How to Make the Most out of Customer Feedback

How to make the most out of customer feedback and how to use customer feedback are such common questions we hear at GroHawk.

Too many businesses, despite having a good strategy for collecting feedback, simply don’t know where to go from there. Or, at least, don’t know how to move forward effectively.

As always though, us at GroHawk are here to help and fortunately, customer feedback is right up our street! If you feel your current feedback strategy isn’t seeing the results you expect, then look no further!

We’re going to fly through how to use customer feedback effectively, so you can solidify your strategy and reap the benefits of having loyal, happy customers.

Sound good? Ok, let’s do this.

Acting on Customer Feedback

Ok, so you’ve spent hours forming the perfect survey, tracking down customers and finding out what they think about you. Now what?

Getting your organisation to act upon feedback is the most necessary step in creating a strong customer feedback strategy, yet so many businesses fall at this stage. Get together with your team and have a chat about how you can act on the feedback you’re receiving.

At GroHawk, we like to split feedback into three ‘action pools’.

Pool One: These are comments that you can take action to immediately and are short-term fixes that have come about after a previous customer experience.

Here’s a classic example of a pool one case: ‘Your product was great and I got it at a great price, but it took way too long for one of your advisors to help me with my purchase’.

As you can see, these are simple fixes that you can immediately amend. So, in this case, it’s about communicating to your advisors that customers are not being seen to quick enough. Don’t let these mistakes happen again!

Pool two: These comments are ones that have become a recurring theme and so are representing are long-term impact on the customer experience.

A good example of this that your prices are too high. Although you may not be able to immediately lower the price of your product/service because of the many implications, if it is a recurring issue, then it’s going to affect customers coming in and coming back. Make a long-term plan to amend this.

Pool Three: These are game-changing ideas that your customers have identified.

Sometimes the best source of ideas comes from our customers because they see our business from a perspective which we don’t see. Don’t let these ideas slide under the bus. It’s an absolute gold mine for improving the experience for future customers.

So, now that you’ve pooled your customer feedback responses, you’ll more easily be able to strategise and look to act on these issues — meaning, hello happy customers!

Close the Loop

It always amazes me how many businesses don’t get back to their customers after they’ve given feedback. As a customer-driven business, you need to be involving your customers at all stages of the process — don’t just get their opinion then leave them in the dust.

A simple thank you is always enough to acknowledge their response and it shows that you are not just taking in their feedback just for the sake of it. You’ve got to make them feel like they are a part of the process (which they are) and just by saying thanks you immediately leave that impression.

What’s more than that though, is to get back in touch once you’ve implemented their ideas. This is vital for so many reasons. For one, customers will be more encouraged to leave comments again as they feel they are actually being listened to. Secondly, it makes them feel special! They feel a part of the organisation and the way it is being run, making them much more likely to come back to you again. Three, amplifying their sentiment gives them encouragement to go away and spread the word about you to their friends because we have started to build a two-way relationship.

All in all, you want customers to become advocates for your brand. So always be sure to get in touch and close that loop!

Track the Results

No strategy is complete unless you are actively tracking the progress and results, and that’s the same for customer feedback. Always be analysing your response rates i.e. both the quality and quantity of your results and whether the changes are actually being implemented. There’s no use having a feedback strategy without being in the know.

Regularly keep track of how your strategy is going and you’ll be sure to know what steps to take next in order to improve.

That’s all from us at GroHawk for today! Hopefully these tips will help you streamline your customer feedback strategy for the future and you can start feeling the love from your ever-expanding number of customer advocates.

Hi there! At GroHawk, we’re super passionate about businesses streamlining their customer feedback strategy. That’s why we’ve developed a platform that does all the hard work for you! Check it out and try it for FREE for as long as you like.