What to Do with Customer Feedback

How to Properly Review and Act on Customer Feedback

Stacy telling his story at First Steps to Success

Gathering feedback from your customers is an important part of growing a business and offering an amazing level of customer service. But, once you have gathered this great information, what do you do with it? Usually, businesses simply share the comments of customers with their employees with hopes that the customer service or a specific area of concern will improve. Although this a great course of action, there is so much more that can be done with this information not just to improve your customer’s experience but also to improve your business and sales across the board.

Compile and Review Your Feedback Information

The first step in truly making the most out of customer feedback is to gather all of the information from all of the different channels and compile it into one place. Find a system that works best for the company when it comes to gathering data from customer surveys, social media, and other informational channels. Once you have all of the information in one place, it is time to really review what consumers are saying. Go through the comments and organize them into different categories – for example, use headings like “product issues,” “customer service,” and “overall experience” to organize the data.

Next, take a close look at any trends that may appear – is there one product in your line-up that seems to be failing over and over again? Is there a flaw in your customer relations department that needs fixeing right away? Are customers frustrated with the accessibility of your website or social media pages? If 10 customers are making the same comment, it is safe to assume that many more of your customers are thinking the same thing. Issues that continue to repeat should be addressed right away to help boost your customer satisfaction and let them know your business is listening to their feedback.

Share Feedback with Employees, Good or Bad

As mentioned earlier, it is a good practice to share customer feedback with your employees, especially those who interact with clients on a regular basis. Do not discriminate between positive and negative feedback – all types of feedback are great for your company, so make sure to share it all with your employees. But, sharing information is more than just forwarding comments on to employees through email. Find a system of sharing that helps employees stay engaged with the process but also shows them that you have reviewed and acknowledged the information you are sharing with them.

Also, make sure to mention the trends you are seeing in the data and suggest or implement ways in which the business and the individual employees can help to improve negative comments or to continue to offer great service that customers have praised the business for in the past. It is also important to share positive feedback to help make employees feel as though they are doing a good job for customers and the company – if a customer calls a specific employee out by name for great customer service, make sure to give special recognition to that individual to help encourage more positive behavior.

Would you like to see more small business tips from Stacy O'Quinn? What?! You have never heard of Stacy? Stacy has created a six-figure small business using Dani Johnson training and now helps other entrepreneurs do the same thing. Learn more about Stacy today and then contact him to see how he can help you create your own successful small business. Click here.