What you should know about customer feedback

Many business owners think that after they make the sale they should simply move on to the next customer. However, if you are a business owner and you do this you are overlooking a valuable way to gain important insight about your business and your products and services. When you have this insight you can then use it to make your marketing even more effective and let your customers know that you have what they are wanting. The bottom line is that you should never overlook customer feedback or even be afraid of it. Rather you should focus on getting all of the feedback that you can from your customers in order to provide them with what they are really looking for. Here is what you should know about customer feedback-

- Start with the customers who have just made a purchase-The first customers that you should try and get feedback from are those that have just made a purchase. These are the people that you really want feedback from because they can give you the most current information about how you are doing. Whether you have just sold to someone online or at your store make sure that they get a quick survey card. However, it should be stressed that the survey should not contain more then 3-4 questions if you hope to have it filled out. You can also offer an incentive in order to get additional customer feedback.
- Follow up in person if you can-You should not overlook the chance to follow up with your customers in person. You can also train everyone who works for you to ask customers if everything was ok with their shopping experience. You should also ask if something could have been done better. While this is a fairly informal type of customer feedback it can still give you valuable insight about how your business is doing and where it needs to make changes in order to improve your marketing.
- Don't take it personally-Many business owners don't want to ask for customer feedback because they worry about getting negative information. Savvy business owners understand that negative feedback shows them where they need to make changes and improvements. It is important to understand that you should not take negative feedback personally but rather look at it as a chance to make things better before you lose customers to your competition. Keep in mind that most often businesses lose customers simply because they don't know that there is a problem so if you have the information upfront you can use it to improve your customer service and your marketing.
- Consider hiring someone to get it-Most business owners find that they have more things to get done then they have hours in the day. If you are completely overwhelmed with other tasks you may want to consider hiring a firm to get customer feedback for you. While this will cost you more then just doing it yourself it can be a very effective way to get the right customer feedback for your marketing.
- Act on what you find out-Nothing can be more frustrating for customers then to see a business get their feedback and then do nothing with it. It is crucial that once you get the customer feedback that you need that you act on it. Do not waste the valuable insight that you have gained. Use the customer feedback that you have and make the changes that your customers need. When you do this your marketing will only be that much more effective and your business that much more successful.