Change is a vital part of the success and growth of your business. Regardless of how many innovations your team produces, you can come up with great ideas when you welcome the customer voice to the mix. The best businesses know it’s the customer that drives profitability and their wants should be a top priority. Is your small business putting customer feedback to good use? If not, you may be wasting valuable insights. Click To Tweet
Use Customer Feedback to Improve Your Offerings
To improve your current product or service, consider the following ideas to put the real-life customer experience to work for you:
Know How to Ask
Displeased customers are very quick to voice that displeasure either online or with direct contact, but getting constructive feedback from customers who had a generally positive experience with your business can be surprisingly difficult. Offer some kind of incentive for filling out a survey, or politely ask for a positive review online with comments about what they liked/didn’t like about the process.
Keep Track of Your Customer Wish List
Your employees probably talk to customers more frequently than you do, so remind them that if they hear a customer say, “I wish this product did this,” or “It would be awesome if your company provided this service,” they should take note. Team members should immediately share customer wish-lists with the people who develop new products or services. These ideas can improve your offerings while helping to forecast a potential path forward.
Pro Tip: When customers tell you what improvements or offerings they’d like to see you provide, listen and act!
Remember That Customers Don’t Always Know What They Want
Keep in mind that customers don’t always recognize that they need different products or services until someone offers them. Consider infomercials, which produce billions of dollars in sales by solving a problem customers didn’t know they had until watching an infomercial.
Don’t Forget the Details
Your customers notice things you may not even be aware of. For example, a poor quality printed brochure, or a long wait to print a simple document are overlooked aspects of your business that do get noticed. Investing in the right equipment, such as a high-quality Sharp MFP, will ensure that you’re always able to provide customers with professionally printed materials without delay.
Creating Brand Advocates
Encouraging feedback does more than get customers to express their needs and opinions. Customer involvement creates a partnership with your brand. This is a relationship that your customers recognize, value and tell prospective customers about.
Contact Us to learn more about using customer feedback to better your business.