How are you tracking customer feedback? How strong is your support strategy?
While customer feedback and your support strategy aren’t exactly one and the same, they do go hand-in-hand. Who do you think can help you determine the best approach to providing a great customer experience?
Customer feedback can help you "pre-support" your customers
Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” As a small startup company, we rely on customer feedback heavily to make sure our self-service solution is meeting our customer's needs and is as user-friendly as possible for everyone.
Using a website self-service solution is still a fairly new concept for a lot of companies, but it is a growing business. According to a Forrester study for Kana, 71% of online users said valuing their time is the most important thing a business can do to provide good customer service. One of the reasons website self-service is favorable is the reduced time it takes to get a response. Self-service solutions provide instant answers, so there is literally no wait time on the customer’s end.
Derek Eccleston, Commercial Director for eDigitalResearch, said, “Consumers these days… expect to get what they want, when they want it.” It’s like taking the kids into a candy store. They want their candy right now. However, with the speedy Internet of today online users want their answers ten minutes ago.
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Because of this “need to have it this second” mentality, website self-service has become “the most satisfying modality for customer engagement” (Smart Customer Service).
Other instant answer platforms like live chat have seen an enormous amount of growth these last few years. Similarly, to keep this momentum, the live chat industry is going to have to take into account customer feedback now more than ever.
Here are three strategies for maximizing the value of customer feedback:
Isolate recurring problems and make changes.
There are no better people to discover your worst problems than your customers; the people who use your platform regularly. Being on the back-end can make you forget about the user experience on the front end. Use your customers’ feedback to identify pain points and proactively find a permanent solution.
Discover potential “at-risk” customers.
There is no better way to discover customers who aren’t 100% happy than to gather feedback. Most customers who aren’t enjoying your product or service will not stay around much longer. This customer feedback can be the most valuable because it’s coming from people who would stop using your product or service unless you make changes.
SEE ALSO: 6 CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE LESSONS I’VE LEARNED AS AN EXPERIENCED COO
Identify the best advice for the future.
Being on the user side of a product or service can be very eye-opening for businesses. Customers will tell it like it is. If they love your product or service, they will praise you. If they hate it, they will let you and everyone else know. Actionable feedback like this keeps your business moving forward and on the right track and with the right changes.
Customer feedback helps bring purpose to your product or service offering. It is essential to keeping your current customers happy and continuing your business growth. Studies from the U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Chamber of Commerce have found 68% of customers leave because they are unhappy with the service they receive. Don’t let your customers fall into that 68%. Be the business that keeps them coming back for more.
Key Takeaway
Gathering customer feedback doesn’t just help you discover problems or issues with your product or service, it also provides valuable feedback on customer retention. Make better business decisions based on reactions and responses from your customers. Listening to customer feedback will help you create a better customer experience.
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