Your business growth can be greatly impacted by obtaining customer feedback regarding your product or service. However, gathering feedback from clients is only the initial stage of managing customer feedback. In this article, you will discover the subsequent stages and we have compiled a helpful list of customer feedback management practices and tools.
What is Customer Feedback Management
To begin, I would like to introduce the definition of Customer Feedback Management. CFM involves obtaining, incorporating, and utilizing feedback from customers obtained through various communication channels.
The feedback is assembled, blended, and evaluated. Consolidating customer feedback simplifies the administration of their opinions and enables necessary enhancements to be made to the company’s goods or services to raise their level of excellence.
Customer Feedback is Importance
The foundation for any business revenue lies in satisfying customers. To determine buyer satisfaction, simply inquire about it. Customer input provides businesses with insight into their clients’ viewpoints while also providing valuable data for analysis. Meeting customer requirements is always the best way to boost profits.
Here are a few figures that demonstrate the significance of gathering customer feedback:
- According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers research, 59% of U.S. customers will walk away after several bad experiences with the brand. 17% will do it after one accident. Worldwide it’s a higher number. 32% of unhappy customers decide to leave the brand after its first mistake. On the other hand, satisfied customers are willing to pay up to 16% for products and services of a company that takes care of them.
- Listening to negative feedback is a must. Due to the Forbes studies, a brand needs twelve positive experiences to repair damage caused by a single one. What is more, customers in the U.S. will tell about bad experiences with a brand to sixteen people. If satisfied, they will inform only nine colleagues or family members.
- Happy customers are willing to pay more. Harvard Business Review highlights that when clients enjoy positive experiences, they may spend 140% more than those who had poor experiences with a company in the past.
Best Practices for Effective Customer Feedback Management
Our understanding of the definition and significance of customer feedback established, I would like to offer our five tried-and-true guidelines for efficiently managing customer feedback.
1. Define Objectives
Customer feedback can serve various purposes. Certain companies use it to assess their clients’ contentment or loyalty, while others aim to identify the root causes of customer attrition or analyze their deficiencies relative to the competition.
It is merely an example of customer feedback for the purpose of evaluation.
Numerous uncomplicated feedback tools exist that seamlessly integrate with your support function. However, becoming overly curious may result in an overwhelming amount of customer data that requires extensive analysis to detect any trends.
Determine your requirements. You have the option to obtain input regarding the complete customer journey, a particular interaction, or possible product enhancements. It is advisable to restrict the number of surveys to avoid an excess. The crucial factor is requesting feedback solely when it is vital.
Commence your tasks by establishing objectives. Allocate some time to respond to these inquiries: What information do you intend to gather? How do you plan to utilize customer feedback? What measures should you take to maximize the usefulness of clients’ opinions for your establishment?
Optimizing the process of gathering information is possible by having specific goals.
2. Design the Feedback Process to Match your Objectives
To proceed, it is essential to identify the most effective approach to gather feedback. Reflect on your organization’s strategy to obtain customer feedback. What are the channels utilized to capture their input? The majority of companies gather customer feedback through:
- support team (customer complaints)
- social media comments
- platforms for customer input (Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, etc.)
- client’s direct contact with a salesperson
- product team (if they are testing new solutions on existing customers)
- customer relationship management tools (CRM)
- online surveys & market research
- comments about their products on the web
To align with your objectives, you need to select the appropriate metric among the Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES). For instance, NPS offers a comprehensive predictive analysis that indicates the probability of customer recommendations, which is crucial for assessing customer loyalty and retention.
CSAT determines the satisfaction percentage of customers for either your complete service or a particular department, while CES evaluates the average level of effort required by customers to complete tasks with your business, which could lead to dissatisfaction or churn. Select the feedback system that aligns with the current growth priorities for your enterprise.
Consolidating information flow is necessary for this stage of the process. Choose an approach for integrating the collected feedback and identify the individual in charge of this task. Who holds responsibility for the overall process? Effective communication within the company is crucial. Avoid regarding this as a mere obligation for salespeople or customer service representatives.
Elucidate how the entire organization can profit from the act of gathering feedback.
3. Collect Feedback
Once the purpose and format of data collection have been established, the next step is to collect customer feedback. To achieve success, it is essential to gather feedback from various sources on a daily basis and consolidate it in one location for further analysis to obtain actionable insights.
Because the organization is so large, you have the option to carry out the task manually, or by utilizing specialized software or automation.
Make sure that all feedback received from various sources is considered in the overall results. Don’t shy away from receiving feedback, whether it is positive or negative. Although receiving positive feedback is always encouraging, negative feedback from dissatisfied customers can actually bring about more beneficial improvements for your company.
Collect Feedback across Multiple Channels
Nowadays, gathering feedback has become extremely effortless. The popularity of the internet as well as social media has expanded surveys beyond the traditional means of making phone calls. With uncomplicated tools, you can transform any platform, from mobile apps to pop-ups to social media, into your preferred survey channel.
