Customer Opinion - What Do Customers Actually Think About Your Business?
An important thing to understand in business is what customers actually think about your business. We don’t just mean surface perception - we mean real feedback and useful opinions that you can use to benefit your business and help it grow.
After all, without customers, no business can hope to survive. It is therefore important to have a variety of methods of gaining customer opinion. Also, it is important to understand how to use that feedback to make improvements to your business. We take a look at both these things below!
How to get valuable customer feedback
First, you must know how to get customer feedback. It must be the right type of feedback. I.e. opinions and information that has a basis in truth, and really reflects how your customers feel about your business - no fake rubbish from people who just want freebies! There are some simple things you can do to obtain customer opinions that will genuinely help your business:
Product Reviews & Ratings
One of the best things you can do is to allow customers to leave product reviews and ratings on your website. Many online store builders like Shopify and Square have the ability to add product rating and product review widgets to your products.
The rating system is a simple thing that allows you to see which products are performing better. Also, product reviews can give you greater insight into what customers liked and disliked about your products/services. Always remember to see each review from an objective viewpoint. This is because people can often be overly negative or positive, depending on their experience with your business.
Social Media user Content
Social media interactions are another simple and effective way to gauge customer opinion. If you have an active social media presence, you can read through the comments left by users. Do they like your content? What have they said about your products and services?
Different social media platforms also have an array of tools that allow you to get better insight too. For example, Facebook has an option to add polls to your posts.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires are also a brilliant way to gain more in-depth and valuable feedback. There are many online platforms you can use to create questionnaires like freeonlinesurverys.com and Smart Survey.
You must craft your questionnaires carefully and include questions that will give information that you can utilize for improvements. Also, to make sure that customers engage with the survey, you should offer them some type of benefit. For example, a common method is to do a prize giveaway. This could be something like all customers who complete the questionnaire are automatically entered into a prize draw.
How to use that feedback to improve your business
Now that you have a range of different methods of obtaining info, you must put the data to good use. The most important thing you can do is listen to customer feedback, make changes, and show your customers that you have heard them.
Customers who feel that their opinion is valued are far more likely to make repeat purchases, and also sing the praises of your business to others. For example, perhaps most customers say your business logo needs improving from a questionnaire about branding. From this, you could use a free platform like LogoCreator to improve the design or make a completely new logo.
Spending time reading customer feedback is vital to the success of your business. Generally, customers can give you the best insight into your business, and how it could improve so always listen to them, and never simply disregard their opinion!
Cheers,
Boyd Fuller
