As a business owner or manager, getting customer feedback is essential to understanding how to improve your products, services, and overall customer experience.
The most successful names in business focused on their customer‘s satisfaction. After all, in the end, all business, no matter which scale they are working, is serving the customers.
Without them, there will be no buyers, which means no sales for the business. Without sales, there is no profit or growth for the small business.
Ultimately, your business will die, just like many other examples.
Well, customer feedback is one of the most powerful ways to get your business done among buyers. Without reading reviews, no client or buyers would buy products,
So why not focus on taking the leverage from customer feedback? With correct smarties, you can use the feedback to make better content, sales, and plans for your small business.
Why Leveraging Customer Feedbacks Are Important For Small Businesses?
In today’s world, Reviews, testimonials, feedback, etc become an important part of the business. As for small businesses, it’s important to understand how to take leverage from these things.
Customer feedback cab can help you to upgrade your services and make it better in terms of customer services, products, etc.
Along with that, it shows you are a trustworthy brand and reliable too. It will help the other companies as well as customers to encourage and take a step forward.
Apart from these, feedback plays vital roles, and that’s why small businesses are recommending to know to take leveraging from it.
To know why you should start right now, here are the important points to know-
Reviews Can Make Or Break Deals
In the digital world, Almost 90% of customers won’t buy the product without checking the reviews. Today’s reviews and feedback can change the customer’s mood. It can be the biggest influence where your sales depend.
In the case of positive reviews, It can help you in getting more attention or you might lose a chunk of potential buyers if you have bad reviews.
Good reviews can help in building a trustworthy image of our brand. It encourages people to try out your product along with giving social proof to your buyers.
It Helps In Improving The Customer Experiences
There is a majority of people who won’t do shopping again with a brand if they have received bad experiences. Well even over half of the people are willing to pay extra if the company is providing good customer experiences.
With the help of feedback, you can get an idea of how well your services are doing. Are your customers satisfied with the services? Or are they looking for something more?
Feedback can help you in getting the answer to such questions. You just need to listen to what your customer is saying.
Customer feedback can get your reaction to your existing products and services. To highlight what is best and what needs a fix, this can be useful to get more growth in your small business.
It Helps In Showing You Care
Customers pay much more attention when they believe the company is listening to them. To make them believe, feedback is the best and simplest way.
Improve your customer’s services and products but share the feedback along with the changes. It will show you are listening to their suggestion and doing the changes if it’s required.
It shows their opinion, thoughts, and experiences is important for you. Also, address negative reviews as they are important too.
When you address negative reviews, it shows you are willing to listen and clear out the problems they had with their experiences.
How You Can Get More Leverage From Customer Feedback?
When it’s about improving the experiences of your customer, Gathering more information and analyzing the feedback is the ideal option.
The feedback is the voice of your customer. It helps you in knowing what your business should be done correctly so you can satisfy your customer.
To boost the feedback from your customers, here are a few ways that you can try as they are effective for your business.
Make It Customer-Centric
Feedbacks are a great option to know where your business is going wrong. By analyzing it you can fill the gap between you and your business. Also with the help of feedback, you can find the hidden flaws and fix them.
The feedback strategies should be made customer-centric. It should be helpful, easy to connect, and shows that the opinion is going to be respected by the company.
When your feedback strategies are customer-centric, the chances of getting more feedback to increase too.
Establish Why You Need It
When you are going for valuable feedback, start with why you need it and how as well as where it’s going to help.
Customer feedback is important, so knowing what your business goals are. This is crucial to know why you need the information and data, where you are going to put it?
Since the business is online these days, most of the businesses cant contact their customers to know where exactly they need the change or have complaints.
Some of the examples can be, Do you want to get customer loyalty? Or you are looking forward to getting more insight regarding your new product launch? You can use the data to fill the errors in customer services to make it more effective.
So you must know the techniques to contact the customers and pinpoint the exact errors.
Choose The Right Time
Feedbacks also need the correct time, when you can approach your customer to gather the best and valuable feedback can be tricky. However, hammering the right moment is a crucial point. To make sure you are doing it right, here are a few points for help.
