Business moves pretty fast these days. Technology, the information revolution, the internet, social media and the globalisation provide options and opportunities for consumers that were unimaginable only a few short decades ago. Today’s shopper is incredibly well-informed and absolutely spoiled for choice. If your business doesn’t have its finger on the pulse of what your clients or customers are thinking and feeling, then you can find yourself in deep trouble before you know it.
There are plenty of ways to measure customer satisfaction and help your business to know what it is doing right and wrong so that you can ensure that you are giving your customers what they want and need:
There’s An App For That
Mobile app technology means that your customers can have instant access to your brand, products and marketing messages at any time, right there in their pockets. What better way to pick their brains that through the app itself. Innovative start-ups and developers are devising methods of measuring customer satisfaction seamlessly with the app itself so that your users can have a smooth user experience. Best of all, this technique has a stratospheric response rate compared to many other survey formats.
For the most part, these tools are inexpensive to run and give exceptional control over the process. There is very little downside for app managers that are wanting to reach their user base.
Survey Says…!
Online surveys are a tried and trusted method of reaching customers and gauging their level of satisfaction with your products or services. There are any number of online survey services available to choose from, each with their strengths and weaknesses and associated costs. With a bit of research, you can certainly find the one that fits your business best. The downside is that most online survey methods have relatively low response rates, so unless you have a sizeable database, or are willing to purchase one, you may struggle to get enough data to make accurate decisions.
Stay Focused
Focus groups can be an incredibly powerful method of getting inside your target market’s brain. Marketing consultants charge big money to research the right personas and assemble groups of precisely targeted consumers that represent the exact people whose thoughts and opinions you want to capture. As powerful as this can be, it can also be a time-consuming and extremely costly experience.
A professionally designed and executed focus group will likely be out reach of most small and medium sized businesses.
Time To Get Social
It is no exaggeration to say that social media has revolutionised the way that brands interact with their clientele. Social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter allow companies to gain instant, unfiltered feedback and opinions from an already engages audience.
Make no mistake, building a significant following is a lengthy, time and resource consuming process. You will need to maintain a smart, consistent, engaging stream of posting and other strategies. However, if you have the perseverance to grow your online following, you will certainly reap the rewards.
One of the great benefits of social is that it is a two-way street, allowing you to interact directly and openly with your target market in a way that was never possible on such a scale. But beware, keyboard cowboys will not hesitate to trash you online if they are unhappy with pretty much anything that you’re doing, so be sure to handle them with care!
Conclusion
Of course, there are plenty other methods of tapping into your client base to get the feedback that you need to continuously improve your business. We’d love to hear from you about any experiences you have had with these or other strategies and how they worked for you!