The Real Importance of Customer Feedback

One of the most crucial ways to build your brand is by listening to your customers. It is easy to fall into a routine and keep producing the same products/service without any innovation. However, in a busy marketplace where customers are looking for optimal customer service as well as impressive products, you need to keep up to date with your clientele. There are many ways to collect customer feedback and react to it accordingly. Being aware and open to new ideas could mean great success for your growing brand. Along with CT Shirts, a leading mens suits retailer, we are going to delve a little deeper into the importance of customer feedback…

The value of a happy customer

If your brand overlooks customer satisfaction, then you are giving your competitors the go-ahead. If you are smart with your approach to customer feedback, then you can boost your satisfaction rates as well as develop consumer loyalty. Every home will have its own stock of ‘household name’ type products that are absolute essentials on every shopping trip, and the reason that these products have achieved such status is by sustaining a consistently high level of customer satisfaction.

As simple as it may sound, asking questions is one of the best ways to ensure customer satisfaction. There are a few smart metric strategies that you could employ to help. One example is the Net Promoter Score known as NPS, which allows your business to uncover target responses from your customers relating to your product or service. Through a series of simple questions with answers based on a 0-10 rating scale, with 0 being most negative and 10 being most positive, you can develop an understanding of how satisfied your customers feel towards your brand. The UK cosmetics experts Lush have topped a plethora of polls based on customer satisfaction and experience. From their revolutionised tablet-based till payments to the ethical, transparent brand character, the business has become customer satisfaction force to be reckoned with. Many of the stores branches are experimenting with both visual search technologies and voice activated assistants, showing just how much they value investing in their customer satisfaction rates.

Target audiences and how to keep them happy

Putting value on the people who buy your products is one of the easiest ways to outdo your competitors. Personalisation has taken many businesses by storm, and for a brand to succeed they need to capture engaging elements in their market strategies, while also accounting for the human element that customers look for in an ever-automated world. Building strong customer relationships is more important than ever and listening to feedback from your audience is inherent to this. A recent survey from Infosys found that 31% of respondents said that they want their shopping experience to be far more personalised than it currently is.

How your consumers view your brand is of the utmost importance. Therefore, accommodating your customers marketing preferences will make a positive impact. this is becoming particularly apparent in the telcoms industry with companies such as Maplewave who provide services to retailers that offers a retail experience that resonates in the digital age.  As brick and mortar stores become gradually left behind in the fast-moving digital age, businesses are constantly under pressure to evolve and nurture the data that they have on customers. Convenience is a sought-after aspect amongst the new, younger market demographic, and by listening to customer feedback you can devise ways to make your brand appeal to a potentially larger audience. Coffee giant Starbucks made their digital app ultra-convenient by using locational data as well as previous orders to make getting that essential caffeine hit a streamlined service. Introduced as part of their rewards system, the customisable options helped revenue to soar to $2.56 billion.

Listening is key

Once you have established your target audience, pay close attention to their needs. As a nation, we are currently experiencing a stark demographic shift in the market, with millennial and generation Z shoppers acting as turning points in terms of what the customer wants from a purchase. If a product or service goes unchanged for a prolonged period, then it cannot meet these ever-changing needs and their offering is not up to scratch with the new customer requirements. Not all brands are clued up on the ways that this can be achieved and taking your market research to the next level is always a good place to start.

Even if you are just in the early stages of creating a business, consider getting in contact with potential customers to gage their thoughts. By pursuing these lines of enquiry, you can identify any flaws, experiences, and preferences which could prove fundamental for distinguishing your business and product in a congested market. These kind of insights are such a valuable tool for brands nowadays who are aiming to improve their products, but if they are not applying the findings in the right way then they become pointless. The thriving beauty and skincare business Glossier is a great example of this, as the team includes dedicated customer service agents who work closely with the marketing department and listen to customer experiences. By listening to customer feedback, you are essentially promoting a culture of improvement.

Any business that is aiming to thrive in the modern market needs to put huge emphasis on listening to and understanding its customers. This will prove invaluable in the long run and lead your business from strength to strength.