In our modern, tech-heavy, internet-focused world, “traditional” marketers, sellers, and even companies are moving into the cyberspace in an attempt to reach out more to their audiences, bringing with them the need for customer feedback and data not only for their websites, but for their products and services as well. (An important phase of the buying process in knowing customer preferences, so the importance of customer data to companies is invaluable.)

In the past, long periods of time transpired between product releases, and customer research’s primary focus was to ensure a successful product launch. Nowadays, though, we’ve got technology that display customer information right on the get go – these go a long way in helping companies and the like by allowing them to continually develop themselves and their product in direct accordance to their target market’s wants and needs, which of course will have the beneficial effect of driving up sales.  

What are the best ways to gain online feedback from your customers, and how exactly can they support your business?

Getting the Feedback

Surveys:  This is one of the best options because they involve very simple steps – ask a question, get an answer, then analyze the answer. Anyone can do it, and whether you create long surveys with SurveyMonkey or integrate short ones onto your website with the use of browser-based tech like Qeryz or Qualaroo, you’re bound to get results either way. Just make sure your survey is well-made, or you could end up with bad data. (For more, check out our guides on weeding out bad data and how to decide what kind of survey you shouls use.)

Feedback Boxes: Normally, when a user goes into a site and doesn’t find what they need, they end up bouncing away to never return again, and you end up simply wondering why. You can fully bet on them not contacting support over small problems, so placing a small feedback box will allow people to openly suggest and shed light on potentially problematic areas. Just make sure that your box isn’t too big in that it’s obnoxious, and not too small that people can’t see it. Make it so that it’s there when it’s needed and ignorable when it’s not.

Customer Analytics: While web analytics will show you what the overall usage of your website is like, customer analytics will track each person individually. This is good as it will allow you to check what exactly that made that person decide on whether or not your service or product is valuable; it also makes identifying the reason for certain outcomes a little easier. Remember: not all visitors are customers! (That’s what conversion is for.)

Using the Feedback

Now that you’ve got the data, what are you going to do with it?

It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the data you’ve got, and it’s a nigh impossible task to act on each and every one. Even if you could, you shouldn’t want to – contrary to popular belief, the customer is not always right. What is good for one may not be good for another. But then you may ask, what good is all this data if it’s too convoluted to act on individually? Simple: look for trends instead. If a problem or suggestion seems to come up over and over, then that is certainly the kind of feedback you’ll want to act on. Reach out to those people, understand  it, then try to make a solution.

As Bill gates once said: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

If there’s any takeaway to this article, it’s this: the importance of customer feedback shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s not all about helping you find issues or problems with your product or service, but it also provides valuable feedback on customer retention. Not only that, but it allows you to make better business decisions based on the reactions of your customers, thus granting them a better customer experience overall. That’s how feedback can be used as support.