How to Improve your Business by Smartly Using Feedback from clients and customers
About asking the correct things, implementing, improving and more…
Many entrepreneurs are struggling with questions like: ‘What is the best way to ask for feedback?’ and ‘How do I use feedback correctly?’
Improving your business can be challenging, maybe even more so when you already have experience and long term clients. But no matter if you are a new business owner or a veteran in your field, you cannot improve when you don’t know what to ask and how to use feedback.
Keep reading if you want to learn how to improve your business using nothing but feedback.
How to ask for feedback:
Every client, new or old, can help you with his or her knowledge about the service or product you provide. These clients can help you to solve their problems better and faster, but also increase your sales and give you fresh ideas to attract new clients. But the only way to get them to share this knowledge is by asking them the correct things and implementing their feedback.
Below, you will find 11 good questions to ask for feedback:
1: Are you happy with the results from our product/service?
Just a simple Yes or No can make a world of difference and might open up new questions to ask and find the core problem in case they are not pleased with the result.
2: Please tell us more about the interaction with our employees:
Find out if your employees (if applicable) did all they could to give your clients a pleasant experience. Try to find out if your service can be better in any way, in order to help your clients in a better way next time.
3: Could you easily find what you needed?
If you cannot provide the correct service for your clients, they will not come back but instead go to your competitor. Being easy to find will help other prospects to find you and work with you, you can think of an easy to find website with the correct keywords etc. Learn how accessible you are for prospects and try to think of ways to improve your ‘findability’.
4: How easy was it to buy our product/service?
After prospects find you they want to buy from you if there is a good match, but if your prospect has to wait in line for a long time they might choose not to buy from you. There can be many things that will make people walk away from you, so try to make buying from as easy as possible.
5: How likely is it for you to repeat your business with us?
The answer you want is very likely, and you should always aim to get this answer. But when you get a negative answer more often than once, then try to find a pattern. And when you find the pattern/reason, fix it…ASAP…
6: Did you feel comfortable working with us?
If your customers feel underwhelmed or disappointed with your product or service, it could be a signal for you to adjust your service and/or the customer journey accordingly.
7: What is the positive thing you remember most from your experience with us?
Let’s stay positive and ask for positive feedback, knowing the answer to this insightful question will make you smile.
8: Why did you decide to do business with us?
Customers have many choices when it comes to buying, but there is a main reason why they choose to do business with you. Knowing this reason will give you a better insight into your main strength when it comes to attracting more customers and differentiate you from your competitors.
9. Is there a service or product you wish for, but that we do not offer at the moment?
Maybe you will be able to expand your business using the answers to this question.
10: How can we exceed your expectations?
Meeting expectations is normal for you, but knowing how to make your customers say ‘wow’ will make you stand out from the crowd.
11: Is there something else you would like to share with us regarding your experience with us?
You cannot have the perfect questions to ask each customer, therefore it’s a good idea to give them an opportunity to say more.
Always ask customers for feedback in order to learn more about your own business.
Try to ask them right after you delivered your product or service to keep their minds fresh. Incorporate fresh or even real-time feedback into your customer service model and enjoy open communication with your customers.
This will lead to long term clients and consequently better business results.
How to handle feedback from clients and customers:
The experience your customers have with you will determine if you will be successful or not. Online reviews are a powerful tool to showcase your knowledge and experience, it is needless to say that you always strive to get positive feedback but sometimes you will receive negative feedback. Below I will explain to you how I handle both positive and negative feedback and how I implement it in my business.
How to manage Positive Feedback
Responding to positive feedback is often overlooked by many but doing so is important. As a business owner, you must also reply to positive feedback and not only to negative feedback since every customer likes to be heard. Replying to positive feedback will likely turn your already happy customers into loyal long term clients.
How to respond to positive feedback:
Focus on the positive
Why does this customer like their experience with you? Try to read between the lines when customers leave positive feedback and try to find the main reason why they left positive feedback. Then use their main reason in your response, for example, fast delivery time or good pricing.
