Why Startups Need To Build A Strong Customer Feedback Strategy

Customers are the lifeline of any business. No matter how good your products or services are or how strong your team is, an unhappy customer is a red flag for any business’s growth. On the other hand, a business that meets customer requirements and keeps them happy throughout their life cycle generates brand loyalty and trust. But do you know which stage or aspect of your offering makes for happy customers?  

Gathering customer feedback is of the essence as it helps you understand what your customers think about your service/product, areas of improvement, level of customer service, and more. It is considered one of the most valuable tools for acquiring a new customer base and retaining the existing one. In-depth customer feedback makes businesses understand their markets better and innovate smarter. It can help them analyse customers’ needs and develop what is actually needed in the market.

In today’s digital-first world, everyone’s a critic and businesses must always consider the anatomy of customer feedback as an integral step. Whether positive or negative, a customer’s opinion shows they care about your business. This helps in creating opportunities to learn, improve and capitalise on new market opportunities.   

Helps You Identify The Areas Of Focus

Receiving customer feedback should always be considered a gift. It helps in identifying the flaws and strengths of your business. Hearing directly from the customers can help in tweaking and tailoring the strategy for building a product or service. 

Based on the insights gained from customer reviews, businesses can focus on the areas that require attention and improvement. This helps customers feel valued and turn the business into a customer-centric company.    

Builds Brand Advocates

There are a multitude of methods for customer acquisition, out of which, word of mouth is a perfect channel to grow any business. Satisfied customers are most likely to recommend your business to others, which makes them brand advocates. 

It is an organic way to grow your business and build it on the basis of positive customer feedback and positive reviews. On the other hand, dissatisfied customers are likely to leave a negative review that may cause damage to the brand’s reputation. Hence, prioritising customer feedback can build brand advocates and scale business. 

Helps In Guiding Product/Service Development

Product or service development requires continuous amendments to satisfy market needs. It is imperative for businesses to go through customer feedback and make informed decisions. 

This means businesses need to dedicate time to reading customer feedback and making amendments, when necessary. Incorporating customer feedback in the product development process ensures the competitiveness of business in the market. 

Supports Data-Driven Decisions

Gathering customer feedback throughout their lifecycle can prove to be a valuable tool for a business. Marketing teams can make data-driven decisions based on buyer personas, lead enrichment, and prospect segmentation. 

As a result, businesses are able to deliver more personalised and meaningful experiences. In addition, the sales team can integrate customer insights into purchase decisions and address customer needs across all stages. 

Leads To Improved CSAT

Poor customer experiences are a big red flag for any business. Customers’ behaviour keeps on changing and it takes them a second to switch to your competitor if they are left unhappy with any of your products or services. Customer satisfaction influences whether they want to continue with your business or not and this builds the CSAT score of a business. 

Back-to-back positive customer experiences incorporated with their feedback win over lower CSAT scores and give the customer the excellent satisfaction they expect from your business. 

Leads To Improved NPS

A great customer experience plays a crucial role in the customer’s journey. A superior customer experience helps businesses convert customers into brand promoters. This can only be achieved with positive customer feedback and builds a strong NPS (Net Promoter Score). 

As a result, the need to analyse customer feedback becomes even more significant for businesses striving to build brand credibility and increase customers’ loyalty to the business.  

Bottomline

Customer feedback is an essential part of any business’s innovation and growth journey. It can build brand loyalty and having brand advocates is a goldmine for your business’s sustainability. Remember that customer feedback is available across channels and multiple touchpoints can lead the business to build a positive customer experience. Value their opinion on every touchpoint and they will build strong relations with you.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.