4 Ways To Effectively Collect Customer Feedback

by Harish Thyagarajan | Jan 20, 2020

Every business strives to please its customers. By satisfying the needs of customers, you can keep them loyal to the brand. Many companies are even trying to become more customer-centric. But how do you do all this without truly understanding what your customers want? Customers’ opinions are what guides companies to adjust their actions. Customer feedback plays a significant role in developing products and services in a way that makes the lives of users more comfortable, in turn, making them love your company more. Businesses can gather customer feedback in different ways:

Promoted feedback – surveys, ratings, questionnaires
Unprompted feedback – client reviews, word of mouth, social media posts

Both sources are essential to get a 360-degree picture of how your clients perceive your brand, what they associate it with, and how they feel about your products/services. If companies want to stay ahead of the curve, it is important to listen to the voice of their clients constantly. This not only means searching for posts about your brand on social media and online reviews, and replying to customers but also actively asking for feedback. 1 dissatisfied customer typically shares their experience with 8-10 people. This means that these 8-10 people are less than likely to interact with your brand or may feel skeptical while doing so. Surveys are a classic way of requesting for feedback. A well-written survey can easily be converted to useful data, revealing keen insights into the customer and their experience. In this blog, we’ll talk about how you can use different communication channels and strategies to send surveys and gather useful information about your customers. The easiest way to collect data is to send surveys through the customers’ preferred channels of communication.

1. Capturing feedback through SMS

SMS has eight times the response rate of emails. SMS is a more personal and direct way of reaching out to customers. It allows companies to connect with people faster and reach a wider audience. It is an easy and more economical way to capture data at critical points of the customer’s journey with your brand. Be it asking for quick feedback on recent purchases, sending out a survey message to see how customers enjoyed their meal or even rating your experience after cab rides, surveys allow customers to reply at their convenience – even when they are on the go. Businesses can automate the process of collecting surveys through cloud communication solutions providers like Kaleyra. For example, after a call with a customer, you can send them an automated SMS asking them to rate their experience and gather data on how the agents are performing, what areas they need to focus on, how long they are taking to provide solutions to customer queries, etc. Similarly, survey messages can be automatically sent after purchases, product delivery, and more.

2. Automating calls to collect feedback

You can use automated voice calls to collect feedback from users directly. In such a way customers can provide their feedback after receiving a call or may even call on DID (direct inward dialing numbers) numbers to give their feedback. All the customer has to do is listen to some questions and answer how they feel. This not only allows customers to put in less effort than writing their answers and tells companies how they feel but also allows businesses to judge and further analyze responses through the tone of voice. By automatically guiding customers to fill surveys through voice channels, you can seamlessly gather feedback and gain valuable insights straight from the source, at scale. It also allows you to make data-driven decisions by analyzing collected data from surveys and using the results to set goals for the next phase.

3. Connecting with customers on WhatsApp

Over 1.6 billion people use WhatsApp to communicate with people around the world. Through WhatsApp messaging, businesses can ensure that their communication with customers is never trapped in the spam folder. Additionally, since it is an international platform, you can collect feedback from customers no matter where they are. With two-way messaging and rich media communication, you can connect with customers like never before. The platform allows you to get closer to customers and talk to them the way they speak to their friends and family. By collating all the responses, you can identify the strengths and pitfalls of your business. With relevant information, you can take steps to fix what’s wrong with your product/service and improve what’s right.

4. Customizing your IVR to collect responses

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a telephony menu system that enables users to select the reason for their call. Accordingly, the request is identified, segmented, and routed to the most appropriate agent. By customizing the IVR businesses can allow customers to provide their feedback, just by clicking on a number. Businesses already have IVRs to manage incoming calls from customers, and customers are using this to call for support. Adding another segment to the flow would not bring in any additional costs or effort for both the stakeholders. This incorporation of customer feedback can help businesses better serve existing customers and successfully attract new ones. Cloud communication service providers like Kaleyra can help you customize your IVR to fit industry as well as business-specific needs. Collecting customer feedback also allows you to segregate the positive feedback and incorporate this into your customer testimonials to add value and encourage prospective customers. Therefore, both negative and positive customer feedback is an integral part of enhancing business processes. When measured and used right, they can play a valuable role in the development of your products and allow your brand to stay ahead of the curve.

Kalaivani Narayanan

Content Specialist