What are some good ways to elicit customer feedback?
I want to get more feedback from existing and potential customers. I have done a few surveys. These have been helpful to get feedback from existing customers, but I am finding it challenging to get input from potential customers. How have others done this? Do you do surveys, interviews, focus groups? Also, I am curious how you have incentivized people to participate. Thank you.
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Oct 13, 2015
Surveys are very useful and if onjectivity is maintained, the feedback helps you to shape your relationship management and offerings. Getting feedback from poyential customers is expected to be a lot tougher becase by giving feedback, there is a sense of commitment to do business with you provided you demonstrate visible action on the feedback.
Best way to incentivize is to ask them what you should be doing to make a real difference to them. Gives them an opportunity to spell out what they would ideally like and the onus on you to match up to their expectations.
Oct 2, 2015
As a lot of people have already said it can depend on what you want the feedback for.
I noticed from your profile than you run a micro-brewery and if you are looking for product feedback then it might be worth running an exclusive event for your close customers/trusted friends so that they can taste both existing and new products.
I'd then find simple interactive ways to help then give you feedback. Something like giving every person a set number of tokens that they can drop in various pint glasses labeled with different suggestions. It's a lot more fun and can make it less pressured to give you hard feedback. The event also allows you to have conversations with people about your beer.
You can also do some great online/social media marketing off the back of the event too.
Sep 29, 2015
I think the suggestion to actively leverage social media is an excellent one. Social media is a great resource for better understanding your customers and potential customers from a variety of perspectives. Social media allows brands to engage more deeply with their audiences and to really "listen" to what their audiences are saying about the.
Give it a shot and see what you learn from them.
Good luck!
Sep 22, 2015
From experience, as someone who loves stuff and utility, give out something cheap and useful that people will scribble on or tear-off. Here in Malaysia we give out calendars but I was thinking it could be much improved. When people hand these back in, you can get all sorts of feedback and they're also obliged to sample your product or service.
Sep 21, 2015
It is often difficult to get feedback from customers unless there is something in it for them; as surveys are time consuming and time to some folks is money and usually completing surveys only benefits those seeking the feedback. What can you offer your potential and current customers that can not only benefit them but encourage them to invite others to participate? I recently decided to go paperless with AT&T because they offered me a $10 gift card. It was a win win situation. What do I get for giving you what you want? If your customers are important enough to you, show them, somehow. Don't just assume you have a product that has not been duplicated. Ask them what it would take to complete your survey and narrow down the results. Start somewhere and think it out, logically. Begin with your seeking team's input (if you have one) and their family members whose opinion should matter.
Sep 21, 2015
It depends on your products - quality & quantity , I don"t know much but If you have regualer customers , or season clients , anyway by email or telephone or questionirre - or face to face - you may approach the suitable way for you .
Sep 21, 2015
For current customers, I just ask them. "How are we doing" as part of most interactions - inquiries, status updates, etc. We also use a more formal process at the conclusion of projects, with a survey form delivered in person ("Can we take a moment to capture your thoughts on how we're doing /what we could do better?") or left for key decision maker, if dialogue isn't comfortable for THEM.
For potential customers, focus groups are very productive, but also not simple (logistics, what questions to ask, how to dig deeper, how to make sure all attendees are actual participants, etc.) or cheap (depending on your target client, might require a give-away or stipend of some sort).
Hope this helps.
Sep 21, 2015
Richard Stern-Suggest you consider offer a "premium:" to customers.
Once they provide responses to your survey you will send the customer a gift.
The gift should have something to do with your business.
You could issue numbers for each region of the country so you can sort the responses so as to see Regional Biases.
Sep 21, 2015
Do you give any speaking engagements or webinars about your field of expertise. People that attend those presentations are people that are interested in the information that you have to share. During your speaking engagements, you can poll the group on their opinions and needs on the topic.
Sep 20, 2015
Hi Jeff,
I'd be careful with focus groups and small numbers of interviews, as it is not possible to be sure that your interviewees will be representative, and your sample won't be big enough to do any meaningful segmentation.
Don't restrict yourself to existing customers, as this might mean you're missing an entire section of the population.
I'd recommend an online survey with as large a sample as you can. If you have your own database, make sure it isn't' biased in any way and don't offer your own product or services as an incentive, as this will skew your results and can be seen as unsolicited selling, i.e. spam). If you don't have your own database of people, you can use a market research panel, ensuring that it gives you a cross section of the population or samples of people you're interested in.
You may find it useful to look at surveymechanics.com, which will help you set up, build and deploy a survey - it's really inexpensive. You can also organise respondents there, buying whatever numbers of people you need to take part (so you don't need to worry about incentives). Most importantly, Survey Mechanics will also analyse your survey data and find any meaningful statistical relationships in your data - i.e. correlations and significant differences - which means you won't need to worry too much about analysing your survey data to understand what it means.
There are also some useful articles in the support section.
Hope that helps - please contact me if you need to discuss any of this.
Best of luck,
Peter Martin
Sep 20, 2015
According to me the best way to get customer feedback is to establish and build an ongoing rapport with them. get involved in a dialogue with them on an ongoing basis.This is true of potential customers also.The better the rapport, the more comprehensive the feedback. The most important thing about potential customers is the fact that your product name should bring instant recall.
