BOO! Customer opinion doesn’t have to be scary

Whatever industry you are in, customer feedback is a direct way of finding out what works (and doesn’t work) about your product or services. If you can understand things like customer perception, experience, and loyalty, your business can thrive in even the most difficult environments. But how can you engage your customers to share their opinions in a way that also encourages them to share the best (and worst) experiences with you.

Here are five ways to collect and manage customer opinions and turn any story into a good news story.

Use interactive customer surveys

This is the most direct and engaging way to invite your customers to share their experiences with you. But they’re also overplayed - everyone has sent a survey before, right? There are ways to create engaging customer surveys by adding video introductions, simple mobile versions and easy to scan QR codes that allow even the least confident users to answer your questions. The key here is to work with a survey partner that understands how to create that User Experience and voilà - you can know your customers’ opinions and thoughts in a snap.

Be proactive on Social Media

Okay, now that you’ve got the data to hand. Use it! Sure, you might think that a mediocre review of your service might not be something to shout about, but if you are quick to respond to it and the customer goes away happier, then it’s a win. Tell the story and grow your audience. Use your social media sites to monitor people’s views and be diligent about your approach to this. Introduce a time and place for feedback so people know when to share their views: Feedback Friday or Client Feedback hashtags work well for this.

Create a crisis management plan

No matter how big or small your business, like it or not, your business depends on whether or not your customers are happy, and, more importantly, willing to tell their friends about you. Dealing with problematic, negative responses can seem overwhelming. A crisis management plan helps manage this by creating several steps for dealing with an unhappy customer depending on how they’ve voiced their concern. If it’s via social, you can create a response template for anyone managing your social media to utilise. If it’s via a survey, you can contact them directly (if they agreed to give you an email address) and depending on your industry, perhaps even offer them a free drink or discounted service.

Offer incentives

Speaking of a free drink or discount, offering incentives is a great way to get customer feedback. Everyone loves free stuff, after all! Incentives and rewards are great ways to tell your customer you value their opinions. There are plenty of ways to do this - even if your company doesn’t offer a product that is easy to give away. You can link up with several different managed services that offer gift cards and vouchers from third party vendors. Customer feedback strategies should include incentives at some level to encourage the most reluctant customers to share their views.

Listen to your employees

Employees are the people on the ground, spending time with your customers. They often have a wide range of experience to share with you about the opinions of your customers. Employees are the first to deal with complaints in most cases and also represent your brand. Holding a forum for them to share their experiences with customers is a great way to find out how your business is doing. Sending a simple survey to your team on a Monday morning to find out how they are doing, share news of the week and explain anything of relevance to them (think HR deadlines, etc.). You could even offer them incentives and perks for sharing employee stories and getting involved.

As you can see there are lots of ways to engage with customers - and none of them are scary! If you’re concerned about the feedback your customers might provide, it might be time to review your pricing and services. As a business, it’s your job to find out what works well and needs amending in order to keep your customers happy (and returning!). Invest in developing an ongoing relationship with your customers and you will see your business soar.

Two Elephants offers support to businesses and agencies to design, build and manage mobile-friendly customer and employee surveys, loyalty schemes, sales promotion campaigns and corporate communication programmes. Get in touch to find out how we can help you today.