You Are Not Bombarding With Questions
Customers or visitors don’t like too many invasions, the less you do the better for you. Don’t start looking for feedback when they visit your homepage. Not just you are going to scare them away but also it will decrease the people reaching your website.
The best time you can use for feedback is when they spend some time browsing your website. Or they did shopping from your site. You can ask the questions as follow-up with the email or in a quick poll.
Do It More Often
Fix the timings and how often you are going to send the feedback request. It’s not like you can do it every possible time. But you can do the survey twice a year.
You can gather information and valuable feedback that can be effective. It’s enough to provide you the information you are looking for in your business.
Get Leverage From Loyal Customers
For the small business, loyal customers are the solid pillars. You need to take leverage from them too. When they return or do shopping again with you, ask them why they did that.
With this, not just will know what’s the strong point of yours that made them come back but you are voicing the loyal customer’s opinions too.
Gather The Feedbacks With Right Execution
Execution is an important part to get more feedback. poor execution can end up getting lots of negative impacts but your customers would not like to shop with you again.
To properly use your plans, you can set customer-facing staff culture. With this, your employee will know how to listen to the customers but along with them will act fast on the feedback.
It will help you in gathering more valuable feedback for your business. You can get tools for gathering feedback in different ways.
You can do online surveys which is one of the most cost-effective and fast approaches for collecting feedback.
Use social media like LikedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. These are useful platforms, you can get lots of insights about what your customers are talking about.
Get Leverage From results
Not just gathering feedback is important but using it decides the results. Late actions can ruin the relationship and you should not take feedback in this case.
It’s one of the ways to annoy your customers. If you are not taking action, your customers will stop sharing their thoughts with you too.
So make sure the feedback is not just for you but for everyone who is connected with your business and interacting with the customers.
Listen to the concerns and do the changes accordingly.
Tips For Getting Leverage Customer Feedback
In business, listening skills are important to know that your customers are talking about your services. Well even though the small business depended on the mouth to mouth marketing for a long time.
Right now, you need to focus on getting leveraged customer feedback. And For that, here are a few tips for you.
Ask Questions About Specific Things
Asking questions like how’s everything will not going to do any profit to your business. The reason is, answering this question is too vague. People will say fine even though it’s not.
Don’t ask general questions as you will get general answers too. Such feedback doesn’t do any benefit to your business.
Pinpoint the problems that your customers are mentioning. Ask specific questions about what and where things are not working for your customers.
You will get detailed answers and it will help you in getting actual advice for business growth.
Give More Options To Your Customers For Sharing Feedbacks.
Deepening on your customers to offer their ideas to you when you are not offering any options is a little bit too much. It will stay in their head forever and you will never get to know.
That’s why they offer more options for sharing feedback, The more options they get, the better ways they will know about sharing their feedback.
Options like suggestion boxes, social media, surveys, polls are one of the tools that you must be using. Also, you can ask opinions from person to person.
Don’t Shut Down The Negative Feedbacks
Nobody did any great without the criticism. In the business, negative feedback is as far as important as getting positive feedback.
The benefits of getting negative feedback are you get the weakest point of your business. Not just is this feedback blunt but also directly mentions things they are disappointed about.
Read those feedbacks and contact back to your customers. Ask them to share what and how you can do better. And after changing, give them their credit for that.
Find The Balance
Well, since your customers are not always right or know what they want. You can’t completely rely on them either.
Some products and services take a much longer time. And in the meantime, you can get negative feedback too.
However, if you believe the product will be okay, then you need to limit how much you plan to listen to your customers.
Also, not all customers want you to do everything they are saying; in some cases, it’s impossible. To the business, you must find out how much you want to listen.
Show What You Are listening
If you are following what your customers are saying to you then you have to show it as well. Also mention what you are listening to.
Also, why would a customer share their thoughts when you are not planning to respond to them? Small businesses pay attention to keeping the process clear and transparent as much as you can.
Showing your customers that you care and listen to help you in boosting the trust. It will make them believe that what they are saying is not going in vain.
Use Feedbacks For Increasing Leads
Feedbacks are also used for getting more leads. The best part of using feedback is you get long-tail keywords. It helps your SEO efforts and boosts overall ranking in SERPs.
