Customer Feedback: How to Get it, Why it’s Important and What You Do with it

CopyPress

September 26, 2013 (Updated: January 26, 2023)

Why Gather Customer Feedback?

First things first—why are you undergoing tactics to retrieve customer feedback? You need to understand what the goals of gathering this information are. You need to ask yourself or your business partners some questions.

Why are we gathering this feedback?
How do we get this feedback?
What will we do with this feedback?

At CopyPress, we thrive on customer feedback. Without it we aren’t able to better understand our customer’s exact needs. Just as much as we want our client’s business, we want their feedback (even if it’s negative).

How to Get Customer Feedback

With so many ways to gather customer feedback these days there really isn’t a right or wrong way to get it. And since each client has a different story, personality, schedule, etc. having multiple ways is your best bet.

Surveys

Surveys are a great way to get fast feedback with clear results. Surveys shouldn’t be too long as your customer’s time should be respected. To ensure customers will actually fill out the survey, try implementing some incentives like discounts on future orders or free products. Survey Monkey is a quick and easy tool for creating online surveys.

Reach Out Directly

Gathering customer feedback should not rely solely on online surveys, emails and phone calls. If the employee has instilled a relationship of trust, comfort and respect with their customer, the customer will feel comfortable with providing feedback often. However, it’s always good to create an environment where getting feedback is a regular act. Here are some great ways to ensure consistent feedback.

Weekly Calls: this is helpful for clients with large or ongoing projects. If there’s a long-term project going on the customer’s opinion and suggestions will change throughout so it’s good to keep a weekly call so you’re always on the right page and can immediately integrate their thoughts into the next part.
Email: I love to do this each week with all of our customers. I check in via email just to say hello and to pick their brains on how they are receiving their product. Even if they don’t respond to that message directly they will remember at one point you were interested in what they thought and therefore when they do want to share something with you they will know that there is an open invitation to do so.
On Site Meetings: many customers tend to open up to you face-to-face. Therefore, quarterly or annual visits will pose great opportunities to get a feel for what they have liked with the product, what they suggest for improving, and what they didn’t like at all.

Software

If you offer a product that the customer uses online, like CopyPress’ platform Connection Seeker, you’re able to get their feedback instantly. For our connections product, our customers have the ability to approve and reject each and every placement domain prior to the publishing. This is super important to CopyPress as we want to make sure we are not delivering an end product that does not meet the needs and wants of our customers. The best part? Our customers can approve and reject directly in the system.

The main thing to do with customer feedback is to act on it, wisely. Take the information retrieved and address challenges your company or team is facing. Tackle the feedback in groups.

Immediate action: things that can be adjusted easily and resolved fast.
Long-term action: things that cannot be adjusted quickly should be mapped out over a period of time to ensure that the feedback is carried out.
Suggestions: customers may have suggestions on software changes, product pricing, etc. Suggestions should always be taken into account and if they are game-changers these will also be more long-term and should be mapped out.

While it is important to address the challenges and feedback directly with your company and colleagues it’s more important to address them with your customers. Customers will want to only give feedback if they truly know that their voice is being heard and action is taking place. Always show gratitude when a customer gives feedback and tell them how you plan to take their feedback and apply it to the product, service, software, etc. they are purchasing.

Don’t forget to track your findings! When you launch new programs and ways to implement your customers’ feedback it’s important to follow up with them to see if the solutions are actually working and affecting your customers positively.

What are some successful ways you collect customer feedback?