The secret of knowing how happy your customers are is to ask them. Feedback from customers are invaluable to a business. For decades surveys have given organizations a tool to have an open and honest communication with their customers.
Top performing companies understand the importance of customer feedback. Not only do they listen to the voice of their customers but they also allow both positive and negative feedback to be posted publicly. They also invite their customers to participate in surveys.
Here are the reasons why feedback is important for your business:
Tool for Continued Improvement
Market research only provides you with limited information when you launch a new product or service. It is only when your customers actually begin to engage with your brand that you discover what their actual experience is. By asking your customers for their feedback you are making them feel like they are a part of your business.
Successful organizations know that it takes more money to attract a new customer than to retain an old one. Hence it makes sense to build loyal relationships with them, not only to encourage repeated engagement with the product or service but also to ensure that these customers become brand advocates. Surveys are the lifeline between you and your customer and an organization should never underestimate its value.
Feedback Helps Measure Satisfaction
Satisfaction and loyalty is what effects an organization’s bottom line. Naturally, businesses want to know if their customers are happy and the best way to find out if you are meeting these expectations is to get their opinions. One of the most accurate and commonly used survey methods is called NPS. Responses to questions are based on a 0-10 rating scale with 0 representing negative and 10 representing extremely positive.
Feedback Provides Data for Business Decisions
Customer feedback provides tangible and reliable data that can be used in making business decisions. The data that you can gather through surveys can help you make strategic decisions.
Earlier, surveys were conducted through snail mail, and sometimes over the phone or email. But these are not often effective because customers do not have the time and patience to go through with them. The result is low survey completion rates.
The advent of mobile apps has brought in a new and more effective method to engage with customers. We can use the example of an insurance company to show how effective in-app mobile surveys are. An insurance customer has had a car accident. He is connected to his insurance agency through a mobile app and is able to report the incident, add photographs and include location details when he submits a claim on his mobile device.
Real-Time Information
In-app surveys has allowed the insurance company to follow the customer’s journey from the minute he downloaded the app to the point at which he has used the service – in this case a claim for his car accident. A survey at the point at which he is using the service is far more accurate than one that might arrive in his email or post box, many hours or even days after he has successfully or unsuccessfully filed his claim with the company.
High Completion Rates
A survey during and after the process of the customer submitting his insurance claim will have a far higher chance of completion. Traditionally, mobile surveys have had a completion rate of 1-3%. Effective mobile in-app surveys have increased survey completion rates to around 13%1, giving organizations a far bigger picture of what a customer truly feels.
An important factor to keep in mind is that while in-app surveys provide higher response rates, there is less qualitative feedback that is available. This is why in-app feedback platforms offer methods such as tagging and sentiment analysis to gather information. The high-response rate is far better than silence from an unhappy or passive user who chose to ignore an email survey.
If the insurance customer says he was happy at the end of the survey, the survey would have ended. If he expressed any displeasure, further questions will be able to investigate where the problem lies and how it can be fixed.
Surveying customers on a regular basis and through a variety of ways is a key component in running a successful business, no matter what the industry. Surveys help to measure satisfaction or dissatisfaction with an organization’s offerings. They also offer an opportunity to communicate effectively and build relationships with customers. Praise and criticism can be used to improve what a customer is offered which in turn helps organizations stay in business for the long haul.
