How To Use Customer Feedback To Grow Your Business

Among the best tools that any business owner can apply to grow and improve their business is customer feedback. It merely is the views, remarks, and proposals that the customers provide concerning a product or service that they have consumed. These feedbacks may take various forms, which may be surveys, comments on social media, emails, or even a personal face-to-face. Most of the thriving companies in the contemporary world, know that listening to their customers will enable them to make their products better, enhance consumer satisfaction, and earn a long term customer loyalty. Firstly, customer feedback will assist a business to know what is working and what is not. Even though a product might appear to be good to the owner, only the customer can know how useful or satisfying the product could be. As an illustration, when the customers always complain that a product is too expensive or hard to operate, then such information provides the business with a chance to make the right changes. Once I was able to observe how a local small restaurant in my locality used feedback to make their meals better. The customers had complained of the slow service and rather than neglecting the customers, the owner employed an extra waiter. In several weeks, the restaurant was busier than ever before due to the fact that the customers felt that their opinion was being listened to.  [Image Source](https://pixabay.com/photos/feedback-survey-rating-evaluation-7759990/) Customer feedback can be used to facilitate another aspect growth in a business namely through innovation and product development. When the businesses hear what their customers require or want, they are able to develop new products or enhance the already developed products that are precisely what the market desires. As an example, a cell phone manufacturer might get a response that the battery life of the phone is not long enough. That feedback can then be used by the company to come up with a new model having a stronger battery. This does not only satisfy the already existing customers but also creates new consumers who express similar concerns. Approval of customers also builds on trust and relations between a business and their customers. When the customers realize that their feedback is considered and then used to make improvements, they feel appreciated and honored. This results in loyalty and good word-of-mouth popularization. In the modern day and age where there is a high level of rivalry, a single satisfied customer is able to attract hundreds of others by referrals. My personal feeling is that clients having confidence towards a business remain with that business in the long run regardless of availability of other businesses that will provide the same product. Moreover, customer feedback will assist the businesses in training employees and enhancing service delivery. As an example, when customers report that a sales representative was rude, or unhelpful, the management is able to use that as an opportunity to provide more training on customer relations.  [Image Source](https://pixabay.com/photos/feedback-survey-nps-satisfaction-3709752/) Conversely, when customers commend when a given employee has done something good, it will motivate other employees to do better as well. This develops an excellent working culture overtime, which is automatically projected in the running of the business. Gathering of the customer feedback is, however, not sufficient. The thing that is critical is the way it is analyzed and taken into action. To be a good business owner, it is important to go through all comments and classify the ones which have frequent problems and give them priority. This can be facilitated by modern tools such as online surveys, Google reviews and social media analytics. Professionalism and care can also be demonstrated when the responses to customers are timely after they have posted their comments. As an illustration, a negative review that is responded to with an apology and a promise of a remedy to the problem can make a disgruntled consumer a loyal customer. The feedback of customers also enables the businesses to gauge their satisfaction and future objectives. With the frequent feedback, business owners are able to see whether changes introduced have the intended effects. When there is improvement in the feedback, then the strategies are effective. Otherwise, it is possible to introduce new ideas. It turns into an endless learning process in which the business develops according to the needs of its customers. To sum up, customer feedbacks are one of the best and most intelligent methods to develop a business. It assists in product enhancement, customer retention, innovation direction and employee training. It enables a company to maintain contact with its clients and continue its endless improvement. In my personal observation, those businesses thrive and prosper are not the ones that spend a lot of money on advertising but the ones that carefully hear their customers. As such, any company that is actually serious about its growth should know how to not only gather feedback, but also take them seriously and consistently. The customer feedback is not merely an information, it is the mouthpiece of the market and every prudent business would listen to the mouthpiece.