For a long time, tech brands have measured their success based on their return on investment (ROI).
However, while there are a number of analytics that can be used to dig into why their ROI is good or bad, there hasn’t been a defined way to determine concrete things to improve.
All this is changing (cue dramatic music).
Why Customer Feedback is Important For Tech Brands
Today, brands in the tech industry are more customer-centric than ever before.
This is because they have to be.
With so much competition, it’s easier than ever for prospects to jump ship at a moment’s notice.
As a result, these brands are having to find new ways to measure what their customers like and don’t like in order to create an experience that keeps people sticking around for the long haul.
This is especially important for tech brands that run on a subscription model, like SaaS brands. They need long-term loyal customers in order to get a return on investment.
Think about it:
If a company charges $12 per month for their tech service and a customer stays for two months, they only get $24 from that customer. However, if the customer stays for 10 months, they get $120.
Luckily, we’re in an age where it’s incredibly easy to get customer feedback in order to improve the customer experience and, therefore, the ROI.
How to Get Customer Feedback
First things first, in order to use customer feedback to make changes, brands have to actually get a hold of the thoughts and experiences of their buyers.
There are several ways to do this:
1. Customer Surveys
Surveys are a quick and easy way to get feedback from your customers. They are essentially short forms that ask a series of questions with the aim of gleaning what’s working and what’s not.
The good thing about surveys is you can get bulk responses and marry them up with each other. If 20 people complain that your customer service hotline takes too long to get through to, you know that’s something you need to work on.
However, every customer experience is different and you need to be careful with the feedback you take onboard. What works for some customers won’t for others, and it’s up to you to decide who your best customers are.
From there, you can listen in specifically to their feedback and use that to fuel any improvements to the overall experience.
You can carry out surveys by:
- Emailing customers when they’ve interacted with your brand (whether that’s when they’ve invested in your product, contacted your customer support line, or taken another action)
- Implementing pop-ups on your website that ask for feedback in-the-moment
- Sharing your survey on social media to get a more general response from both customers and prospects
2. Customer Reviews
Sometimes, you won’t even need to create a survey if you have access to a decent amount of customer reviews.
Today, reviews are more important than ever, with over 90% of consumers checking out at least one review before they make a purchase.
Not only do they convey your value to future prospects, they also give you insights into what you’re customers are thinking and feeling in relation to your brand.
Scour through your customer reviews to see if you can find any useful feedback that you can use.
For example, if you have two subscription tiers and several reviews state that they’d like a tier in between, you can add in a middle tier.
As a result, you’ll get more customers and, in turn, boost your ROI.
3. Reach Out to Customers
The above ways of getting feedback are good, but they can be vague and useless if you don’t get any survey responses or the reviews don’t give you the information you need.
However, there’s a way to generate feedback that digs really deep into what your customers want and need.
The key is finding 3-5 of your best customers (these are the ones that have been with you the longest or who have the highest lifetime value), and interviewing them individually for their feedback.
Sure, this method is more time-consuming than the others, but it can be really useful to get first-hand insights into the minds of your top buyers.
The best thing, though, is that you can ask for them to elaborate on their thoughts. For example, if they tell you they’d ideally like a second tier subscription option, you can dig deeper and find out what features they’d like to see within that tier.
One you’ve identified your top customers, reach out with a simple email asking if you can have a chat on the phone (this is usually the best way to start the conversation unless you can meet them face-to-face).
Improving ROI With Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is such a valuable tool for improving your business.
Knowing what your customers like and dislike about working with you gives you all the information you need to know to improve their experience.
As a result, you’ll create happier customers, generate more leads (because future prospects will see how happy your current customers are through their reviews), and dramatically increase your ROI.
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