Get expert advice on every topic you need as a small business owner, from the ideation stage to your eventual exit. Our articles, quick tips, infographics and how-to guides can offer entrepreneurs the most up-to-date information they need to flourish.
Posted by Neha De
December 1, 2020
Did you know that 62 percent of consumers say they are more likely to buy a company’s product/service if the company asks for their opinions, according to research? Knowing what your customers are saying about your business can help you gain insights that you can use to improve your product/service and better target customer needs.
But how do you find out what your customers actually think about you? While there are many ways of collecting feedback from customers, here are the most popular ones:
However, one important thing to remember is that you must never ask too many questions as part of the survey, and you should strive to keep it as short as possible. According to QuickTapSurvey, “The connection between the number of questions in a survey and the time spent answering each question is not linear. The more questions you ask, the less time your respondents spend, on average, answering each question.” Essentially, the more questions you ask your survey participants, the more likely they are to rush through, ultimately affecting the quality and reliability of the data.
In order to keep the surveys short, you must only ask questions that deliver your end goals. It is also important to ensure that every question you ask serves a clear purpose.
Additionally, multiple-choice questions will usually provide answers based on your own assumptions; therefore, ask open-ended questions to know what the customer is actually thinking.
However, for this method to work, you have to be genuinely interested in wanting to understand any problems your customers may be facing and offer solutions. Never treat these as sales calls.
Ensure that the boards are easy to navigate, and the users are able to add new posts conveniently. The key here is to create relevant categories and make them searchable.
You can use a service such as Aha! to create suggestion boards.
You can use this tool to know when new information is posted that mentions you or your organization’s name, or any other parameters you set up including press releases, new articles or reviews.
Another way to follow what people are saying about your brand is to use hashtags on social media sites.
A tool like Sentiment can help you track and monitor your company’s online presence by searching through social networks, photo and video sharing websites, review sites and so on to find mentions about your business.
To know what your customers are looking for, you can offer a survey while they are using the app. However, keep the survey short, and stick to two or three questions that are pertinent to the page where they’re displayed.
You can use a platform like Intercom to trigger in-app surveys.
If you handle it right, the conversation between your brand and your consumers can become the biggest growth driver for your company. Here are three ways you can make the most of customer feedback:
One of the best examples of how customer insights can be used for product development is LEGO IDEAS. Here, anyone can submit their own designs and the ones that get more than 10,000 votes from the community undergo review. And if the review is favorable, they are turned into new LEGO sets.
Alternately, in case of negative reviews, share them with the person who built the feature and let them talk to the angry customer directly, so that they feel in charge of that feature and will be prepared to take more ownership in the future.
We provide you with essential business services so you can focus on growth.
