The Importance Of Client Feedback

The best performing businesses understand that in order to thrive, they need to take customer feedback seriously. They listen to and act on the opinions of their clients, continually refining their offering to consumers.

There are many different ways to build an accurate picture of what your clients really think about your business. For example, contact centres are a focal point for customer interactions and they provide the perfect opportunity to gather opinions and responses from your clients. Customer surveys, dedicated feedback forms and live chat support conversations are also great sources of information. It’s important to pay attention to the remarks made about your products or services on social media too.

Collecting customer feedback does require an investment of time and resources, but it’s well worth making the effort. Here are some of the most important reasons why gathering client feedback matters.

Understanding what clients do and don’t like

How you feel about your products or services may be very different to how many of your customers feel about them. It’s only by being open to feedback and criticisms from your clients that you can learn what they do and don’t like about what you are offering. The people who are actually buying and using your products or services might identify positives and negatives that would never occur to you. Armed with this information, you can address any problems and enhance the customer experience associated with your company.

In this process, you might discover issues that you were completely unaware of concerning anything from your standards of customer service, to the quality of your products or services, to the ease of making a purchase on your website.  

Continually improving your products or services

When you’re constantly listening to customers’ opinions about what you have to offer, you should find it much easier to improve your products or services. You’ll know exactly which areas to focus your attention on. It should also be less challenging to make sure that any new products or services you introduce are as appealing as possible to your target audience. All of this is good news for your sales levels.

Showing your clients that their opinions matter

We all like to feel valued, and the clients buying your products or services are no exception. By inviting your customers to provide you with feedback, you’re sending a clear signal that you value their input and want to ensure you’re meeting their needs. In turn, this could increase the sense of brand loyalty that your clients feel and make them more likely to buy from you again in the future.

Perhaps even more importantly, it can encourage clients to share positive experiences of your business with others – either in person or online. Word-of-mouth marketing and organic promotions on social media can give your business a significant boost in sales.   

Helping you to keep on top of market trends

Consumers’ attitudes and buying habits are constantly evolving, and as a business it can be very difficult to keep up. This is particularly the case now as a result of the rapid pace of technological advances.

If you’re not careful, your products or services could fall out of favour with your target market because you’ve simply failed to keep pace with the relevant changes. Ultimately, this is bad news for your sales and it could even jeopardise the viability of your business. Leveraging customer feedback helps to protect you from this pitfall. It can enable you to detect shifting trends among consumers and allow you to tailor your offering accordingly.

As these points highlight, seeking out client feedback can have a major impact on the success of your business. However you choose to do it, it’s vital that you keep tabs on what customers think of your company. Paying attention to this issue could help you to gain a competitive edge over your rivals and secure your long-term future.

Posted by Gemma Harding

As Head of Client Services, Gemma is an expert in the customer service industry. With over 20 years of experience in the call handling process she will guide your organisation to an improved customer service strategy. Hobbies include all thing equestrian.

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