Customer feedback is vital for any business. Experts believe that a single negative feedback
has the capacity to lose more than 20% of a company’s customers.
And about three to four such feedbacks can push nearly 70% of potential customers
away—a scenario any business would find hard to recover from

Customer feedbacks are opinions that consumers provide about their experience of a specific product or service to say whether they are happy with it or not. The objective behind collecting customer feedback is to evaluate their satisfaction level. Gathering customer feedback not only helps businesses improve how customers feel about their brand and products, but also to improve their service team’s performance, check how engaged their frontline agents are and to train their team in handling prospective customer inquiries. Here are top five reasons why customer feedback is significant for a business…

1. Helps Improve Products & Services

You may have some idea about customer needs when you launch a new product, brand, or service in the market. Conducting market research before introducing a new product or service offers you an idea whether customers would buy it or not and can also provide you tips on improving it. But it is only after your customers use your product/service that you get to learn about the benefits, flaws and their actual experience. Customer feedback provides crucial information, such as what is working for your product/service and what needs to be done to further improve that experience.

2. Helps Gauge Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are vital aspects that determine a company’s financial performance. It is directly linked to many benefits, including increased market share, lower costs, or higher revenue. Several researches confirm a close connection between business performance and customer satisfaction. So, you would surely want to ensure that your clients are happy with your products and services. The best way to evaluate whether you meet their expectations is to get their opinions. Ratings-based questions can help you gauge the satisfaction level of customers and, thus, predict your company’s future financial condition. The most accurate method that helps companies evaluate, manage and improve customer satisfaction is Net Promoter Score (NPS). It tells you the possibility of a customer recommending your brand to a friend. It is simple and any business can apply it to manage customer satisfaction.

3. Helps Create Best Brand Experience

At present, marketing is mainly based on the experiences of people with brands, products and services. For instance, people do not buy Apple products just because they are good, but they also want to flaunt their status and connection to a particular brand. They do not buy Levis apparel because they are durable, but to show off the label. So, clients remain loyal to a brand if it focuses on offering the best experience at every point. And the most effective way to give them a superb experience is to ask them what they like about your service and how it can be improved.

4. Helps Increase Customer Retention

Happy customers will remain with you no matter what, but unhappy customers will find better alternatives to your products/services and will eventually leave. There are many benefits of customer feedback. They help you decide whether your clients are satisfied with your service and also identify areas where you must improve. By asking for opinions on a regular basis, you can keep tabs on their pulse. Whenever a dissatisfied customer shares his/her displeasure, you should immediately respond and find a resolution to fix the matter. This is an ideal situation to win over a customer and also increase his/her loyalty level.

5. Reliable Information Source

Today, with the advent of social media, consumers do not trust commercials or expert advice as much. Opinions and reviews shared by other customers who have already used a product or service are more dependable information sources nowadays. When you look for accommodation in a city you visit or want to find a good restaurant to have dinner with your friends, you read reviews beforehand. When you want to buy some electronic goods or fashion accessories, you look for opinions on Facebook or read up reliable blogs that offer reviews. There are many companies that include review systems in their services and products nowadays. You may consider Apple, Sony or Google, and how they ensure that poor services will be spotted and removed from their businesses.

Customer feedback is essential to your business and other customers, too, so you should make sure that you and your clients can access reviews and opinions shared by customers easily.