Are your customers truly happy with your products or services? It's important to know -- the answers could shape what you offer in the future, how you price it, or where you sell it.
But everyone is sick of those annoying pop-up online surveys, and of auto-robot phone surveys, too.
How can you get more honest feedback from your customers? Here are some tips from marketing consultant Carol Beesley, who works with the Small Business Administration -- plus a couple ideas that have worked for me.
1. Take an online survey. You might include a link to a survey on Survey Monkey -- or one of the other free, easy survey tools -- in a product receipt, for instance.
2. Take an online poll. There's a reason polls are popular -- people love to spout off their opinions! Polls somehow seem more intriguing and less compulsory than customer surveys. Create one as a blog post on your company blog, or post it on your company Facebook fan page -- Facebook provides a super-easy tool for setting it up, and there are a few outside apps that work well, too.
3. Ask what else you should do. Many companies are all about getting feedback on that thing the customer just bought. But chatting up customers about what else they'd like to see from your company can open the door to great new revenue-generating ideas.
4. Offer a prize. I've had a lot of success combining surveys with a contest, as in "the person who submits the most interesting question (or answer) wins a ticket to my bootcamp." Or a free half-hour consultation. Or a free lunch. Or a chance to take home the first one of your new product. Be creative.
5. Give every participant something. Do a one-day giveaway for every customer who offers you some feedback in a 24-hour period. This can be a great way to find out what's on customers' minds that could help you design a new product. For instance, I got great information by doing free blog review days on my writing blog, in the process gleaning information about my prospects' problems that helped me create Webinars tailored to meet their needs. In exchange, all the prospects got a little free advice. These may take a time or money investment, but they are terrific for engaging customers and building their loyalty to your brand.
6. Check your feedback on other platforms. If you sell on eBay or Amazon.com -- or have the kind of product that might get a review on Yelp -- keep an eye on the customer reviews. Also watch Twitter for mentions of your company or product name to spot complaints.
7. Create a community. One of the best ways to learn what people really think is to eavesdrop. If you create a community forum on your website, Facebook, or even on a site of its own, you can simply read the forum chat threads and learn how customers use your products or services, and whether they're pleased with the experience. The advantage here is the market research angle is much less overt, and customers may be more honest with each other than they might if they talked directly with you.
How do you get good online customer feedback? Leave a comment and tell us your approach.
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Comments:
Really helps if you have a social relationship with your customers because this makes them feel loved by you. Having nice relationships with your clients really helps in not only achieving success in your business but it also helps you in strengthening your relationship with them...
This information is very good for me . Very spacial thanks to Author of this article
Has anybody found a good form or questionnaire for soliciting written testimonials from customers?
I wanted to add http://www.mobosurvey.com to this list of survey tools. Mobosurvey helps you quickly create online surveys that are accessible from any internet capable devices. Your users can access the same survey from their smart phones, tablets, laptops, or desktops at anytime.
Hi Tice. Well said. As you mentioned above, it is very important to conduct a survey in the customers about our products. It is more helpful in selling the customers acceptable products at an affordable cost so that we may get good results in our business.
Great comments. Couldn't agree more. The comments about "prizes" are spot on. When you reward a person for feedback you may get more quantity but usually not better quality. Customer feedback is all about easy and fast. You need to make it easy for customers to share and also it needs to be easy for the company to use the information. When companies use comment cards it often makes it too hard for the company to use. Most business owners don't have extra time to tabulate results. It needs to be easy for the owner to see the comments and take action. As others have mentioned taking action not only increases response rates it also improves the company. After all customer feedback is a critical tool needed for long term business success! Chief Feedback Officer http://feedbackrevolutionqr.com/
All good points except for the prize, as customers are only too glad to talk about good or bad service. If you act upon responses, they will continue, otherwise they will not complete any further surveys. Good questions to ask are simply - what should we continue doing? What should we stop doing or fix? Then fix it.
Carol, Thanks for posting this. You've outlined some very valid options for companies to utilize in order to collect their customers feedback. I don't feel that many companies do a very good job at this and those that do don't do a very good job utilizing the information that their feedback programs provide. However, I do wonder about your points about providing a prize or a contest for filling out a customer satisfaction survey. Don't you feel that this strategy would effect customer responses as they are more focused on getting to the prize than they are on answering the questions? We've been helping companies collect customer feedback for over 20 years and think that the number 1 way of enticing honest feedback from customers is to actually act on the information that they provide and thank them for their time. Great post! Allen http://www.service800inc.com
Getting the reviews from the customer has be the major part of the business and to make the business, people friendly and for the needed change in the business as per the customer need. Website is the best option to get the reviews as build one section in the website and to allow people to post whatever they think on the business. And social media is also the best option to get the feedback and advice from the people.