Whether your company is long established with a loyal customer base or a new business just getting started, you must pay heed to what your customers have to say about you. Their feedback is one of your most valuable assets.
Whether you conduct regular satisfaction surveys, encourage your clients to leave Google reviews or analyse consumer opinion on social media, customer feedback will help you improve your product or service offering and, therefore, your business overall.
Sure, this can be a time-consuming process, one that you may struggle to prioritise, but it’s time to rethink the issue. Here, we present three reasons why taking the time to listen to your customers is well worth the investment.
Improve Your Products and Services
You may think that you know what your customers want or need, but you can never be sure unless you ask them.
Your customers are on the receiving end of your product or service, in some cases, daily. Their feedback about performance and what could be improved are invaluable market insights. What’s more, the needs and expectations of consumers inevitably change over time. What might have been a perfect match yesterday may not be so today.
Regularly checking in with your clients will help you to stay on top of changing market trends or even help you gather insights to stay ahead of the pace.
Increase Customer Retention
Asking customers for their views and opinions is a great way to demonstrate how much you value their business. As a result, you will strengthen the relationship with those customers. They will feel that your primary goal is to solve their problems and help them fulfil their goals, rather than simply taking their money.
In addition, research tells us that customers who feel as though they’ve had a hand in shaping a company’s products and services are more likely to remain faithful to that brand.
As well as increased customer retention, this improved sense of loyalty will also see consumers emerge as brand ambassadors for your business, spreading positive word-of-mouth referrals and all-around good PR – for free!
A Rich Source of Data that Improves Business Decisions
In today’s highly competitive market, important decisions about your business – expanding into a new market, upgrading an existing product, or investing in a new service – need a sound evidence base. Rather than relying on guesswork or a hunch, consumer insights will help you to develop future business strategies and align your products and services so that they are a perfect fit for your target market.
The customer should be at the heart of everything you do because if you ignore the consumer’s voice, then the danger is they will find a competitor who does listen.
The Bottom Line
Make sure you take every opportunity to engage with your customers. Run regular surveys, analyse online reviews and collect social media opinions. You’ll soon discover that it’s not as big a task as you had perhaps anticipated. And, with the potential rewards on offer, you can’t afford to ignore the feedback.