Transform Your Business with Customer Feedback
Find out how to effectively gather customer feedback and see how companies like LEGO and Starbucks have used it to drive innovation and improve customer experience
Your customers can be your biggest advocates or your largest detractors. They will tell people about their experience with your company, good or bad. As a small custom business, it's crucial to ensure you receive that feedback too. Finding time to ask for feedback can be challenging, but it's vital for the future success of your company. Make time to implement at least one of the following methods, if not all of them. Your future self will thank you.
Ask Your Customer…On the Phone
One effective way to gather feedback is by making follow-up calls. A week or two after completing a job, reach out to the customer. Ask them how the custom product is working for them. Is there anything you can do to improve their experience? Have they had any issues with the product? What about their overall experience with your process? This approach shows customers you care, setting you apart from competitors who don't follow up. Ask open-ended questions to foster a meaningful conversation. Anytime a doctor calls after a procedure, you feel cared for. If they don't, they blend into the pool of doctors just trying to push patients through the system.
Run online surveys
Creating online surveys is another great way to get customer feedback. Tools like SurveyMonkey or Microsoft Forms make it easy to reach a large group of customers and get consistent results. While this method is less personal than calls, it helps identify trends in the data. However, be aware that online surveys might not always yield the most honest answers. Think about how often you rate customer service reps—how many times have you given a 1 or 2?
Review platforms
Reviews are another excellent source of customer feedback. They allow customers to share their experiences in their own words, visible to future customers. Many review sites also enable you to respond, demonstrating your engagement and commitment to addressing customer needs. Learning from reviews, both good and bad, is crucial. Sometimes, negative reviews come from grumpy customers, but often, there's something valuable to learn. Take the good with the bad and use reviews to improve.
Negative Reviews
Negative reviews are inevitable. No matter how hard you try, not everyone will be happy. The key is to learn from the feedback. Even from a negative review, there's usually at least one thing you can do better next time. Address the constructive points and move on. Don't spiral over negative reviews—correct what you can and let the rest go. This applies to online and on the phone reviews. If you ask for feedback and the customer tells you something negative, thank them for the feedback and then apply the same process as above.
A couple of great examples from the real world:
LEGO’s LEGO Ideas platform allows customers to submit and vote on new product ideas. This initiative led to the development of popular product lines like LEGO Minecraft, which significantly contributed to the company’s turnaround and growth.
Starbucks’ My Starbucks Idea platform collected customer suggestions for new products and services. This feedback led to the introduction of free Wi-Fi and mobile payment options, improving the customer experience and strengthening loyalty.
So Remember:
Contact customer directly. This shows them you care and opens the lines of communication.
Use surveys to collect information from large groups of customers. Maybe those that have purchased the previous month.
Read reviews and see what you can learn from them. Do not dwell on the negative reviews, learn something and then move on.
Action Step:
Look back at last week and identify three customers to call and ask about their experience working with you. If you're not comfortable calling, draft an email with three to five questions for them to answer.