Criticisms are part of growing and learning. When you are being criticized for your actions, there is this realization that what seems right to you is a weakness as others see it. They say that you are not necessarily the best judge of your own self. Other people see things beyond your personality and view them in a more in-depth manner.
This same concept of individual criticism applies to a business organization. A company will only learn the worst mistakes from the feedback of the customers. In fact, the most negative feedbacks are probably the most valuable and important inputs that an organization can ever receive from its clients.
Customer feedback is elicited in various methods. Surveys are probably the most common form of customer feedback. There are personalized feedback through emails and telephone. Customer reviews are also considered feedback. Online survey forms found in a company’s website are also very common and most convenient to customers.
Every business organization must gather customer feedback as a tool for learning and making improvements. Every single feedback that a customer provides is like words of wisdom for the business. A customer may either give positive or negative feedback depending on their experiences and observations with the company and its operations. This article will elaborate the primary importance of customer feedback to a business.
Tool for Improving Customer Service
If customers are not happy with the service provided during their business transactions, they comment about how bad or how poor the customer service of a business is through feedback. This kind of feedback impacts the reputation of the company in terms of the quality of customer service. In certain instances, if the treatment is really frustrating, their feedback is in a form of a complaint, which they prefer to be brought up to the management for immediate action.
Negative feedback on customer service becomes an avenue for the business to find ways and means to develop the quality of customer service being offered to its customers. It may be that the representatives or employees need training or refresher on their customer service skills especially if the feedback is more about the rudeness of the customer service reps and their lack of willingness to help. Personality development and work attitude may be focused in order to mold the staff in building professional characters.
Tool for Making Positive Changes
Customers may comment about the quality of the product or the service that they took advantage of. Sometimes, they even offer suggestions to make the product or service better. A business must take these comments seriously and consider making changes, which are amenable to their needs. If they find the product incompetent with that of its competitors, the company may consider making innovations to spice it up and make them look forward to doing more business given the new product lines.
Aside from the products and services, their comments can also revolve around tight and impractical company policies. For example, if the customers find the shipping or payment policies a little too strict, the company might want to revisit the rules stipulated on those policies and consider making alterations that would suit to their needs and at the same time would not compromise business operations.
Realizing Competitive Advantage
Not all kinds of feedback are negative, of course, although when talking of feedback it is almost always associated with the negative comments. Customers also mention the positive aspects of their experiences with an establishment or a business. A company can use these feedback and comments to find out its edge over its competitors. By identifying its competitive advantage, the company can focus on that aspect and use it as its powerful weapon in gaining more customers and acquiring more sales.
Acknowledging what customers think about the business makes them appreciate the company especially if they can see the improvements and efforts made by the business based on their feedback. A company must always remember that a customer’s feedback is an inexpensive business advice coming from the most expensive and most precious element of a business and that is the customers. Feedback is not intended to put a business down but to help it find its way to a better and more positive direction.
