Feedback is Essential 

Every business owner understands that customer feedback is essential to growing and maintaining their company. Why is this?

Firstly, customers must be at the centre of a profitable business model. If their satisfaction goes up or down, so do your profits. 

Reaching out directly can help businesses in the following ways:

  • Catching errors before they have a large-scale impact on operations;
  • Improving tone and look of marketing outreach to gain new customers;
  • Retaining existing customers by ensuring satisfaction, and targeting unhappy customers before they decide to move on from your product or service;
  • And more!

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A Double-Edged Sword

But, for all its benefits, customer feedback can be a double-edged sword.  

For example, too many requests for it can turn existing customers away from your business. 

Or, not giving customers enough space to provide their feedback can lead to public social media sharing, which can cause reputational damage. 

To avoid all these things, we at TLS Digital Media have put together a handy list of dos and don’ts. 

Take it from us – with our years of digital marketing experience with a variety of customers, we would know!

Customer Feedback: DO…

  • Be reactive: customers are more likely to provide comments while a sale is still fresh in their minds. Don’t wait weeks to reach out!
    • Customise requests: if a customer has purchased an experience, such as a spa day, reaching out the same day as the purchase won’t yield any results as they won’t have experienced your service yet. Adjust your requests to your customers’ purchases.
    • Use incentives: Incentives will increase the amount of feedback you receive. Be careful though – incentives can also increase the volume of disingenuous reviewers.
  • Use a mix of rating scales and free text boxes: This has shown to receive more genuine feedback than either one or the other method.

Customer Feedback: DON’T…

  • Be pushy: consistent requests on one product or experience can come off as pushy and annoying. This will make customers more likely to unsubscribe from mailing lists or abandon your business altogether.
  • Make it difficult: from the moment a customer clicks on the ‘provide feedback’ button, their experience needs to be seamless. If there are any blockers, they’ll likely abandon the task. Test your forms to ensure they’re easy to use.
  • Make it long: short and sweet is best! 
  • Forget metrics: Always remember to include measurable data in your feedback requests. Follow the SMART goals to achieve this: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound (read more about this here).

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Need a Hand? Get in Touch!

If you’d like personalised advice on how Lead Gen & CRM can automate your feedback outreach, get in touch with us on our web form here. 

We’ll be happy to arrange a complimentary 30-minute call with you to get to your know your business needs and how we can help.