One of the best ways to grow your business is by improving your customer retention. According to Salesforce, 80% of customers say customer service matters just as much as the service or product itself. 98% of consumers look at reviews online before deciding on making a purchase, and tend to trust businesses with high quantity reviews, according to a study by BrightLocal.
Embracing customer feedback gives your business a competitive edge over other businesses like yours. The quicker you implement a customer feedback protocol, the tighter your innovation cycles are. This makes it quicker for you to outpace competitors.
Types of Customer Feedback for Your Small Business
Unprompted customer feedback such as reviews or social media posts require online monitoring. BrightLocal states, “Over three-quarters of U.S. consumers consume video content when looking for information about local businesses.” Publicly responding to both positive and negative reviews shows your loyalty to making your customer happy.
Prompted customer feedback is feedback that your business goes out and seeks, such as customer satisfaction surveys, customer testimonials, and post-purchase emails. Both methods of customer feedback provide information on the products and performance of your small business.
How To Use Customer Feedback for Innovation Cycles
An innovation cycle is the time between launching a product, process or standard, and implementing a new iteration based on ideas and feedback. An innovation cycle doesn’t have to begin as a solution to a problem. To give your business the best chances at keeping customers happy, sometimes you need to ‘fix what’s not broken’ to stay ahead of competitors.
Your business can implement survey results with platforms like Google Forms, Survey Monkey, or provide a link to an open-ended forum on the transaction receipt. When you have a base of responses, you can then quantify the findings. How many customers mentioned a specific product? How many times was a service mentioned? Take that feedback and revisit those products and services. By updating your product, you are giving your business the opportunity to adapt to consumer trends.
It’s important to keep an open mind when receiving feedback. Don’t be alarmed if feedback isn’t all positive. Often times, a negative review is the pushing force you need to make a good product, great!