5 Different Methods to Get Customer Feedback in 2021
- Name
- Deeksha Asiwal
- Published on
Customer feedback – the voice of the masses. That, which holds so much power over your firm and initiatives, that in this day and age, it would be impossible to think of running a successful enterprise without partaking in the activity of customer feedback.
A business that is able to understand the value of continuing to compose feedback from their customers, always commands great faith and loyalty within their consumer base. An approach towards customer feedback that is proactive is the one that yields results that do not wander too far off the needs of one’s customer. Learn it, remember it and recite it like a mantra.
If you are unsure of how to go about collecting your customer’s feedback in this “untact” age of 2021, fear not, dear child! For us folks here at Hellonext are forever ready to be your strength and steed in this hour! Just follow along and be sure to check us out at here to fulfill your feedback needs!
First of all, some of you may be wondering, well why do we need feedback in the first place? Just like we had explained so delicately here in our blog titled on how to analyze customer feedback, we wonder if you would really need a brush up on the same.
O ye of little faith – I will be more than glad to help you jog your memories!
The need for customer feedback is drawn from four main circumstances-
To get better – A product that is not dynamic can be brushed off as lifeless, hence, it almost becomes imperative for us to be ensuring that we make sure our customers know that we hear them and we understand their needs and will always endeavor to improve and incorporate changes into our product and services as per current needs.
To have reliable data sources – We know the truth better heard from the horse’s mouth itself, so why not ask our dear customers directly where and how they would like changes to be seen in the work that we provide for them. This would eliminate the need for any unnecessary assumptions and give you some solid “big data” to work with and focus on the way forward.
To ensure customer retention – Does it ever happen that when there is some sort of a big sad and you are feeling down and out, you watch rom-coms that give long monologues where someone says something along the lines of “I hope you are able to leave relationships where you are not equals.” and then you’re like, damn right sister! No? me neither. But this is some good food for thought where you make sure you are doing enough to make the customer feel valued. Asking their opinion through feedback is one of those ways, and then implementing or even evaluating their feedback (which they have written out for you by specifically taking out time and resources from their busy schedules) is even more treasured.
To stay ahead in the game – Let us be pragmatic here now, we agree that nobody in this world is invincible, surely? Utilizing our resources to understand your own products' strengths and weaknesses will be able to keep you afloat and beat competitors, securing your position in the market. There are various tools on social media, written reviews as well as the websites of competitors that will be able to give you an insight into what customers think of their brand.
Take it this way, if some of this feedback is negative, it will help you understand how you can make your product better so as to avoid these pitfalls. Hence, your product will help you lawfully swipe away some of their customers, eventually helping you overtake your competitor’s market share! Wouldn’t that be golden 😉
Now that we have gotten the whys out of the way, let's huddle up for the hows – in true millennial style, here we are sharing five of our most valuable methods of obtaining customer feedback!
Paper feedback
On the website
On social media platforms
Through emails
Within a software
The Good ol’ paper feedback 📜
If you are a brick-and-mortar company, and regularly like to passionately wag your finger at the importance of “touch-connection” in this pandemic era – you are not alone! Lots of our customers have been stuck in their homes and are losing contact among themselves and are frankly, a little bit tired of the online workspace. Sometimes, the last thing someone needs is another online survey. Well, have no fear! Paper has always been our savior here! While this works best if you are able to operate offline, it has its benefits for those of us who are working through our days from our screens too! Once you make are able to make a sale, try and hand over a feedback survey leaflet along with the receipt of the item. You will get extra points for designing it with your brand’s image in mind and leaving a small smile on your customer’s face – promise!
Another way that we personally are big fans in our heart is back when we were able to write our thoughts in those little “slam-books” at the till or the register of the firm and write down our thoughts for the next person to directly see. Doesn’t it bring back memories from the days of our youth? Cannot believe we are now old enough to have a perpetual backache now. This kind of particular feedback is present in the full view of at least the next row of five persons standing behind your customer at the till – so be sure to only ask for the feedback when you feel it will work out in your favor.
On your website 💻 👨🏻
Another incredibly uncomplicated way of gathering feedback would simply be through gathering user feedback using your website. This can include checking out the site’s heatmap analysis, which is quite simply the process of reviewing and analyzing heat map data to gather insights about user interaction on the page.
You will be able to check whether your customer is doing on your website what you intended for her to do – i.e., clicking on the page’s key elements like the links or CTAs. This data analysis can lead to improved site designs with lower bounce rates, fewer drop-offs, more pageviews, and better conversion rates. These results can be even more effective by running usability tests (like A/B testing).
Another technique of making use of your website may be simply having a chatbot asking your customers a few questions with regards to the feedback; while offering a percentage of discount as a part of their next purchase, as an added incentive for the customer to actually partake in the feedback. How this works out for an individual enterprise’s revenue model is the owner’s discretion, however, it is again a fast and easy method of collecting customer feedback. The same can be done with the help of a live-chat option too.
