Customer Feedback Programs to Implement in 2010
January 17th, 2010 @ Ivana Taylor
Are you STILL doing surveys the old fashioned way? While most traditional methods have their benefits, there are many other new and improved ways to collect customer feedback that will enhance your relationships with customers AND your profitability.
In this article, I’m going to outline some of the wonderful methods I’ve used with clients over the last year and where I can, I will also share some of the programs that we implemented as a result and what those results were.
Reassess Your Strengths and Brand Promise
Companies are a lot like people and go through life stages. Not only that, but economic environments and technologies change and this causes your organization to change in ways you may not have noticed. It’s a good idea to have a branding and positioning expert come in (someone from the outside who doesn’t really know your company) and interview your employees, management and associates over a few days. Their objective should be to get a general feeling for the personality of your company.
Customers have personalities and literally take on the human idiosyncrasies like detail orientation, sociability, extroversion, introversion, and so on. That stands to reason since companies are made up of people and are led by people with preferences for certain ways of doing business. These personality traits attract a certain type of customer who sees value in that. But what often happens, is that we are all too close to things and lose sight of what that special sauce is that our company has that attracts out ideal customers. This is why an internal brand assessment is such a good idea.
I recently conducted an internal brand assessment with a new client. While they were clearly aware of their natural tendency to please the customer and do whatever it takes to make them happy. They weren’t quite sure how to differentiate themselves in that area. We are currently in the process of documenting all the things they do “naturally” and are testing these “services” against what’s important to the customers and what value that has.
You can do the same thing. Simply create a list of attributes and use the “Importance/Satisfaction” question type to test which of these attributes has the most value to your customers. This will show you exactly which attributes to feature and focus on and how to price appropriately. You can take this one step further and ask your customers what other providers they use and have them rate their satisfaction with that provider across those same attributes. This will uncover those two or three attributes where your organization is strongest. Sell to that competitive strength and you will know why they should choose you.
Use Social Media Like a Focus Group
Focus groups can get expensive. But you actually have a focus group of customers chatting about all kinds of things — even your product online.
Use www.search.twitter.com to search on key words to your business and start following the people who are chatting about your industry or your company. Search on your company name or products and services that you offer and see what real-time words your customers and users are using.
Use IdeaScale as a way to gather new product and service opportunities that come straight from your customers’ experiences. There is a wonderful widget that you can cut and paste onto your own web site and then watch the user ideas come pouring in. I’ve used IdeaScale as a way to build involvement and even generate PR by keeping customers informed of new features and products that have been developed from their ideas.
If you haven’t started a Facebook Fan Page for your company – do it NOW. Connect that facebook fan page to your web site and be sure to ask your customers to join your fan page. Make sure that you post links from your web site and your blog to the fan page to inform customers about new things going on in your company. Another wonderful way to use this tool is to generate excitement. Just look at what IKEA did to get customers involved and the word out.
Get Started TODAY
Don’t let another day go by without getting your customers involved in your business and getting feedback that’s honest, true and FREE.
About the Author: Ivana Taylor is CEO of Third Force, a strategic firm that helps small businesses get and keep their ideal customer. She’s the co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers” and proprietor of DIYMarketers, a site for in-house marketers. Her blog is Strategy Stew. You can reach her directly at Ivana@thirdforce.net.
Category : Blog