Make your surveys short and simple involving close ended questions.
I am not too sure if focus/ interest groups will provide you the kind of feedback you are looking for. You got to capture maximum data to get a balanced and well rounded data. Reach across to maximum customers.
Word of mouth marketing also helps. In fact these along with referrals will give you maximum payoffs.
Sep 20, 2015
With digital evolution. ...social media is the right platform, apart from organizing FGD...participants can be incentivising them coupon redemption..have a tie up with a merchandiser having a common target audience...
Sep 20, 2015
I think it depends a lot on your market. If it is a consumer market, survey and possible focus groups may work. But it really does depend on what you are selling and who you are targeting. You may want to publish the results of some of our your surveys to show potential customers what they have to look forward to in working with you.
Sep 20, 2015
Hi Jeff,
First of all , it is very important to know why exactly do you want feedback from customers.
Feedback from existing customers is generally enough to address your concerns about product , company, distribution, sales or marketing.
Touching potential customers is a sensitive matter.You would only like to develop business with new customers not ask for a feedback which can harm your product confidence image with them .
The best way is to use your sales people to take feedback in an intelligent manner from prospective customers they tap during their normal routine.CRM platform can be an excellent tool to record and evaluate all this activity.
The medium to use for feedback i.e. surveys , interviews or focus groups is again dependent on what exactly do you want to know.
This matter should be planned in a very close and confidential manner with your sales and marketing people.
Asking people for feedback in an easy and respectable manner is more than enough an incentive to motivate people to participate and give their views.
Best Of Luck,
Zafar
647-818-8550
Toronto, Canada
Sep 20, 2015
Ask a single question at many touchpoints. Gather answers in a single database...Preferably using a single platform
Sep 20, 2015
Call people up and say that you are looking to see how they are doing. Is there anything you can help them with, find out what is going on in their industry, give them a titbit of information you found out and ask if they can give you some feedback. Most of them will.
Sep 20, 2015
First you have to define "feedback", otherwise you`re relying on the interpretation of a random group of people you know nothing about. What are you after? satisfaction with their most recent interaction with the business or an understanding how well suited the design of the product is to the work customers are trying to accomplish. Every question you are trying to answer will have a method that's best suited to answering it.
In any case, you'll have to convince the customers that you intend to do something with their feedback, otherwise they are not likely to contribute their time and effort to helping you.
Sep 20, 2015
What are you hoping to gain from gathering feedback? Do you plan to use it to target a more specific audience or a new audiences; build a new product or improve an existing one; or better understand how customers view your business compared to competitors?
Next, what are your plans for the feedback? Will you share it externally or is it just for internal purposes? How will you share it with customers? Are you going to be willing to address negative comments? Can you reasonably afford to make changes and sustain a long term strategy?
Before deciding on what type of feedback platform you are going to use, these questions should be addressed internally. You may have already answered all of them. In that case, surveys are a great way to gain insight as long as the survey is short and to the point; too many questions often result in abandoned surveys. Are you looking to do an online survey or a phone survey? If you’re doing an online survey, will you be emailing existing customers? Or will employees verbally announce the survey while handing a receipt to a customer.
Will you be seeking feedback on any changes you make as a result of this survey or other method? What is your timeframe for the follow up survey; a month, three months, etc.?
Happy customers are often the least likely to respond to a survey, while unhappy customers have no problem answering a few questions and offering their opinions.
I’ve found focus groups can be manipulated if you have a strong personality in the group that tends to take charge. Also, if you’re doing focus groups at night and people are tired, they tend to go with the follow just to get out more quickly. It doesn’t mean the information isn’t important or even accurate, but it depends on your business and what works for you.
If you’re business has a storefront or office or some physical location, talking to existing customers is a great way to gain feedback. And people like to know their opinions count.
Think of your experience as a consumer and implement what you like into your own business. For example, if a restaurant does surveys and offers discounts for participating in the surveys then consider implementing the idea for your business. It may not be applicable, but if it is then try it.
It’s important to treat your customers the way you want to be treated.
Sep 20, 2015
Just ask. Honestly! Many founders and product managers are reluctant to call a potential customer for advice but i've found customers are delighted to be asked. When I started Under 10 Consulting I called over 100 CEOs, VPs of product management, and product managers. I assured them I wasn't selling but was researching the current state of the market, potentially for a book.
I've also found that you do not need incentives. It seems sales people will never do anything without compensation but our customers are glad to give advice. However, they are not willing to give up their precious time to be sold something. At the END of the call, you can say, "I have some information about my product. Can I send it to you?" and they will generally agree. Be respectful of their time, really really really LISTEN to what they said, and DO NO try to sell them anything.
In the end, treat your customers as you would like to be treated.
Sep 20, 2015
Put together a survey of 5-10 questions that you want to get their feelings about. Send it via both USPS and email. Review the replies and make changes accordingly. You can only get answers from those who reply, unless you are willing to reward a prize for each response. Something of value related to your company.
Sorry I meant well rounded feedback, not well rounded data