It’s no secret that collecting and analyzing customer feedback can be valuable when it comes to improving your product or service. However, obtaining feedback can be tricky for many businesses. Customers are motivated by their own goals and deadlines, so it’s not their responsibility to provide you with feedback. Many customers can be reluctant to give feedback because of the inconvenience these measures cause. When asking for feedback, it’s important that you consider the best way to approach your customers. To help, we compiled a list of how to get quality customer feedback.

Send a follow-up email

The most frequently used method when it comes to quality customer feedback is email. The email is sent once a service has been provided or when a product was purchased and delivered to a customer. However, it’s important to make sure that your email is short, sweet, and doesn’t ask too much out of the customer.

Initiate SMS surveys

Never underestimate SMS surveys. It’s one of the most powerful channels when it comes to requesting feedback from customers. Customers are always a few feet away from their phones, so SMS is a great and easy way to communicate with them. With higher open rates than email, they’re a strong alternative to use when only a phone number is known. 

Create paper feedback cards

Some companies prefer to do things the old-fashioned way by using a simple pen and paper feedback questionnaire. While this is the most cost-effective way to collect feedback, it can also have a lot of hidden costs. To be able to extract meaningful actions from feedback, the responses need to be tabulated in a spreadsheet and analyzed. This requires a lot of time and effort. 

Review live chat transcripts

On-site live chat tools are becoming more frequently used for customer support as well as customer service. Reviewing these transcripts of chats and categorizing any feedback points into categories can help you identify inefficiencies in your business. Frequently mentioned topics tend to be problem areas for your business, which can be improved. This not only helps with customer satisfaction, but it reduces the required resources for customer support. 

Monitor social media channels

Social media has become an inexpensive and efficient way to communicate with your target audience. Customers are already actively participating in communities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It doesn’t cost your business anything to join in on their conversations. Respond to comments, send direct messages, and engage with your audience to see how people really feel about your company. 

When your team encounters negative reviews, be sure to respond to them quickly. Active social media users are expecting a fast response, so it’s important that you dedicate a resource to each channel. 

Offer incentives for quality customer feedback

Going through a survey takes away time from a customer’s schedule. One way to make your surveys worth the investment is to offer a reward for their completion. This makes for a simple, yet effective transaction approach to obtaining feedback. While money and discounts are great, keep in mind that the reward doesn’t have to be cash. You can incentivize customers using free content that’s useful to their workflow. This can be an e-book in-house study or educational pamphlet to help them achieve their goals.