Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Getting customer feedback is vital to learning how well you’re reaching your customers. Sadly, most companies fail miserably to both collect and effectively respond to customer feedback.

Just think about the last time you made a complaint or suggestion to a big company like AT&T or Comcast. Did you get a lame response like “Thank you, we’ll take your feedback under consideration?”

That scripted response is an important lesson for your small business:

It’s not enough to simply say you’re listening. You actually have to mean it. Then, you have to prove it by taking concrete actions to address the feedback.

Here’s how you can better listen to your customers:

1. Collect feedback

First, collect as much feedback as you can. Feedback comes in two forms: direct and indirect.

Direct feedback is what customers are saying about your company directly to you. To encourage direct feedback:

• Make your email address and phone number easy-to-find
• Answer your phone using a live person
• Respond to every real email and voicemail you get
• Provide a blog/forum on your website for customer feedback
• Conduct a focus group or user study about your offerings
• Participate on social networks such as Facebook and Yelp

Indirect feedback is what customers are saying about your company to other people. To learn what others are saying, you can:

• Google yourself
• Check reviews of your company on Yelp
• Read blogs that likely to cover your business
• Monitor your product reviews on Amazon
• Search Twitter for tweets about your business

When collecting feedback, catalog each issue in some form a database. It could be as simple as a journal, a set of index cards, or a spreadsheet. It could also be as complex as a bug-tracking application. Remember, be prepared for criticism and accept them readily. Don’t ignore negative feedback.

2. Process the feedback

Once you collect enough feedback, you’ll start to notice patterns: the same complaints and feedback will appear over and over again. Organize these issues together and create a list of the top concerns. These are your “high priority” issues list and will keep you on focused on the biggest customer issues and problems. Categorize the remaining issues into “medium priority” and “low priority.”

3. Make real changes

Once you have a prioritized list of customer complaints, it’s time to address each issue one by one by making real changes.

Begin with the high priority issues and think back to your company or product positioning statement. Make changes that meet your customers’ needs while staying true to your positioning. Remember, you can’t be all things to all people. Your goal is not to add every feature requested by every customer. Your goal is to improve the overall customer experience of your target audience.

Once you’ve made significant changes, it’s important to communicate them to your customers. They won’t always notice. You can tell them about changes in many forms:

• an email
• a tweet
• a personal phone call
• a blog post
• a web page update

Communicating changes to your customers completes the feedback loop. It shows you’ve listened to their suggestion, considered the problem, and implemented a change to improve the experience.