HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF CUSTOMER FEEDBACK


Customer feedback can be one of the most useful tools available to your company when it comes to business telecommunication. The way you use your communications tools to reach customers, hear what they have to say, and turn their feedback into real results will determine whether or not your customers decide to stick with you for the long term. Of course, you must first have mechanisms in place for gathering feedback for this to work.

GATHERING FEEDBACK

While some large corporations are known for their customer service surveys, many companies have failed to ask their customers the most basic questions about their service. This often results in customers leaving anonymous reviews online but never communicating their wishes directly to the company. With the help of a modern business telecommunication system, you can implement phone-based customer service surveys as well as social media and email-based surveys. Even a comment box on your website can help generate useful data points.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Again, you are probably familiar with simple customer service surveys that ask you to rate the service on a scale of one to five stars, or indicate whether or not you are satisfied with the service. While these kinds of questions can help create a baseline for gathering information, they do not approach the meat of the problem at hand. You need to think more specifically about the information you want to gather, and consider what the customers are not telling you as well.

Asking if they are generally satisfied with the service being provided is different from asking if they are very satisfied with the service that was provided at your last interaction. Asking if they are willing to refer your service to a friend or family member is another way to hone in on how well you are really doing. They may be generally happy with the service, but not ecstatic enough to share their experience. How can you change that? Lastly, an open-ended question can help you gauge whether or not they are looking elsewhere for services. Are there any other products or services on the market that have caught your interest, which we do not provide? Remember, even satisfied customers may leave if they find a more advanced alternative that serves their needs.

PUTTING FEEDBACK TO WORK

Now that you have asked detailed questions about their customer experience, the next step is to use the information to create effective solutions. Your business telecommunication system should be integrated with CRM software to help you categorize customers efficiently. If a group of customers has indicated that they are generally happy, but they are looking for a more advanced solution, you can flag them for your customer service agents. This way, every time you interact with them, you can push for more information about the services they are looking for and find solutions that keep them where they are. A category for unhappy customers is also useful, as your agents can see that they need to be particularly careful when handling these accounts and ensure that their service is top notch. Lastly, customers who are willing to refer you may be placed in a group that gets special recognition or some type of kickback for those referrals.

Customer feedback is the best way to help your company evolve and ensure that you are keeping in line with market trends. However, you must be very diligent about creating customer surveys that accurately reflect your customer's thoughts and feelings, and translate that information into real results.

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