Customer Feedback: Must have or Nice to have

Feedspace

Customer Feedback: Must have or Nice to have

Customer-Feedback-Must-have-or-Nice-to-have
Table of Content

Is it Absolutely Necessary to Collect Customer Feedback?

Customer feedback is the information customers give businesses about their product quality and experience. It is the data that helps companies make products and services. However, is it a necessity to collect customer feedback?Is it truly as crucial? Can businesses thrive without it? Let’s find out!

What is the need to collect customer feedback?

For any business, its customers are the point of focus. The business grows if the customers are satisfied with the product or service. A business is considered successful when it can acquire new customers while retaining the old ones.
But, the actual journey of making a customer-suited product or service starts after the launch. Because that is actually when their users will know whether they like it or not. What features are working? How to improve your product? What changes are necessary? Customers can answer these questions once they have experienced the product.
To answer these questions, companies need to collect customer feedback.

Role of customer feedback

Before we decide whether customer feedback is a necessity or an option, let’s see how it benefits your business.
feedback tool for product managers

In product development

  • Sometimes after creating a product, the developers are often unsure of where the product is headed. They are confused about what the next steps are. Now, in such situations, understanding what the customers need can provide a direction to the developers’ efforts.
  • It is helpful in the reverse scenario as well. When there are too many things to work on, prioritizing becomes essential. Companies can collect customer feedback and then decide which tasks to accomplish first. It helps in making fast and data-driven decisions for the business.
  • Moreover, companies can decide whether to retain certain features if the customers like them. They can effectively find out what the customers think with just a couple of questions. Some of the best online feedback tools have the option of providing in-flow feedback. This way, businesses can ask for feedback on a specific element right after the customer experiences it.
  • And it’s not necessary that the businesses work on each and every review they get. It simply provides the customer’s voice in the development process. This voice is helpful while making other business decisions as well.
  • The aim is to make a customer-centric product. Therefore, listening and acting on what they actually say seems like the way to go

In customer service

  • When brands ask customers for their online reviews, it makes them feel heard. It becomes a platform for them to share their queries and concerns.
  • When the feedback is properly collected and analyzed, handling customer queries becomes easy and fast.
  • Businesses can understand what customers are expecting with feedback. They can use the feedback to improve the customer journey and experience.
  • Sometimes, customers will leave negative feedback as well. Now, there are a couple of reasons why that is a good thing. First, instead of anonymously trashing the product, they expressed their concerns directly to the business. They do want to stay with the product, but there are some issues. So, when companies properly handle negative feedback, it increases brand loyalty and customer retention. Businesses can devise a system for answering these complaints
These are some of the places in which customer feedback plays a crucial role. Even with these benefits, people are unsure about not getting feedback. Let us look at their concerns now.
collect feedback from businesses

Reasons why people do not want to collect customer feedback

Sometimes brands try getting feedback, but it doesn’t give the results they want. It often steers them away from collecting any user opinions at all. Here are some of the reasons why.

Untrustworthy data

Suppose there is a survey form with a lot of questions. The customers that finish it will get an incentive. Now the customers tick down random responses as there are too many questions. So, the brand has many responses. But, they can’t trust the responses as they were not genuine.
Even after conducting a survey, the business does not have data that it can use. It seems like a futile exercise. Therefore, they opt out of getting more feedback. This scenario occurs more times than we think.
That’s not the only reason for untrustworthy feedback. Sometimes, the questions in a survey are difficult for the customers. They may seem alright for people actually in the business. However, for an outsider, it may feel complicated. It can also lead to random data.
Thankfully, there is a solution for it. Companies can opt for a way of feedback that is short and precise. They can go for easy questions with straightforward answers.

