Gathering insights from your customers is essential for creating a tailored experience which will keep them coming back for more, giving you the competitive edge you need to survive today’s in marketplace. Once you are able to understand and leverage customer motivation, need, intent, and/or purchase history, you are in a better position to re-engage...
Gathering insights from your customers is essential for creating a tailored experience which will keep them coming back for more, giving you the competitive edge you need to survive today’s in marketplace.
Once you are able to understand and leverage customer motivation, need, intent, and/or purchase history, you are in a better position to re-engage with your customers, providing them with relevant, customized services and support which will drive future engagement with your brand and, quite likely, attract new customers which will help your business grow.
Few marketers would disagree that listening and responding to customer demand isn’t worth the effort. Research shows that:
- Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the customer.
- 90% of marketers say that customer individualization is a priority; more personalization equals a more positive customer response.
- Customers are 5.2X more likely to purchase from companies who offer a great customer experience.
These businesses regularly interact with their customers, eliciting feedback which helps them provide a more valuable customer experience:
- 70% of companies that deliver best-in-class customer experience use customer feedback.
- Companies which engage with customers across multiple channels retain an average of 89% of their customers.
Simply put, if customers like you, they will continue to do business with you and if they don’t, they won’t. And, as many marketers already know, the most effective way to know if you are delivering a truly valuable experience is to find out what your customers think.
Three Ways to Profit from Feedback
There is a very good chance that your customers are more than happy to share their thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes about your products and the quality of your service. 83% of consumers have already completed at least one or, in many cases, three to four feedback surveys in the past 12 months. Many more customers are providing feedback online, 70% of which is intended to “help companies improve the products they build and carry.”
In fact, customer feedback has great potential to become your most powerful marketing tool. Here are three reasons why:
Engagement
Customers will become more engaged with your brand if you express a genuine desire to know what they think in order to provide them the best possible experience.
McKinsey has found that 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. And customers who feel respected are far more likely to reward a brand with continued engagement. According to one study, fully engaged customers, those who return to a business time and again, deliver “a 23% premium over the average customer in share of wallet, profitability and revenue”.
Loyalty
Customers will feel as though they have some influence over the way they’re marketed to, guaranteed to generate stronger loyalty. This is particularly true with Millennial customers. Alex Castellarnau, former Head of Design at Dropbox, has found that, with millennials, “a new brand, service, or product is only started by the company; it’s finished by the customer.”
In other words, companies who build partnerships with their customers develop stronger customer ties and, therefore, a stronger competitive edge. And, with regards to younger customers, businesses must be particularly open to feedback: in 2013, 66% of millennials abandoned a business which they felt no longer fit their identity.
Value
If you are simply guessing at what your customer want, there is a good chance you’re not giving them what they’re actually looking for. You have to ask your customers what they desire if you’re going to stop them from moving to a competitor. And they will have no problem going with a competitor if you can’t give them what they want.
In fact, 46% of U.S. consumers say they are more likely to switch providers today than they were 10 years ago, citing everything from price to inefficiency to bad customer service as reasons for abandoning a company. Therefore, it pays to find out what your customers value most and to deliver that value every time they interact with you. No business can afford to overlook the importance of value when 86% of customers say they will spend more with a company which can deliver a better experience.
Better Marketing through Feedback
Successful marketers understand that customers ultimately own the customer experience and that customer knowledge will provide them with everything they need to know in order to deliver that experience. Designing more relevant marketing campaigns, delivering personalized offers, improving customer support, and winning new customers are just some of the ways customer feedback provides marketers with the knowledge they need to effectively position their brands.
Letting your customers help you design and deliver the experience they are looking for is the best investment you will make. Gathering and analyzing customer insights via feedback channels will provide you with the knowledge you need to improve how you market your business, helping you stay ahead of the competition.