When your ranking is better, you get more visitors to your sites. Feedbacks contain keywords sometimes which you never thought of using for your websites. You can use it for creating user-generated content as well.
With unique keywords, you also get more words to describe your company as well as your brand. Having feedback also shows that your audience is connected to you, it helps in boosting customer engagement.
You can use it for getting more sales and by satisfying their needs, you can also get your brand advocates.
Happy and satisfied customers are assets for small businesses. They do not just buy the products and services but they also make sure more people know about you
Best Ways To Get Leverage From Customer Reviews For More Business
Nearly every business requires customer reviews to see how they are working. Even when it comes to starting a business with some other brand, reviews and testimonials play a vital role.
According to studies, 93 percent of small business owners reported they feel confident and it helped in increasing the chances of working with other vendors.
Yet, many companies fail to use this feature to add in their decision-making strategies.
Get The Best Reviews Featured On Website
The best and ideal way to use customer feedback is to use it on your website. Get the best feedback and add it to your website home page. This will help your visitors know about your business and how your customer reacted to your services.
There are other ways to use feedbacks, such as :
Weave The Reviews Throughout Your Sites
Wave your reviews with every page your site contained. It will help the visitors to know more about the product and services along with customer feedback. It will boost confidence in buyers and save time.
Get A Review Page
The best result you get creating a review page that will help the visitors to know about your company instantly. People look for reviews before they try anything and putting the reviews along with a separate page will save their efforts to go anywhere else,
Add Customer Videos
As compared to testimonials, Videos are much more effective and stronger. Its visual, fast, and gives an intimate look at people who worked with you
According to a study, video is considered one of the most effective techniques for B2B content marketing. It’s powerful and gives a much stronger impact on the buyers as well as clients.
Showcase In Your Blog
You can create a series on a blog regularly to add feedback and testimonials. Replace it with the case studies to give much deeper information about your work.
Back up with facts and useful data, so it will help in understanding how you can solve the problems of the customers.
It’s an organic way of showcasing your customer feedback along with opting for something new.
Get Reviews Online
When it’s about reviews, don’t ignore the online sites where customers share their opinions about the companies or services.
When people will search about companies, those who received more stars will stand out.
Google reviews are not just important but it also plays a vital role in search engine ranking. Add those websites that are related to your business.
Make sure your review is talking about what you are offering.
Use Other Channels For Featuring Customer Feedbacks
Well, instead of limiting your reviews to your site. Get more options for showcasing the reviews so you can reach out more to the target people. Different channels can help you in marketing your reviews for more business.
It includes:
Premium Content
Premium contents are ethos which includes videos series, ebooks, white papers, course, etc These are the options where you can add the customer feedback.
The options work better if you are aiming for selling a larger solution. This will help in showing what you can offer and how you can solve the problems as you did with your previous customers.
Email Marketing
You can use email marketing as another channel for showcasing your customer feedback. Use it as an introduction of your audience to your potential clients.
You can start e-Letter or meet the customer segment in your email marketing. You can also use it to create more user-generated content for other channels like social media etc.
Materials For Promotional
You can also add the testimonials in materials for promotional things like printed pieces, videos, digital materials, etc. These are some ways to send the prospects considering more about your services.
Highlight The Reviews Or Feedbacks On Social Media
Social media is the far best option to use your customer feedback. Platforms like LInkedin have the options for requesting the recommendation whereas Facebook got its review options in the sidebar.
You can use it as user-generated content such as videos, pictures, posts like options. You can use the feedback tagging the person as well as sharing your appreciation note with them.
How To Take Leverage Negative Feedback For Your Business?
Well, small businesses take negative feedback as nightmares. No doubt why people keep their distance from the negative feedback and aim for only happy customers.
But surprisingly, negative feedback not just can help you but there are lots of things you can change which will help you in positively growing the business.
You just need ways to crack these negative feedbacks in your favor. And for that, here are the top seven ways to manage it.
Never Take It Personally
Lots of businessmen especially small businesses who just started feel demotivated after getting a few negative feedbacks. If you are the one who feels proud of what you are offering and caring, the first thing you need to learn is not to take the negative feedback personally.
Your feelings should be separated from your business, regardless of how much you are invested. Responding to your negative feedback with the same tone will also damage your reputation.
