“Champions know that success is inevitable; that there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. They know that the best way to forecast the future is to create it.” Michael J. Geleb (American personal development writer)
It is vital to know who your clients are, what their needs are and ultimately what they think of you. Yet when analysing the latter it can create a fear factor. What if they are unhappy? What if they don’t like our products or services?
However the answers to these questions can be the most useful and important information gained from carrying out feedback. These answers are the ones which will drive future product development and marketing strategies. It is vital to therefore produce customer feedback forms and questionnaires to learn more about your customer base and identify what they like about your company and what they would want to improve. Here are our 3 tips to remember when developing a customer feedback form.
- The customer has good ideas.
Customer input can be integral in taking steps to better your organisation. They can tell you exactly what they dislike and how they would change that. All the ideas they generate might not end up being cost effective or viable, but they will point you in the right direction for change. - Negative feedback is good.
“Negative feedback is better that none. I would rather have a man hate me than overlook me. As long as he hates me I make a difference.” American author, Hugh Prather.
The idea of criticism can put businesses off doing customer surveys however give the potential negative questions a positive slant such as “how could we improve this?” or “what could we do to change this?” This gives the customer the chance to tell you what they are unhappy with yet also giving you advice on how to rectify the situation. You can then organise their feedback into specific categories of your business such as sales, marketing, operations and production and direct your focus on making changes to alter your customer’s perceptions. - Act on the information you receive.
“There are only two sources of competitive advantage: the ability to learn more about our customers faster than the competition, and the ability to turn that learning into action fast.” Jack Welch, former CEO of American giant, General Electric.
When carrying out any form of feedback you always need to be sure of why you’re doing it and to have processes in place to take advantage of the information gained. The answers you receive will likely provide you with your customer’s future purchasing intentions. Not responding to these suggestions may also be damaging as James Heavey, CEO of CDC Respond states. “95% of companies collect feedback information. However, only 41% of firms actually use that information to alert staff to problems and to drive change” so use the information to make positive changes.
Emma Ansell, Director of Mushroom Marketing added “We have provided customer feedback questionnaires for many of our clients. However they are often worried about receiving negative feedback. This is exactly what we want! By gaining negative feedback we have a clearer idea of the areas that need assessing and what aspects the customer is unhappy with. Ultimately though it’s important to remember that this demonstrates that the customer cares and is supporting you by letting you know how they feel while challenging you to improve”
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