4 Ways Businesses Can Deal with Customer Feedback

When we talk about effective communication, three action words always come into play – send, receive, and feedback. As an entrepreneur, you send a message to customers by advertising your product or service. You will then understand when your customers have received this message when they request your offer. The last stage is the feedback – which pretty much tells us what your customers really think about your products and services.

That said, until recent times, many businesses have ignored the importance of feedback and communication with customers. However, now that we live in the age of customer feedback, it is vital to know how to utilize feedback for better business success. Below are four recommended ways.

1. Identify your customers: 

Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, there are many different kinds of customers. The meek, the chronic complainers, the high rollers, and the barnacle who is never satisfied. The ability to discern what category your customer fits into enables you to sift through their complaints and understand how to tackle them.

This is not to say that some customers’ complaints are more valuable than others. Rather, organizing customers who have provided feedback helps you know which complaints need your urgent attention. hat’s more, you can pinpoint the complaints which are consistent across all groups – these complaints will be considered as red flags.

2. Look past the negativity

Without being asked, it is generally more common for customers to provide a negative feedback than a positive one. This is because negative feedback is a way of asking for resolutions to an impending issue.

Don’t take it too personally if you receive a lot of negative feedback, instead, welcome them and learn to look past the negativity by seeking solutions to those issues. For example, the most hilarious complaints we've heard about Ford Transit Custom Sport have to be on their website which goes to show they do not shy away from any kind of feedback because it is a means to future customer satisfaction.

3. Award customers for their feedback

Over the years, there has been a transition in how businesses treat marketing. It is no longer viewed as a one-off transaction but a more long-term relationship. This is what propels the need for feedback from consumers.

Customers are starting to get tired of the whole feedback charade and often feel like it is a bogus show of concern since they sometimes do not see any immediate change or resolution. That said, the onus is on you to encourage customers who provide feedback by rewarding them. Rewards could include discounts in their next buy or points earned to their loyalty cards.

4. Use feedback to motivate your employees

We have talked about how to deal with negative feedback; so what then happens to positive feedback? Beyond feedback on how well your employees are performing, employees sometimes want to know what the consumers think of their time and efforts. Hence why it is important to use positive feedback to satisfy this inquisitiveness and motivate them. 

There is a psychological benefit behind knowing that the work you do is affecting someone’s life positively – it is the same feeling that motivates many volunteers and social workers.
Receiving feedback is one thing but knowing how to deal with this feedback is what sets you apart in business and customer relationships.