6 Effective Ways to Gather Customer Feedback

6 Effective Ways to Gather Customer Feedback

Customers expect a seamless customer experience (CX)

Failure to deliver on this can often mean the difference between retaining your customers or losing them to your competitors.

With so many options available nowadays, and companies constantly reinventing the wheel in an attempt to stand out, customers won’t hesitate to switch to another product or service that better fulfils their needs.

Which means collecting, listening to, and implementing customer feedback should be top of mind for any business.

In this guide we’ll go through exactly what customer feedback is and talk through six of the most common types of customer feedback. We’ll also cover what kinds of tools you need to get the most out of your customer feedback.

Jump through the different sections here: 

  1. What Is Customer Feedback?
  2. Types of Customer Feedback
  3. Final Thoughts

What Is Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback is the information and/or opinions that your customers give regarding their experience with your product or service. This feedback can be gathered in a wide range of formats, from surveys and focus groups to online reviews and in-app chats.

Customer feedback helps you improve your products and/or services, which will not only keep your existing customers coming back for more, but will also make it easier to attract new customers. From new product features through to your customer service experience, customer feedback helps you know whether you are exceeding customers’ expectations or not. 

Now, we’ll get into the 6 main types of feedback that you need to be paying attention to and how you can collect that feedback. 

Types of Customer Feedback You Should Be Collecting

Here’s a list of the 6 most common types of customer feedback: 

  1. Product Feedback
  2. Customer Service Feedback
  3. Customer Satisfaction Feedback
  4. Complaints
  5. Feature Requests 
  6. Sales Feedback

1. Product Feedback

For your customers to want to purchase your products, they have to fulfill their needs. Therefore collecting and acting on product feedback will enhance the product to better suit these needs. It can also lead to the creation of new products, which can result in more customers.

You can collect product feedback via focus groups, by sending surveys via email, text or in-app and with usability tests. You should always request feedback promptly so the user has the experience fresh in their mind.

There will also be unsolicited product feedback floating around on social media and the wider internet. You should tap into that by making sure you’re monitoring online reviews and social media. 

Here are some great examples of how some brands handle product feedback.

2. Customer Service Feedback

In today’s market, where customers have a wealth of choice, they often have a zero tolerance policy towards bad, or even mediocre customer service. 

It’s crucial to keep your finger on the pulse of the customer service experience you are providing by regularly gathering customer service feedback, so you can nip any issues in the bud. 

A great way to see what they think of your customer service experience is to send out surveys specifically designed to gauge satisfaction and/or loyalty. These include the Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS) and the Customer Effort Score (CES).

Surveys.

As we saw with product feedback, it’s also a good idea to look for indirect feedback to learn how your customers feel about your customer service experience. By using AI tools you can easily extract and analyze feedback that exists in places like customer review sites, blogs and social media.

3. Customer Satisfaction Feedback

Customer satisfaction is not limited to just the customer service experience. It’s something that needs to be maintained throughout the entire customer journey. 

Customer satisfaction is directly linked to loyalty. The more satisfied your customer is, the more loyal they are likely to be, and the easier they will be to retain. Seeking feedback regarding your customers' satisfaction levels is a large part of the puzzle when it comes to retaining customers and growing your business.

The best way to gauge your customers' satisfaction levels is by using the Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

These surveys can be presented to your customers at specific touchpoints in their journey with you to drill down into specifics. For example, it might be useful to send this out after a sale, or as we mentioned earlier, after an interaction with a customer service agent. 

They can also be presented at neutral times to get an overall idea of their satisfaction and/or loyalty. 

By sending these surveys out periodically, you can track your progress and benchmark against your own scores to provide better solutions for your customers. 

4. Complaints

Complaints are a clear signal from your customer that they are not happy. When customers’ concerns are not dealt with promptly, they are likely to jump ship. In recent research from Zendesk, half of customers said they would switch to a competitor after a bad experience, and 80% said they would switch after more than one bad experience. 

You simply cannot afford to ignore a complaint. Depending on where the complaint is made, if, for example, it is aired on social media, it could also be a PR disaster.

Customer complaints can be direct and take the form of an email. They can also be indirect and come in the form of reviews, comments on social media, etc. 

Again, having AI data analysis tools with functions like keyword extraction and sentiment analysis is crucial. This will also allow you to process data quickly to scan for negative comments. 

Having a complaint tracking tool at your disposal will also help you monitor for negative customer feedback circulating and allow you to resolve it quickly. 

5. Feature Requests

Feature requests are really a subset of product feedback. They are another way your customers can tell you what they need from your product and/or service in order to keep using it. This might mean a bug fix, or it could include suggestions for all new products or functionality.

Feedback doesn’t come any clearer, or more specific than feature requests. It’s important, like with all feedback, that you deal with these suggestions promptly. Then, once you have reviewed your customer's request, you’ll need to get back to them and close the feedback loop.

You should have a dedicated section on your site where your customers can make a request. This way you create just one organized channel for these requests. 

With regards to bug fixes, you can consider giving your customers the option to raise a ticket to get this sorted. You can also receive this through an app if you have one. 

6. Sales Feedback

Feedback and data relating to your sales tells you a lot about your customers and their perception of your product and/or services. 

This kind of feedback can be gathered at the point of sale with a follow up survey like the ones we’ve already mentioned. It can even be gathered by recording a sales call. 

While not a sale, returns and subscription cancellations are connected to the sales process and provide a good opportunity to gather useful feedback.

Analytics can also give you a clear idea of your customer’s sales journey and any roadblocks they faced on their way to the buying stage. You can also see what sections of your site are more popular using heat maps.

Final Thoughts

Customer feedback can help you shape your products and/or service into something that your customers will come back to time and time again. 

While you’re thinking about your customer feedback strategy, you’ll need to also think about your analytics. Customer feedback is ripe with insights that can help you improve your business. 

However, the sheer volume of feedback can sometimes be overwhelming and impossible to process manually. AI powered analysis tools like MonkeyLearn can sift through large amounts of customer feedback and pull out actionable insights in seconds. This allows you to act quickly when faced with negative feedback, and improve your overall customer experience with customer-centered business decisions. 

Sign up for free today and see how MonkeyLearn can help you draw out actionable insights from your customer feedback quickly and efficiently.

Inés Roldós

October 26th, 2021

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