Although there is probably an unlimited number of ways in which you can improve and grow your business, customer feedback should definitely be at the top of your list. It can help you establish trust with potential customers, develop brand loyalty, and make your company come off as more authentic and personable, as opposed to being some generic corporate entity. Best of all, customer reviews are applicable to pretty much any industry, niche, or type of business you are in. It doesn’t matter if you are developing apps, running a writing service, or selling artisanal products.
If you are serious about growing your business through customer feedback, here are 7 ways in which they can help you do so:
- Customer Feedback Adds Credibility
Nowadays, people are looking for something authentic and genuine, which means they are more likely to purchase a service or product if it has been rated positively by an influencer, or another customer. Moreover, 94% of buyers trust influencer’s recommendation more than the opinion of friends or family. And don’t just focus on the positive customer feedback either. Throw in some negative reviews as well. They will add another level of credibility to your business, plus you can easily balance them out by adding more positive ones. You can add them to your website or a blog.
- Boost Your Customers’ Loyalty
Building customer loyalty takes a while, but you can speed up the process by asking your customers to share their own experiences and thoughts about your service or product. The truth is, people like to talk about themselves, their experiences, and voice their opinions, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to get them to talk about the purchases they have made with your company. All you have to do is ask. In the end, they will establish a more personal connection with your brand, because you have placed value on their opinion.
- Better Sales
When you go on Amazon or eBay in order to buy an item, you’ll probably spend quite a bit of time reading all the relevant user reviews. In fact, in addition to product specification, features, and price, customer feedback is probably the most influential factor we rely on for most purchases. Let’s say you are looking at the same product, which has the same price, only the first one also has 15 reviews, and the second one has none. You are probably more likely to opt for the first one, and that’s how most of your customers will think, as well.
- You Can Demonstrate Your Responsiveness
This is why you should always allow comments on your blog or website. You are bound to get some bad reviews along the way, and the best way to remedy them, is to address them personally in a polite and constructive way. Acknowledge the issue and try to come up with a solution. Other customers will start viewing you as someone who cares about their problems, and has taken the time to deal with them.
- You Can Build a Better Team
Customer reviews can also help you improve the performance of your team. How so? Well, you can ask them to fill out a survey regarding the quality of the service. No matter how small your team of employees is, you will have to wear many hats, and you won’t be able to keep tabs on all of them all the time. Georgia Felten , a Sales Director from Resumes Planet shares her insight: “Using customer feedback, you can gain an insight into which employees are helping your company do better, and which ones are actually causing you to lose customers. Ultimately, you can reward the good ones and motivate them to do even better, and replace the ones which are hurting your business.”
- See How Your New Product Is Received
Every now and then, you will need to come up with a new product, or an improved version of your existing one. Customer reviews are probably the best and most direct way of finding out how well your product has been received among those which have purchased it. By allowing them to leave feedback, you will know which features they like, which ones they hate, and which ones are good, but too complex to use. This will enable you to use that knowledge and ultimately improve your product.
- Giving People What They Want
In addition to all of the above, customer feedback can also be used to navigate the company. You can do all the guessing you want and perform market research you want, but if the customers are telling what they want and need, then you should definitely listen.
Conclusion
As you can see, customer feedback can be used to improve nearly every aspect of your business, ranging from customer loyalty and product quality, to building a more efficient team and company. Start using them to your advantage today. Good luck!
About the author:
Micheal Gilmore is a career advisor at Study clerk. He specializes in building high-performance teams and delivering great products in the least time. Micheal is also a passionate blogger and facilitator. His life is fully dedicated to the people. You can catch Micheal on Twitter.