Well, it can go viral as people post and share it on their social media. You don’t want to deal with those thighs and it can make your image bad which is not good for your company as well.
The first thing you need to learn is to stay calm and be polite. Also, keep your temper in check, and with an unfogged mind, you will know whether you are lacking.
If you think that the feedback is too much to handle and it’s hitting your sweet spot, take a break and walk away. Attend those feedbacks when your mind is clear and you are ready.
Understand From Where They Are Coming
After you get your emotion in check, you should next learn to understand where they are coming from with this feedback. What is the root of their complaints?
You need to check why they are unpleasant with your products and services. Also, make sure your responses are in a positive frame. In such scenarios, the complaints have a usually higher temper and try not to make them feel angrier than that.
Also, find out what is the key point of the feedback and keep the rest of the emotions. For example, if someone wrote that your services did something that damaged their reposition.
Here the particular thing is your service, There is something which caused the damage and you have to address that. Leave the rest lines as they are emotions.
Get The Motive Clear
If someone is not happy with your service or after using it they faced some damage, You must focus on what went wrong with them.
Understand the motive first and diffuse the emotions. Your customer is probably going through running emotions. Use the key phrase like ‘ I am sorry to hear that ‘ etc,
Also, make sure you are not using it too much either. It won’t seem genuine and you might end up irritating your customer. Keep it as genuine as you can.
To understand more about the damage, you are going to need information. Ask your customers to share the experiences in detail.
And for getting that much cooperation, you must focus on calming them down first. Get more details and give assurance that you will solve it for them.
Get Something To Make Amendments
When you know what went wrong, you are going to focus on how to solve it. Also, it depends on situations, for example, if the customer orders something but they didn’t like it, you can offer small bonuses or deals for the next buyer.
But if the customers are genuinely faced with something such as waiting for a long time or receiving products they didn’t order Then the testament for making an amendment should be different and fast.
The best way for solving such a situation is to offer a refund, replacement, or credit note. This will offer power to the customers and it gives the upper hand.
Approach with professional and genuine feelings. Make them believe that you are taking the situation into considerations and will take fast actions against to solve it,
Also, don’t wait to solve and give false information, you will end up doing more damage than it already is.
Accept The Truth & Aim To Change It
Once you know that it’s your fault and the services you provide are not wanted. This will make you feel bad, At this stage, you need to focus on how to defuse your feelings.
It’s crucial to remember that mistakes happen in business. It depends on how you are taking this and making it right. Don’t let it show in your professionalism and business athletics.
For small businesses, it’s important to be your critics. Understand what is not working and what can help you, eliminate things if it’s not favoring you.
When you get the point clear about what to change, focus on how to do it. The negative feedback can help you in showing things you are ignoring for a long time.
Embrace the feedback and improve your way of dealing with the situations. Set your goals and change it
Keep Learning From Your Experiences
Negative feedback can be traumatic, unpleasant and something you don’t ever want to deal with. But it’s a part of your business, there will be positive and rising feedback too.
Pont is to learn from both sides and takes the best from both worlds in your account. Get the things which will help you in doing your work.
Once you know how to deal with customers, even negative feedback will be an important experience from which you can learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs)
How should I evaluate the feedback from the customers?
The important points are to analyze the feedback and categorize it. Don’t ignore negative reviews and look for the causes. Also know why your customer feels that way and respond accordingly.
What are the ways I should use customer feedback in my business?
You can use the feedback for helping the customers by minimizing their efforts. You can get product innovation from what they are looking for in their feedback. It also gives you an option to get emotionally connected with your customers.
Why are feedbacks important for my small business?
Feedbacks are the response which tells you that your customer is satisfied or not with your services or products. It shows the general experiences they had. For a small business, it’s useful to adjust their strategies, making plans, and approach for better growth.
What are the benefits of feedback?
The feedbacks are beneficial for small businesses to make decisions, measuring their customer satisfaction along with improving the brand. It helps in getting the support team performance better too.
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“Business, marketing, and Branding – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of Burban Branding and Media, and a self-taught marketer with 10 years of experience. My passion lies in helping startups enhance their business through marketing, Branding, leadership, and finance. I am on a mission to assist businesses in achieving their goals.”