5 Ways to Capture Customer Feedback

Do you know how your business is doing?  Of course you do, that's your job...but, I bet you would love to know more.  One of the best sources...your customers.  At the end of the day, it's all about satisfying your customers with the products and services you provide.  If your customers are happy then more customers will come and your business will grow so every bit of customer feedback is just as important as every sale.

Customer feedback will give you great insight into their experience, how well their expectations are being met, and the intelligence necessary to make good decisions that will help you grow your business.  So, how do you gather customer feedback?  Here are 5 ways to capture feedback from your customers:

1. Surveys

Surveys have been used for a long time and are a great way to get feedback on many different topics.  In a single survey you can gather feedback on your product, the service you provide, overall quality and many other areas.

You can create a survey specific to one aspect of your business and gain a deeper understanding in one area or create a general survey to get an overall view of the business.

2. Feedback Cards

If you ship a product or provide a service, feedback cards are a great way to gather feedback from your customers specific to your product or service and at the time of sale so fresh in the mind of your customer.  A couple tips on feedback cards:

• Keep the number of questions small and try to gather information on specifics so that you can take precise actions.
• Keep changing the questions on these cards to customize to the product or service.

3. Blog/Product Comments

If you have a blog or storefront, encourage your audience to give you feedback through comments.  Remember, writing a great product description means telling the story and inspiration behind your work.  Your customers are your audience so keep them engaged with good information in your blog posts and product descriptions and offer personal responses so they know you care.

4. Testimonials

Asking for a testimonial can be tough.  Most of us don't mind providing testimonials and often would love to give a testimonial to a business that satisfies us, but more often than not it just doesn't occur to us.  Asking your customers for a testimonial is not wrong, and if you've done a good job and your customer is happy, just ask for a testimonial and many times you will get a great response.

5. Competition

Yes, this one may sound crazy, but getting feedback from the customers of your competition is a great way to learn about your competitors and what your potential customers like about them.

Sometimes small changes will bring a new set of customers.  No, we're not saying that you have to create an exact match of your competitor, but evolving your business to bring a fresh look and sense of newness can stir renewed interest.

Experience is the best way to fine tune the way you capture customer feedback, so don't worry about the way you do it as long as you do it.  How do you gather customer feedback and what ways work best for you?

Here are some helpful resources:

• 5 Easy Ways to Get Customer Testimonials
• 5 Ways to Get Customer Feedback — For Free
• Setting up an Online Survey using SurveyMonkey

Main image courtesy of Steve Bailey