“Surveys are an excellent way to set the customer feedback ball rolling… Customers are more likely to reveal any underlying issues they have with your brand through surveys,” – Mark Cuban
Modern business enterprises can leverage information from customer feedback mechanisms to thrive in competitive markets. This data can be used to improve business processes, create and refine products and services, and to gauge business performance vis-à-vis the market competition. However, as things stand, most customers pay scant attention to customer feedback mechanisms. This may be the outcome of time crunch or a non-serious approach to offering feedback to the business enterprise. Therefore, businesses need to actively invest in certain methods to ensure that customers complete feedback mechanisms at all times.
One option to elicit detailed customer feedback is to send out personalized email surveys to customers. An enterprise can take this approach at the end of each business day to follow up every customer engagement and transaction meaningfully. An important point to bear in mind is that any customer survey, especially online-based surveys, should not be complicated or annoying. The enterprise must make it a priority to design time-efficient surveys that can absorb the basic inputs from customers. The feedback mechanism should be powered through websites, social media handles, in-app modules, and cell phone text messages. These technology-driven media options help customers complete feedback surveys at their own time and convenience.
The interested enterprise can choose to create interesting feedback mechanisms that incorporate useful information and perhaps, fun facts related to creating a greener environment. This approach can help the business to enhance (traditionally) droll customer feedback mechanisms into relevant, interesting, platforms that serve as an extension of customer engagement strategies. We note that customers are more likely to engage with the enterprise when their curiosity is piqued and their attention captured by a thoughtfully designed feedback mechanism. For instance, a paper manufacturing company can choose to educate the company about the need to preserve forests and its own corporate initiatives in that direction. This approach may capture attention and help customers complete feedback mechanisms. The said approach can also highlight the corporate enterprise’s active pursuit of climate-friendly business practices.
Online enterprises can take the initiative to offer bonus shopping points when customers complete feedback mechanisms. This strategy is likely to induce the customer to spend time on feedback surveys and offer his or her considered response. This mode of business interaction is driven solely by incentives and therefore, the online business must make relevant provisions in its accounting methods. Online brands would be advised to inform customers that such information sharing helps the brand to service the customer better in future interactions. We note that approach can further act as an incentive for the customer to extend his shopping session and visit the website later. Repeat customers are good news for any business, and therefore, this strategy represents an emphatic win for the business enterprise.
Businesses and brands can adopt various strategies to make sure that customers complete feedback surveys. Email and text messages can remind customers that they are yet to complete the feedback session. This approach may convince the customer that the enterprise values customer feedback and may create the motivation for customers to fill in the blanks. The socially conscious enterprise may innovate on standard business practices by sending business executives to the homes of differently-abled customers in an attempt to harvest customer feedback. At a macro level, it must be borne in mind that every enterprise should deploy simple, intuitive feedback formats to ensure that customers complete feedback mechanisms. This approach indicates that the business values the time of its consumers, prizes customer convenience, and does not intend to create cumbersome feedback mechanisms.
Innovation can emerge in every business practice and customer feedback is no exception. Both brick-and-mortar and online businesses can brainstorm to create layered customer feedback systems that ping the customer at different points in the course of interaction. Consider this: a retail showroom or a supermarket can opt to seek feedback from customers as they move from one department to the next. This implies that the business organization is working to capture granular information in terms of customer feedback. The individual department heads can be tasked to capture customer feedback as part of their contribution to the wider business enterprise. Store attendants can be delegated the job of monitoring store traffic such that customers complete feedback mechanisms to the best of their ability. Such actions need to be non-intrusive and must be handled delicately to achieve the desired effect. Similarly, in the case of online businesses, online visitors can be presented a short template to record their feedback as they navigate their way through a e-commerce website or an app. The brief level of interaction is unlikely to annoy any customer, yet promises to capture significant information during the online session. The layered feedback system also promises to hold the customer’s attention while defeating any chances of customer fatigue. We note that certain brands may choose to offer a minor discount on the final bill to all customers that complete the feedback session.
Large brick-and-mortar retail establishments may choose to ensure that customers complete feedback sessions by offering a spot inducement to all participants. This inducement may be in the form of a packaged health drink (or a glass of chilled soda in hot climates). We may say that this tactic represents a very visible (and high profile) approach to capture customer feedback. These establishments can also use technology, such as touch screens, to capture feedback and smoothen the process of interaction with individual customers. Alternatively, the use of connected tablet devices highlights the use of technology and electronic mobility (in lieu of paper forms) to capture customer feedback. These tactics can be further refined by brick-and-mortar businesses in their pursuit of capturing feedback. The said retailers may encourage customers to visit their websites or mobile apps in an attempt to ensure that customers complete feedback mechanisms. Further, customers may be offered a chance to win special discounts if they choose to complete detailed feedback questionnaires. To ensure anonymity, all customers may avail paper forms that can be completed and dropped into a glass box on their way out of the business premises. Any brick-and-mortar establishment to boost the process of capturing live feedback from customers could use the options mentioned.
In the preceding paragraphs, we have outlined the various means that ensure that customers complete feedback systems. This kind of business interaction should be encouraged at all times and businesses should bucket customer feedback capturing mechanisms with business innovation. In addition, the modern enterprise should seek to constantly brainstorm new means to encourage customers to offer complete feedback. This can be manifest in various inducements as also in the plethora of options enabled by modern technologies. Corporate leadership and business managers must acknowledge that incomplete feedback is subpar and indicates a waste of time for the customer. Incomplete feedback may also have dangerous implications because this information does not represent the true picture as far as the customer’s opinion is concerned. Therefore, every business enterprise must invest strongly in holistic survey mechanisms and must work to enable the customer in such matters.