In-app surveys allow for targeted investigation of usability concerns, such as the ease of using a particular feature. On the other hand, website pop-ups provide immediate feedback on general experiences, such as overall satisfaction. Each channel serves a unique purpose, so gathering feedback through various channels can provide a more comprehensive understanding.
4. Categorize Results
Using the preceding measures would be beneficial. Are you uncertain about how to arrange client feedback? This is contingent upon the quantity of responses you have collected. Nevertheless, whether the study is comprehensive or not, employing automation software instead of manual processes would considerably simplify the task.
With the aid of professional survey software, it is possible to classify obtained feedback by utilizing tools like charts, tables, filters, and rankings. This enables you to conveniently and visibly organize the collected data and remove any inaccurate responses. Consequently, the most suitable feedback can be chosen for further examination.
Feedback for support
In 2020, the primary factor that will set a business apart from others is its ability to offer top-notch customer support. Achieving this requires setting high standards, continuously adjusting to improve, and actively listening to customer feedback. There are no shortcuts to providing exceptional service.
According to a recent survey on e-commerce, 33% of loyal customers may abandon a brand after just one negative incident, while others may take two to three bad experiences before doing the same. The good news is that you don’t have to guess what customers are thinking – they will tell you directly, and it’s up to you to take action.
Feedback on the product or user experience.
The feedback regarding a product can be categorized into technical and feature-related issues. Technical problems may include significant product glitches, performance problems, server concerns, or even trivial form submission glitches. To avoid any hindrances for your customers in accessing crucial features, your product team must quickly tackle the technical issues.
Feature issues typically pertain to requests for new features, such as incorporating a search function into your blogs or adding a wish list tab to your landing page. These requests for features do not require immediate attention.
These customer insights are invaluable and unique, not available elsewhere, and can provide qualitative feedback data through open-ended questions. They help to bring the customer’s voice to the forefront of product feature development.
7. Use Your Feedback
To begin with, I would like to clarify what a customer feedback report entails. To sum up, it is a method of displaying compiled information that emphasizes essential data and priorities. Through an effective report, you can:
- See summary results
- Observe trends
- Drew more advanced conclusions
- Create rankings
- Conduct sentiment analysis
Begin implementing actionable insights gleaned from customer feedback by breaking them down and prioritizing based on volume.
Prioritize fixing the features page that displays a 404 error over a popup that obstructs the content. It is crucial to deal with the problems that hinder your customers from utilizing your product to the fullest before tackling the frequently asked, high volume requests.
Although it is not mandatory, many companies consider it important to reach out to customers who provided feedback, whether it was positive or negative. As your customers spent time providing feedback, a follow-up on the status can not only make them feel appreciated but also motivate them to give more feedback in the future. By utilizing HappyFox Workflows, you can automatically send these follow-ups.
To effectively evaluate customer feedback, ensure that the report is accessible to all team members involved in the process. Utilize the gathered data to address the customers’ requirements and draw meaningful conclusions for the benefit of your organization.
8. Track Behavior to Optimize the Feedback Loop
It is crucial to receive feedback on your efforts to ensure maximum results. It is advisable to keep a record of the most appropriate timing for seeking customer feedback, the channel that generates the most responses, and the most compatible feedback management tool for your business.
If you conduct too many surveys, customers may not respond with enthusiasm, while infrequent surveys may cause you to miss out on potential opportunities. Certain businesses evaluate surveys based on demographic information to accommodate audiences in various time zones. It’s essential to dedicate time to refine your feedback gathering approach and stay updated on emerging practices.
9. Use Feedback for Internal Brainstorming
Great ideas are possessed by customers, each of whom has a unique journey that results in unique feedback. Disregarding trends and market research, the ultimate purpose of every customer’s feedback is to enhance your product and service.
Incorporating customer feedback into internal brainstorming sessions can foster a customer-centric atmosphere throughout the organization. Amidst conflicting ideas, the input of customers can provide a necessary equilibrium, as they are typically correct.
10. Establish a Formal VOC Program
The implementation of a Voice of the Customer (VOC) program involves gathering and analyzing customer feedback, which is then utilized to actively support the growth of the business. By establishing a structured VOC program, the feedback system can be prevented from becoming disorganized. This program is applicable to the entire organization and encourages participation from various departments.
Useful Customer Feedback Management Tools
It’s time to select the ideal customer feedback management system that will cater to your requirements. There are various software and CRMs available that can simplify the process of collecting and analyzing customer feedback. We have chosen to present you with three commonly used solutions. In each section, we have included additional tools that offer similar functions and could be beneficial for you.
Online Survey Software
Almost all of the tasks associated with efficient management of customer feedback in accordance with the aforementioned top recommendations can be addressed with the use of expert online survey software.
Using survey tools such as Startquestion enables you to carry out numerous customer experience studies, allowing you to obtain valuable feedback on every aspect of the customer journey. These surveys can cover a variety of metrics including Customer Effort Score (CES), Net Promoter Score (NPS), which gauges customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Customer Complaints, Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Expectations, Product Feedback and Customer Churn, an effective means of retaining customers.
With just one click, various personalized reports can be quickly generated and downloaded. Moreover, these reports are simple to export and distribute to associates.
