Table of Contents
Everything your customers do is feedback.
People act in certain ways because of the specific inputs they receive. And this includes your customers. It is simplified, of course. Yet, it is true and can be easily seen. You just need to look and read their actions. If you can evaluate these actions correctly, you will have a lot of data to use to your advantage.
You will get feedback from your customers even if you do nothing. People like to share their thoughts; they believe what they think is important. What’s more, they love when someone asks their opinions. Then, they think about what they think is important to you. And it is. In this article, you will learn the details and benefits of different feedback collection methods.
6 Methods to collect customer feedback
Gathering data and insights from customers often leads to new perspectives for your brand and company. Every idea you get from your environment is actually a step for the development of your brand. There are also many ways to collect this feedback, and each can have different advantages.
Direct communication and focus groups
Direct communication or focus groups are one of the most effective ways to collect customer feedback. However, besides being one of the most effective methods, they are also a method that is difficult to apply. The first reason they are effective is that you can talk directly without putting a barrier between you and your customers. Customers will likely prefer to give their most honest answers to your questions, which means you can get data about your company.
Surveys
Another effective method of collecting customer feedback is surveys. Surveys are a method that almost everyone prefers to use so that they can be delivered to thousands of people fastly. With surveys, business owners can have data collection on many topics because they can create different types of questions, such as opinion scales, open-ended questions, multiple selections…
There are many online survey makers where you can create these surveys, and you can use these tools to get opinions from customers on any subject you want. Moreover, most survey makers also allow you to embed your surveys on your website or share them on your social media accounts.
Social media
Social media, used quite frequently today, is a great tool for gathering customer insights. Whether your customers are satisfied with you or complain, they will definitely find your social media accounts and comment on your product. In addition, you can ask questions about customer experience from these social media accounts and try to learn their opinions.
Emails
In order to have a good customer experience, emails are another successful customer feedback tool. It is also a very useful method in terms of workload, as emails can be sent automatically. Sending an email after a customer has purchased a product or contacted customer service can be a great time to send an email. Customers learn in no time that they can share all their experiences with your company.
Website analytics
If you are trying to market a service rather than a product, this method will be more suitable for you. Analyzing your website helps you understand which page your customers spend the most time on and where they leave your site. With these analyzes, you will understand what aspects you lack and have time to improve.
Feedback sites and apps
Many customers want to learn from other users’ experiences and reviews before purchasing something. Especially bad reviews make your brand notorious. You can make some changes based on these customers’ complaints and encourage the customer who did a bad review to correct their comments.
How to evaluate feedback data and take action
After learning about feedback collection methods, you may have questions about interpreting this data. Data are divided into two as, quantitative and qualitative, and they have complementary properties. Quantitative data is a type of data that is easier to measure, objective, precise, and based on numerical values. Qualitative data, on the other hand, is the data that you obtain while answering open-ended questions, which has no mathematical value.
While conducting a survey , you should evaluate some metrics to get data that can be measured and compared. Some of these metrics are NPS, CSAT, and CES. For example, to calculate the NPS (net promoter score), you need to subtract the percentage of detractors from the rate of the promoter, so the result you find will be your NPS.
Wrapping it up
Briefly, customer interaction and gathering customer feedback have crucial roles in marketing. To fulfill customers’ expectations, you should consider what they are thinking about your product or service. That’s why there are a lot of customer feedback strategies you should try out. Focus groups, social media, and surveys are just some of them. According to your need and opportunity, you can benefit from the most suitable methods for collecting feedback.
