You’re convinced your customers are happy with you and thrilled you’re your products and services, but are they? How do you know? Have you asked? How to gain customer feedback is about more than asking. It’s about asking the right questions in the right way in order to gather the information that will be useful to you and your business.
Gaining feedback from customers is one of the best ways to ensure you’re on the right track. You may have launched a product or service you think is the latest and greatest. If your customers are looking at it as if it’s a yawn, you need to pivot, right? If you want to thrive, the answer is probably yes or you can keep your new product or service but find out why it wasn’t the hit you thought it would be.
How To Gain Customer Feedback
How can you get valuable feedback when you send out a customer survey?
- Ask the right question. This means, don’t ask a leading question that only points them to the answer you want. That’s not helping you and it certainly won’t go unnoticed by your customer. Ask a better question to get a better answer. For example, instead of asking, “what features of this new swimming pool project is appealing?” instead ask, “what feature of the new pool appeals to you the most?”
- Be specific and targeted and don’t ask a question in such a way that the customer has to struggle to figure out what you mean. Do you just want yes or no answers? Are you looking for more indepth insight? (like the question about which feature they like the most).
- Only ask one question per question. “If you were going to get a pool, would you get a pool that is XYZ and ABC or would you prefer 123.” It’s too many options. Ask each separately if necessary. If the questions are convoluted the customer won’t likely give input. Their time is valuable, respect that.
- Are there follow up questions you can ask? If you ask, “Do you like ABC pool?” you get your yes or no then you follow up with, “If cash were no object would you get ABC, why or why not?”
- Don’t use technical lingo or acronyms that those outside your industry won’t understand. Consider your audience and use the terms they’d use.
Offer an incentive for taking time to complete the survey. A chance for a free pool cleaning, a chance to be entered into a drawing for a gift card, etc. This shows you value their time and input and may help you get more responses.