Every entrepreneur knows that businesses that don’t ask for customer feedback do so at their own peril. After all, your company only exists because it fills a need in the marketplace. Those needs change and must expand with your customer’s expanding business. Knowing what’s working and what isn’t about your product or service and responding quickly can mean the difference between success and failure.
Yet so many SMBs lack a rigorous process for collecting customer feedback. Are any of these reasons holding you back?
- Bandwidth — Too big of a project and I don’t have the expertise or time.
- Budget — Software solutions might make it easier, but I don’t have the $$.
- Bang — Results won’t be actionable.
Actually, this can be super easy, and even free! All you need to do is think about your goals. What would you like to learn from your customers?
Three common customer feedback methods for SMBs
Below are three common goals and simple ways to get the type of feedback you are looking for. You can do it in an afternoon, really!
#1 “I have an idea for a new product or service, and I want to know what customers will think of it”
Easy Feedback Method: Send a one-time marketing research survey
A questionnaire is the way to go because to do this right, you will want to ask multiple questions of one respondent. Survey platforms offer basic plans for free that will give you a customizable questionnaire and will aggregate responses into useful reports.
We like TypeForm because they offer great templates, including a beautiful, ready-made survey for getting feedback on a business extension idea. The template features all the types of questions you might ask about the new idea and will help you gather good demographic information about your respondents, too. All you have to do is edit the images and text to match your offering and — voilå! — you have a professional survey that is ready to email to customers.
If you don’t want to send yet another email to customers, or your contact database is incomplete, you can still solicit feedback by posting a link to the questionnaire on your website or blog.
Get some real bang from that survey report. Schedule a time to review results, share them with the team, and incorporate into your planning.
#2 “I want to know how loyal my customers are, and track and improve their happiness over time.”
Easy Feedback Method: Net Promoter Score (NPS) System
The NPS survey question is quick and simple – On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product or service? More than two-thirds of the Fortune 100 use NPS to measure loyalty, and drive improvements in customer experience, retention, repeat sales and growth.
NPS is a great option for small and medium sized businesses who want a regular pulse of sentiment. With its simple ranking and open-ended “Care to tell us why?” question, you get feedback on what is most important to customers. This survey gets high response rates because it is so easy for your customers to do.
Detractors (those giving you a low score) will tell you what’s not working, while loyal, high-score Promoters will tell you why they love you so much and what else they are looking for. You get guidance on how to improve your product offering or service — directly from customers. You can reach out and rescue a Detractor. Also, qualitative feedback from Promoters can be turned into testimonials for your website, and Sales will know who is primed for a referral or an upsell.
Modern “drip” NPS platforms can automatically send surveys to a few customers each day or week. In this way you reach out to everyone over the course of a quarter or year, and you won’t be overwhelmed with too much feedback at once. Wootric is one such platform that offers NPS surveys for free, and can be set up in minutes.
The beauty of the NPS score is that customer happiness becomes a metric that you can track over time. And with surveys going out automatically, you can stay on top of trends and focus on taking action.
For more bang: Designate a “customer happiness champion” to partner with you to keep an eye on NPS trends and tackle the broader business implications of what you are hearing from customers.
#3 “I want to solicit feedback as a way to engage and grow my customer community.”
Easy Feedback Method: Tap into your Facebook or Twitter audience.
If you have a Facebook page or Twitter account, customers may already be using those channels to get your attention when they have a question or a complaint. Social media is also a good place to cultivate brand conversation and engagement. Try using a Facebook poll or Twitter poll to get directional feedback on ideas, and both are free to implement.
You will hear from your most ardent fans, build your community, and be able to monitor your brand mentions. Social polls are best if you have a strong social media following and engagement from your customer base.
Beyond polls, Hubspot suggests several way to use social media to get instant customer feedback including hosting a virtual focus group, and sourcing blog content by listening for pain points or interests.
Close the Loop with Customers
Hopefully, this afternoon you’ll be well on your way to collecting feedback. Before you install, post, or press “send,” it is important to think through how you will follow-up with the customers that take the time to engage.
That is the one caveat about gathering feedback, customers expect acknowledgement. This doesn’t have to be time consuming, but it should be scheduled and planned for so that you make sure it happens. Here are some ideas:
Marketing research questionnaire: Consider writing a blog post about what your learned through the research. Or send a follow-up email to all of the survey respondents to say thank you. And, be sure they are among the first to know if you do launch that new product or service!
Net Promoter Score: Closing the loop with NPS can be low touch or highly personal — it really depends on your business. Some SMBs make time to reach out to individual customers that leave feedback, while others automate a ‘thank you’ through other platforms they use like Zendesk or Intercom. The NPS system surfaces customers that may benefit from a reach-out, and you can decide how to prioritize.
Social Media: When you tap into your social media audience, your feedback is now public. You should definitely post survey results and let your network know actions you will take as a result. But, you have to be ready to react and soften any negative feedback you receive. Acknowledge negative feedback immediately, even if you don’t have an action plan. When you receive positive feedback, thank the customer and retweet/post the feedback as a great way to counterbalance any nay sayers.
Just Do It
Take the step to connect with your customers. It will pay dividends in business growth and reputation, often with no out-of-pocket cost. And, it’s easier than ever. So, what are you doing this afternoon?
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
About the author: Jessica Pfeifer, Chief Customer Officer and Co-founder of Wootric, is the author of “A Modern Guide to Winning Customers with NPS.” An expert on online business success, she has advised hundreds of businesses on customer feedback management. Jessica holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