When you share some insight on the reason why your service worked so well for this client, other potential clients might be attracted by the way you deliver your service and/ or product.
Recognize the staff and share successes
Good feedback will build a good reputation for your business and will motivate your team(s). Often, success is a team effort and everyone in your team deserves to feel part of this success.
Sometimes a customer will praise a specific person in your team, make this team member feel valued by mentioning them in your response to the client or in the online review.
Don’t be afraid to say thank you
Always thank people that leave feedback, no matter if it’s positive or negative. People take their time to leave you a review and these should be rewarded by a simple thank you. Responding to each review also shows customers that you care about them and their opinions. Make your responses personal by using their first name where possible and try to use a specific detail from their review/feedback.
How to respond to negative feedback:
Receiving negative feedback from your clients cannot be avoided, it will happen someday. But negative feedback does not have to ruin the reputation of your company when you reply in a professional and correct way. When you do so, prospective clients will also see that you are doing everything to improve your service.
Marketing expert from EssayPro Andrew Williams writes: “There’s no way around it: negative reviews happen. Our essay writers work hard to make our clients happy. Seeing someone make critical remarks about our paper writing service can be hurtful. However, answering bad reviews builds consumer confidence in your business and brand. When you address a dissatisfied person, you are also speaking to prospective consumers. They know that mistakes happen, and when they see a company trying to fix them, it creates trust.”
Apologise and sympathize
When a client has a good reason to complain, please acknowledge them for being right. Please take your responsibilities and tell them you made a mistake. Never ever start an online fight, you will always lose. And even when you think you did nothing wrong, sympathize for their bad experience. Customers and potential new customers will value your empathy and honesty.
And always try to be honest to yourself and how your business is performing. This is (in my opinion) the only way to improve the interaction you have with your clients.
Stay tactful, always
Being criticized is never a nice thing to experience, but it does not always have to be bad. The negative feedback will help you in the end, so keeping your cool is important. I understand it can make you very angry at times when you receive negative feedback (I’ve been there) but in my experience it will only do harm when you take things personally and let your emotions do the talking or writing.
Do your best to stay patient, respectful, and polite to people who have complaints. Try to handle these situations in a good way to improve your business and not damage your reputation.
How to smartly use feedback:
In my experience in handling feedback, both positive and negative, there are three main steps you can take to use feedback in a good way.
Feel free to use them like they are or adapt them to suit your own specific situation.
1: Make an “Improvement-Plan”
The first thing to do after you receive feedback is to assess what actions you can take in order to make improvements using this feedback. When people are complaining about your service for example, try to get specific examples. The more specific details or examples you can get, the better you can use this feedback. And after you know how to use the feedback, it is time to continue with step 2.
2: Practise what you preach
After you decide which skills you want/need to develop, it’s time to turf off ‘autopilot’ and start improving. These new behaviors will force you to become more conscious of the things you are doing. Many people have troubles listening to their employees and/or team members, to combat this issue you might even tell every person involved which issues you are tackling. Also, ask them for feedback and ask them to warn you if you tend to fall back into your old habits.
3: Visualize the outcome
Every time you apply new techniques and/or knowledge, it is a good thing to imagine the impact these changes will have. Envision how these changes are going to affect your everyday life and your business. Ask yourself how you can support these new changes and try your absolute best to follow up on the improvement plan you made earlier.
Conclusion
Every time you make changes based on feedback, it is important to have a look at the expected impact they will make. Not all changes will be successful, and when things do not work out for you, keep searching for new solutions that will work for your specific needs.
Using feedback successfully requires experience and patience, both for positive and negative feedback. Give yourself enough time to accept and implement feedback from clients. Many successful people are highly coachable, just think about that for a second, the best improvements come from implementing feedback. I believe most of our growth will come from negative feedback, maybe negative feedback is even better than positive feedback.
Therefore, I have a question for you:
Which type of feedback helps you more, positive or negative feedback?
…I would like to end this article by sharing a quote from the Sage Philosopher…
To know what to do is wisdom
To know how to do it is skill
To do the thing as it should be done is service