Lastly, recent times have seen an uptick in pop-up options requesting customer feedback and even a rating on an application store. This is done specifically once the customer has made a purchase so that we are sure that the user is currently “in use” of the service. If the user is particularly pleased with the smoothness of delivery and the user interface, a pop-up leading directly to the app store will be an uncomplicated way of collecting feedback.
The Social Network 📲🤳
With the onset of infinite scroll and the viral trends that are taking over our online social spaces, the sheer amount of time that is being spent online is becoming more and more prominent.
Using your social media profile to respond to customer feedback will be quicker and more dynamic. By monitoring your users’ @ mentions either manually or by making use of software, you will be aware of timelines where your brand name has been stated. The same can be applied for keeping an eye out on the competition as well.
Social media giants such as Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook is now hosting a fun “yes” and “no” questions on the story of your profile. You can go ahead and conduct surveys, polls, requests to answer in detail from your customer using your social media profile. This not only gives you a sure-shot way of obtaining customer feedback but also makes sure that your social media profile stays relevant by appearing on users’ feeds more often and for a much longer time.
You can also just straight away conduct a chat option on your Twitter profile in order to undeviatingly ask at the launch of a new product if there is any particular work-type or feature that they enjoy or conversely, would prefer looked into.
Using emails 📧❗️
Email is arguably one of the simplest methods to gather customer feedback. We know that most companies use emails and e-newsletters as forms of support for the post-purchase experience, you can use each interaction as an opportunity to gather feedback.
By using an email system to send your customer a personalized follow-up message that encourages them to provide you with customer feedback on any positive or negative aspects of using your service would be a crucial way of collecting this customer feedback. If they’ve had a great experience, you could respond back by email with a discounted offer to encourage them to buy more. If an experience has been negative, you could help solve their problem immediately rather than forcing them to leave their feedback in a forum where everyone can see it.
A simple question such as “How would you rate our xx today? Excellent/Good/Not Good?” will be a great indication of the mood of the customer. What is more, is that there are various providers that can assist companies with automating this process, and many of them will ensure that reviews are distributed amongst the most important channels, like Facebook, Google, TripAdvisor, and Yelp.
Whilst you are designing your feedback email, it might be a good idea if you aim to keep it short, use a straightforward design, ask questions that inform your goals, and think about making the email and enclosed survey compatible with mobile devices too. We all know how there is nothing worse than a customer deleting your feedback email on their phone simply because they could not view it properly. This looks very unprofessional for your business and might cause you to lose that customer. And, as we said before, there ain’t nothing wrong with some sweet sweet discount! So, if you want a customer to give their feedback by email, give them a reason to want you to provide you with this.
Even better, the customer feedback that you wish to seek from new customers by email could include the reason why they were dissatisfied with a previous supplier for a similar product. You could also discover what a customer liked about their previous supplier so you could aim to beat that competitor with your offering.
With the help of software 🤗
Are you worried about struggling with and sifting through tons of customer feedback on your own? Does the presence of big data still haunt your dreams at night? Hellonext.co can be your knight in shining armor with our feature voting and customer feedback management tool for product owners and SaaS companies. We would be able to provide you with a simple tool to collate your customer feedback analyses in a central place to let them voice out their views on your product. Instead of using multiple tools to gather customer feedback, we build HelloNext, the central source for all your customer feedback.
With Hellonext, you can have your product’s own feedback portal where users can share their feedback or suggestion about your product or service. You also get to keep those users updated with information about how you are addressing their feedback.
A feature voting tool like Hellonext takes it one step forward; by setting up your own platform to have your users vote on features that they need to use your product better. Once you sign up with us, you can instantaneously start collecting feedback directly from your users by using our dynamic feedback boards.
Additionally, I feel like I don’t say this enough, but we are proud owners of a zero-tracking policy, so that your data is yours to keep!
There have been various updates to the tool since last summer, the most major one being for the contextual setting. These settings are easier for you to understand and take action on. You can now control the Roadmap and Changelog settings from your Admin Dashboard.
So far, we have seen how to make the most of all the feedback tools that are present in our vicinity. We hope that you are able to realise that in order to make sure that your business is able to withstand both fire and ice, you understand that customer feedback is basically ambrosia.
Your customers are your best companions when it comes to checking the longevity of your brand since these are the group of people who use your service practically on a daily basis. Making use of customer feedback will ensure that you seek your customers’ fidelity and are able to spread your good word far and out. Just like we have explained in this blog to you, what you seek is seeking you – meaning that customer feedback is all around you! 😉
All that is left for you to do is to pick the collection method most suited to your enterprise, and get started! Once you’ve done that, you can focus on building a great long-term relationship with your customers. Still not sure how to start your customer feedback journey? Contact us at Hellonext; we’re happy to help you experience the simple yet effective power of listening to a customer.