I was recently talking to a small business restaurant owner who wasn’t very web savvy. However, after we ate a good meal she said, “Make sure you Yelp us!” She then went on to say, “I wish people would only say nice things online and if they have something negative to say, they can come to me directly.” Well we all know that those days are over and more of your customers have platforms that are easier than ever for them to post what they think – both negative and positive.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you offer something your customers want, or if you fix a problem they want fixed, you’ll either get more of their spend or make them stay with you longer.

So what are a few easy ways you can take the time to do to find out what your customers are thinking?

1. Two times per year send an email marketing campaign to your customers with a survey asking them if they’d recommend you to a friend or colleague on a scale of 1-10 (10 being MOST likely.) Then ask some more questions about their experience so that you can find out what they like and why, but more importantly what they don’t like and why. You can also Tweet the hosted version of the survey to your Twitter followers asking them to take the survey as well. If you need an easy-to-use survey tool, there’s a free survey tool trial located right in your VerticalResponse account if you have one.

 

2. Did you ever see those nifty”Feedback” tabs that are usually located down the side of a website you visit? These are a great and easy way to ask people what they want to see from you in the future and what they want you to change. We do it on our site using a nifty tool called Ideaffect, it costs just $19/month and we really get a wealth of information on what our customers want to see from us.

3. Post questions to your Facebook page and send a Facebook message out to your “likers”. Then monitor what people are saying about your questions.

Obviously collecting information is important, but even more important is getting back to those people who posted comments. If you offer a service or product they wanted when you asked them, let them know you now offer it. If you fixed a problem, send them an email or post it to Facebook and get the word out that you’re hearing them loud and clear. It will go a long way in retaining those customers.

How are you managing your customer feedback?

© 2011 – 2018, Contributing Author. All rights reserved.

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