three women building their profitable business with hidden asset of customers

Are you using this valuable resource? Your customers are a hidden asset waiting to be tapped.

What if you could assemble a room of experts on your products and services?

People who know the ins and outs of every bit of your product. The good news is that you already know your experts.

Your best experts are your customers.

Asking for customer feedback is easier than you think. Customers are experts on what you sell and how they use it, and asking them can be an eye-opening experience.

  • What do your customers like most about your product or service?
  • What do they believe that your product or service currently lacks?
  • What do they wish you did better?
  • Is there a companion product or service that they wished you offered?
  • Is there a different service tier or a done-for-you service they wish you offered?

The most valuable info?

You may uncover valuable insights into your product or service – and maybe find new products or services to offer.

Often, you will uncover many potential products or services they buy from a competitor – or can’t find in the marketplace.

Think about how you can use their feedback to create a new or improved service and offer it to your customers. You can also custom-tailor it to your clients' needs.

Consider using the feedback to focus your marketing message better.

Let’s say you have a business that creates websites.

The most common customer feedback is that they need help ranking their site on search engines.

You could start an add-on SEO and search rank service, where you analyze and improve their website rankings for a monthly fee.

 

three women working to build their profitable business while tapping into customer resource

What if you don’t know how to do this new service or create this new product yourself?

Outsource this, but white label it as your service.

You still profit from the service and gain a valuable business partner doing the search optimization.

Best of all, you can concentrate on the parts of your business where you are the expert while still providing a valuable service to your clients.

Offer this to your current customers, saying that due to their feedback and the demand, you’ve created this service to help them with what they want most. You get a reputation as a proactive, agile business and build customer loyalty.

Here are ways for your business to incentivize customer feedback.

Create surveys and questionnaires.

Use online survey tools to create and send customers questionnaires after they have purchased or interacted with your service.

Incentive: Offer a discount on their next purchase, entry into a prize draw, or a freebie for completing the survey to encourage participation.

Have easily accessible feedback forms on your website.

Embed a feedback form on your website that is easily accessible, particularly on product pages or the checkout screen.

Incentive: Provide a small instant coupon code or loyalty points upon submission of the form to motivate immediate action.

Direct outreach via email, direct mail, or phone.

For a more personalized feedback request, contact customers directly via their preferred contact method—email, direct mail, or phone.

Incentive: Express genuine interest in their opinion and how it directly impacts the services they receive. For high-value customers, a personalized approach without tangible rewards may be enough of an incentive.

Use social platforms and communities to engage your customers.

Engage with customers on social platforms by asking for feedback in comments or through polls and stories.

Incentive: Highlight customer reviews or feedback on your platforms, showing that you value and act on customer opinions. Exclusive social media contests for respondents can also be effective.

Create on-package or in-product requests for reviews and feedback.

Include a feedback request within product packaging or as part of the product experience (e.g., a card with a QR code linking to a survey).

Incentive: As a thank-you for providing feedback, offer a future-purchase discount, an additional warranty period, or a free accessory for a future product.

How to maximize customer feedback.

Make it easy and simple.

Give feedback as easily and as efficiently as possible. Keep your request simple and easy to understand.

A lengthy or complicated process can deter customers from starting or completing a feedback submission.

Be transparent.

Show customers how feedback is used to make tangible improvements. This can encourage participation from those who want to see specific changes or enhancements.

Time your request to when customers are most likely to give you feedback.

If you ask for feedback while the experience is fresh in customers' minds. Immediate post-interaction requests can yield higher response rates.

Pro tip: Time your requests when customers are most happy with your product or service.

Have you delivered a product or service early or come in under budget? That's when your customers are most willing to share their positive reviews of your business.

Offer a variety of ways to offer feedback.

Offer multiple feedback channels to cater to different customer preferences, whether they're more responsive to digital communication, in-person engagement, or social media interaction.

Some customers will want to do video reviews, while others will leave written feedback. Meet your customers wherever they are and give them a way to give feedback.

Offer recognition and public appreciation.

Acknowledge all of your customers who have given feedback with a thank you note or by implementing a 'customer of the month' feature.

Recognition can be as compelling as financial incentives.

Make sure you comment on customer feedback.

Regardless of the type of feedback, make sure the customer can see you value their opinion.

Positive feedback can be met with a "thank you for your kind words" comment.

Negative feedback can be met with "How can we do better?" and an offer to discuss how you can fix the problem.

What will you do to maximize customer feedback?

What will you do with that feedback?

 

Take Action! Download the worksheet: Ask for Feedback from Your Customers

 

Taken from: Profit-ize Your Business Book Two: Sales and Membership Programs

Like this post? It was taken from the Profitize Your Business series

Patricia Browne

Patricia Browne

Patricia Browne is the author of seven books that help businesses grow and profit.

Read about The Profit-ize system and what it can do for your business

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