Customer experience can be a rather subjective aspect of business. In fact, in a country of billions of people, it is virtually impossible to cater to everybody and expect similar responses. However, most companies, websites, or individuals attempt just this, trying to find a kind of middle ground so as to provide the optimal user experience. Feedback programs can be a great way of doing this, and here we will try to show you to effectively utilize it for greater business and improved performances.
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Different Kind of Feedback Programs Available
While there is something universal about feedback programs in that they evaluate customer experiences, there are some essential kinds which vary in some slight degree in their nature and scope. These can be in the form of telephone feedback channels with personal interaction, email feedback channels asking for personal appraisals, review systems, and forms, etc. The success (and pros or cons) of each of these models can depend upon the following factors:
- Time it takes for the customer to fill up or submit feedback.
- Ease with which feedback can be provided.
- Limitations of such means of gathering data
- Limitations in the kind of customer base that can be accessed, and
- The ability of the customer to provide necessary information and unbiased opinions.
Why Customer Experience is Important and ways to diagnose your present program
Every kind of product is developed to serve some kind of purpose or utility in the market it inhabits. Whether it is a new drug for cancer or a new baby formula, no amount of testing in laboratories can give the right estimation of how it works on a real, live, practical basis. For that, customer experience data can be crucial. By gaining some insight from customers who have had an actual experience with the product, companies that welcome feedback also more often than not progress towards a path of development. To assess whether your present CEM program provides sufficient engagement with the customer, hold it up to the five-level yardstick for measurement:
- Does it help your company grow?
- Can it improve customer loyalty?
- Does it work towards retaining customers?
- Is it easily accessible, and fairly simple to assess for users?
If you are not quite confident of your customer feedback program, you could run
Six Ways in Which a Successful Customer Experience Program should Be Built up
The idea behind customer feedback systems is a two-way improvement channel because it can reward both the end-user and the manufacturer or developer. Besides building a closed-loop system, a six-step process in order to ensure the best and most effective system they can:
- Have a Strong Leadership Team to engage with Customer Satisfaction.
- Possess the Vision and Clarity to take up criticism and turn it into an opportunity for growth.
- Be committed to engaging over and over until customers are totally satisfied.
- Prepare to listen carefully to every little detail that the end-user narrates, even if it is long-winded and may appear irrational in ways.
- Be committed to taking actions based on those critical nuggets of wisdom that can come only after listening to a great number of useless and few priceless pieces of feedback.
- Have the patience to take this up as a long protracted project rather than a short term one.
The cons of this system are that it may take time, energy and enormous resources, but a Feedback program can be completely worthwhile if it is done right.
Creating Closed Loop Systems for Customer Engagement
However, the next point to note is: how do you engage with your customers beyond that first conversation or survey? This is critical in how it affects customer retention and user experiences directly. Quest Back upholds closed-loop systems as a rigorous way of moving beyond customer feedback, claiming that it leads to higher ROI. Closing the Root is not as simple as it sounds because it requires that:
- Companies conduct thorough investigations.
- Companies commit to uncovering best practices in their field.
In this, the right website platform can be particularly helpful that can generate closed-loop feedback programs and a sustainable environment. There are also multiple benefits of closed loops, such as engagement with employees and customer services, prevent detractions, and improve brand loyalty in both sectors.
How to Continue Conversations in Customer Feedback
Speaking of the right way of conducting customer feedback, it is important to understand how conversations should be carried on in the customer feedback circuit. First, it is important to engage customers through:
- Websites: Company websites should come with feedback programs or searchable links.
- Social Media: Facebook, Google+ or Twitter pages of companies should engage with customers.
- Email: Companies should invite feedback through Email.
- Text Messages: Customers should have the option to provide feedback on Text.
- E-commerce channels: Every sale online should end with an option to leave feedback.
- Store sales: Point of sales such as stores should provide customers a feedback system (paper, online).
- Direct inbound Dials: Toll-free numbers, that’s what they are here for.
- QR Codes: Direct links to mobile customer feedbacks can be quite a useful trick.
Rewards of a Customer Satisfaction Program
According to McKinsey company’s report in 2014, companies that are committed towards accelerating and bettering satisfaction factors benefit by 20% from the use of customer experiences. Feedback programs also improve the chances of referrals, and as professors at the Wharton School of Business discovered, such direct referrals can lead to a 16% improvement in business. There are plenty of simple feedback services available on the market, and many of these can effectively provide statistical data, run help desks, and even collect sufficient client feedback for better business management. Such services often automate the entire process on behalf of the company, managing CRM services with greater efficiency and within budget needs, and allow customers to feel more cared-for. They also provide sufficient data and tools to enable businesses to make data-driven, logical decisions from the often dense material of customer feedback.
Needless to say, engaging in customer feedback and discovering a secure method of closed loop data can allow companies progress on their growth paths.
Images: ”Feedback concept with hand pressing a button on blurred abstract background/Shutterstock.com“
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