Very few responses

There are many problems with a short sample set. It is not enough to analyze patterns. Businesses cannot figure out if it is a major issue or if some customers are facing the problem. With fewer responses, it is difficult to find out the problem areas. Moreover, they can’t find out whether their features are good or only a few like them.
There are many possible reasons for fewer answers. The feedback could be time-consuming. People might abandon a survey if it’s too long. The same can happen for complicated questions.
Suppose a company is asking for feedback for a product purchased by the customers. Now, the company wants to collect customer feedback on the same. So, they send out a feedback form after a month or so. By then, it is possible that the interaction is not on their mind. So they might avoid answering the questions.
But these things are avoidable. Businesses can dedicate some time to tackling these issues. Some solutions to increase no. of responses are: Asking for feedback right after a transaction is complete. Framing easy questions. Asking short questions that are easy to understand.
analyze data with customer feedback

Unactionable data

Sometimes, even with a lot of data, it is not possible to come to a conclusion. Even a large number of responses are unhelpful. The reason is that the gathered data is not quantifiable. The answers provided by customers don’t show a clear actionable plan. All the efforts that go into making the feedback seem wasted.
Ambiguity in the choices provided can lead to unactionable data. Sometimes, the choices can have two features in one option. For example, if the question is which feature needs improvement. And two features are in the same choice. Now, how will the developers work on that input? Which feature will they improve?
Businesses can avoid these issues with better-framed questions and responses.

Slow process

The point of collecting feedback is to work on it to make the product better. So, collecting feedback is step 1 of the process. After that, businesses have to analyze the feedback. Then, they have to work on improving the product. It doesn’t end here. After that, follow-up feedback is required to find out whether the customers have satisfied with the change.
All of this can take a lot of time. That is why many people tend to stop taking feedback. A feedback management system is helpful in these conditions. It helps to collect customer feedback and act on it. It makes analyzing feedback easy.

So, do we really need to collect customer feedback?

We have seen how exactly customer feedback fits into various departments of the business. It helps with customer retention, acquisition, product quality, and more. Hence, we have established that it is quite valuable for a business.
But we also saw some of the issues that come with it. But we can also see that businesses can work on these flaws. Bringing in a user feedback management system and carefully crafting questions can address these issues. These systems can also provide different ways to get customer feedback.
Customer feedback is the bridge between businesses and their customers. It is essential to take customers into account for a thriving and growing business. Now, it is possible to run a business without taking into account the business. It may or may not grow as the business doesn’t know what its customers actually want. But it becomes easy to find what customers want with feedback. So, why leave something as an option if it is going to make us grow and improve?
If customer reviews are crucial, then using some of the best online feedback tools that simplify the process and give better results is also crucial. Using an online feedback tool can make the process of collecting and analyzing feedback easy. It also helps in taking quick actions based on customers’ opinions. Here is how you can get started with feedback software.
customer feedback software

How to Get Feedback From Customers?

It’s hard to judge a software product unless you know what the end goals are. So, when choosing customer feedback software, you can consider these things:
  • Before you can figure out
      b) if you do, where to start looking and know what the end goal is.
      a) if you even need an online feedback tool and
  • When deciding on customer feedback software, keep your goals in mind. Are you more concerned with listening to customers or getting actionable feedback?
  • As a startup, it may be difficult to choose between customer feedback software collected both from online and offline channels or just one of the two. However, there are some things you can consider before making your choice.
  • Customer feedback software can give you some useful insights into your product–but only if you know what to ask for. There are many types of software on the market, so read on to find the one that will help you make the best decisions for your business.
  • Customer feedback software is a great way to stay in touch with your customers so that you can improve their experiences.
  • So, is your product ready to take off? If so, you might want to invest in some customer feedback software.
  • Customer feedback software can be a powerful communication tool in your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Absolutely. It is totally possible to ask for feedback with simple survey forms via email. However, analyzing them without a tool becomes a lengthy and complicated process.

Not at all. There are various tools available at varying prices. Businesses can pick a tool that suits their requirement and budget.

View More FAQs

Share Blog with a friend.​

Read Our Blogs

The power of customer testimonials in B2B marketing

Click here

How Feedspace Revolutionizes Feedback

The success of any product depends on how value-adding it is for its users. And for that, gauging the voice of customers is essential. And this is where feedback comes in. But, as effective as it is, it comes with challenges.
Click here

Video Testimonials: Elevate your brand’s credibility

Click here
Get User Testimonials
sticky note image

Get User Testimonials

Build social proof to attract users

Get Testimonials

Trusted by organizations, teams & freelancers all over the world

Edit Template