchased, or service that you completed for them.
Customer feedback is important because not only are you giving your customers an opportunity to voice their opinions, but you can make important business decisions based on the input you receive.
If most people respond positively, then you can confidently continue doing what is working for them. But if customers are reporting complaints, then you know there is something you need to fix in order to address the issue.
You should keep an open mind to both positive and negative feedback. Remember that any feedback—regardless if it is hard to hear—is beneficial for your company’s success. In this article we will share with you some common ways to get helpful feedback from your audience.
How to ask for feedback from customers?
The tricky part about customer feedback is that not everyone will step forward and provide feedback on their own. Many times, it is up to you to approach customers through different channels. Requesting feedback does not seem like rocket science, but there is certainly an art to it.
You have to be mindful of the types of questions you ask and what tools you want to use. There are a multitude of ways for you to ask for customer feedback. The right choice may depend on several variables such as budget, your target audience, and what the objectives are. Whichever route you choose, the fact that you are seeking feedback means you are on the right track.
Now we will go through 5 different examples for how you can ask for feedback from your customers.
Surveys
Let’s start with our personal favorite method: surveys. Surveys are the way to go if you want to get high quality feedback from a large sample, as well as do in-depth analysis. Previously, phone surveys were the most popular. Nowadays, online surveys through different panel providers (platforms that provide access to survey respondents) or email lists are more common.
What’s great about surveys is that you can ask many questions and get rich data for analysis. The setback is that you need to make sure you are asking the right questions. Larger-scaled surveys also can be a little pricey. But if your budget can allow for it, the rich insights you gain will be well worth the cost.
Think of web forms or feedback boxes as if they were a mini survey. Usually, they are 1-3 questions asking customers about their experiences after a purchase or visit from your store—for both online and in-person shopping. They tend to appear on the website or are sometimes sent through emails.
Web forms and feedback boxes are a good tool if you are trying to get a general pulse on satisfaction but lack if you are trying to get detailed data. For instance, if someone placed an order for a new pair of shoes off a retailer’s website, they may receive an email a couple of weeks later to review the product. This gives the retailer an idea of how the customer is feeling without getting too deep.
Focus groups
A focus group is a traditional market research method in which you take a small group of people who fit your target audience and ask them a series of open-ended questions for them to answer.
The upside to focus groups is that they provide detailed feedback from people in real-life. The downside is that they can be costly and sample size is limited. You may only have about 10 different data points to analyze. This is why focus groups are best for those who need specific answers from a particular audience but are not trying to get a wide range of responses from a large sample.
Customer interviews
Like focus groups, customer interviews grant you detailed answers to open-ended questions you ask. Because these are customers that agreed to being interviewed, the chances are that the data you receive may be skewed towards a positive bias.
However, interviews give your customers an opportunity to share their voice with you from valued personal experience. You should conduct customer interviews when trying to make informed decisions based on those who are loyal to your brand.
In the age of social media, asking for feedback on various social media platforms is more common than ever. You may notice a quick 5-point scale question pop up on your Facebook feed or a poll on an Instagram story.
What’s wonderful about social media is that you get real-time feedback from active users. But just like a web form/feedback box, the amount of feedback you get is limited. Social media should be used as a quick check-in to see how your customers are feeling, not for full-scale feedback. It’s also great if you are trying to stay connected and engaged with your audience.
Some of the greatest ideas come straight from our audiences’ minds. Getting customer feedback is essential not only to get their pulse, but to make big business decisions that meet their needs and desires. From a quick Instagram story to a major market research study, it’s time to pass the mic to the customers.
We mentioned that surveys are our favorite tool to gather customer feedback because it provides rich insights at scale. Our platform gives you an additional boost thanks to our intelligent platform that quantifies qualitative data. Let your customers’ stories and feelings come to life with our help.
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Curious for more best research practices? Check out our latest blog with all the tips and tricks on building your greatest brand awareness study.
