How to Ask for and Actually Get Customer Feedback

For any business that wants to improve the overall customer experience (which includes improving services, products, and the like, as well), getting and analyzing customer feedback is absolutely necessary.

Not only does it provide valuable insight that drives growth and enhances customer satisfaction, but it also allows you to retain and improve loyalty through the understanding that your company puts its customers first.

However, the question remains – how can you ask for and actually get back honest customer feedback? To answer this question, we’ve compiled this detailed guide to help you out!

What is Customer Feedback?

First, the basics – customer feedback simply means that you’re looking for your customers’ opinions and suggestions regarding the product or service they’ve purchased from you.

This feedback can be good or bad, depending on the personal experience of the client, and is attained via multiple avenues. This can be surveys, interviews, social media and product reviews, and even direct channels.

Once you’re able to understand this feedback, you can begin applying changes to circumvent it and make informed decisions that tailor your offerings and make the product or service better for increased customer satisfaction.

In fact, if your customer satisfaction increases due to better customer service with the above method, you can even get over 90% of customers to return and purchase your products!

How to Ask for Customer Feedback in the Right Way: Methods & Examples

Of course, there are ways that you can maximize the right feedback, and these methods, paired with the correct timing, are the perfect way to encourage honest and constructive responses.

Here are some proven example methodologies that supplement this claim and help you get meaningful feedback:

Send a Follow-Up Email

This might sound simple, but though this is a straightforward method, it’s a surprisingly effective one.

After the customer interacts with or purchases a product, send a personalized email asking customers to share their thoughts on their experience. Remember to keep the email concise, though, and have a clear call to action.

Example: “Thank you for your recent purchase! We’d love to hear your feedback. Please take a moment to fill out this short survey.

Moreover, if you use tools like Snov.io’s email finder extension, you can gather all the emails you need to reach the right customers and expand your follow-up emails to introductory messages and even email chains that can lead you to more personalized feedback.

Conduct Customer Interviews

Second, you have the option of conducting customer interviews. These provide increasingly in-depth insights that other options cannot promise, and can be conducted over the phone, via video calls, or in person.

However, the number of people willing to answer these might be less than the other options, since not everyone tends to have enough time for the more in-depth interviews as compared to quick emails and surveys.

Still, prep with open-ended questions to encourage detailed responses and always listen actively!

Example: “Can you tell me more about your experience using our product? What did you like, and what could be improved?

Analyze Recorded Sales Calls

Another option is to utilize the information you already have through sales calls and the like. These often contain valuable feedback and information that you can analyze to further understand the customer’s needs and pain points.

Review the recorded calls, identify recurring themes, and then you know what specific areas to target and follow up with the customer on! Plus, since over 70% of the consumer base prefers to reach sales and service reps over call, this becomes an even greater resource.

Example: “During our recent sales call, you mentioned a few concerns. Could you elaborate on those points?

Record Website Visitor Session Replays

You can also utilize website session replays to complete this task – with this, you see how customers interact with your site. The recordings will display things like how much time they spend on one product/service over the other, what they ignore, and so on.

Analyze these and you’ll be able to identify usability issues and narrow down your target customers’ behaviors and preferences!

Monitor Social Media Channels

Social media platforms are also rich sources of unsolicited (and honest) feedback. You can use these to monitor mentions, comments, and direct messages on places like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Get insights into customer sentiments and address concerns before they become too difficult to handle, and, if necessary, reach out to the customer regarding these for more information.

Example: “We saw your comment about our product on Twitter. We’d love to hear more about your experience and how we can improve.

Include Post-Purchase Feedback

Another option is to request immediate feedback upon the purchase of the product. This can yield high response rates since the customers are already on the task. However, it might be a little lacking in terms of depth.

Still, since it’s convenient for customers to share their thoughts here, it can also be incredibly useful in the case of repeat customers or multiple purchases.

Example: “Thank you for your purchase! Please rate your shopping experience with us and let us know how we can serve you better.

Delay Asking for Feedback

As mentioned in the last section, there are benefits to waiting to get feedback, since delaying the request can lead to more accurate and in-depth insights. The feedback on the product or service, in this case, tends to be a lot more useful and detailed.

Example: “It’s been a month since your purchase. We’d love to hear how our product has been working for you.

Use Feedback Monitoring Sites

Finally, you can use trusty monitoring sites to collect customer feedback in a manner easier for your customers.

This is because sites like Yelp, Google Reviews, and Trustpilot are dedicated to collecting customer feedback for all kinds of things and are therefore easy for the customers to use as a one site for all destinations.

Example: “We value your feedback! Please leave us a review on Google to help us improve our services.

Conclusion

In short, collecting customer feedback is important for any business, because it allows you to improve your offerings and, more important, enhance customer satisfaction.

With methods like follow-up emails, customer interviews, and social media monitoring, you can jump right into the process of immediately and cumulatively gathering valuable insights to drive your business forward.

Always remember – be strategic in your approach, and ask for feedback at the right time and place. This depends on your customer base and your product, so analyze that before you fall into demanding responses from the customer.

All in all, by actively seeking and acting on customer feedback, you can build relationships with your customers that are strong and reliable, leading you to achieve greater success, engagement, and brand loyalty.