How do you know your business is doing a good job for your customers?
Have you ever asked a customer how their experience was, only to be told “fine”. Then you see a negative review from them online?
The best way to prevent negative online reviews is to give your customers an opportunity to provide honest feedback OFFLINE once they have left your business.
This is best done with an email or text, that triggers after their visit, asking them to complete a quick survey.
People are happy to give feedback. It makes them feel important because you value their opinion. Especially when you respond to the feedback and provide solutions to problems they point out.
The key is asking an open-ended question.
“How could we have improved your visit today?”
“What can we do better?”
It is far more valuable to get comments on how you can improve than a rating on whether or not they liked their service or product.
And when you do it electronically, it gives them the privacy to respond truthfully. People often have trouble expressing their true opinion in situations where they feel they don’t want to offend or hurt someone else.
Don’t Be Offended, Be Grateful
When someone actually takes the time to complain about something, don’t look at it as an insult. It’s an opportunity to improve. The person believes you can solve the problem. Reward that belief by correcting the problem if you’re capable of doing so. Sometimes it’s giving them their money back, sometimes it’s giving them a replacement, sometimes it’s improving staff training and sometimes it’s just apologizing with a promise to do a better job next time.
The Benefits Of Feedback
Surveying your customers is an essential part of understanding their needs and preferences, which is vital for improving your business’s products or services. Here are some of the reasons why you should be surveying your customers:
- Identify customer needs and preferences: Customer feedback will give you valuable insights into their needs and preferences that will help you tailor your products or services to fulfill their needs and wants, which in turn increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Pinpoints staffing Issues: Feedback will give you information on how your staff are performing – it may highlight an over-arching issue that needs to be addressed, or it may give you a specific team member that is exemplary, or one that needs more training.
- Measure customer satisfaction: A survey will identify areas for improvement and take steps to address any issues that arise. It might be something as simple as providing coat hooks in the bathroom stalls, or a consistency issue with your products and service.
- Gather feedback on new products or services: If you’re planning to launch a new product or service, surveys can help you gauge customer interest and gather feedback on potential features or improvements.
- Improve customer retention: By addressing customer concerns and needs you can improve their overall connection with your business – people want to be heard and know that you will respond accordingly.
- Stay ahead of the competition: Surveying your customers can help you stay ahead of the competition by identifying areas where you can differentiate your business and provide unique value to your customers.
It’s a Conversation
Once you receive feedback, it’s important to respond. Your customer is wanting to connect, have you solve a problem, or appreciate their insight. For both positive and negative feedback, say thank-you. By actively expressing gratitude to your customers for their business, their support and their feedback, you build stronger customer loyalty.
At Royalty Rewards® this is automated –after a customer visits a business, they are sent and email and an App notification to provide feedback. They are given bonus points as a thank you. The Business Owner is emailed a weekly report, and from that report, you can respond directly to them which makes the task simple and fast.
We even take it one step further and ask people who are happy and likely to refer you to post their comments online. They are given a link directly to the review sites of your choice.
It results in fewer negative reviews because you can deal with them immediately and they never need to go to a public online forum. Plus, it provides you with a steady stream of positive feedback so that you know you are on the right track.
Try it out for yourself with a 90 Day Free Trial of Royalty Rewards.
