How collecting Customer Feedback can help your Business grow.

Why should I spend time on collecting customer feedback?

If you are a current Formitize user, setting up your feedback process is nice and easy! Our feedback form is available to you for free in our Form Bank. We have added helpful videos and instructions in this blog to help you set up an automated feedback process. 

Reading this blog will help you understand why you should ask your customers for feedback, what feedback you should ask for at which step in the customer process and how to interpret the customer feedback data you have received to grow your reputation and your business as a whole.  

You might think: “Well, they were happy when I left. So why would I bother asking my customers for feedback?” Great question! Before you start collecting feedback, ask yourself the following question:

Managing Feedback

A great way to manage feedback is by asking yourself: what would I expect from a company after I’ve given them feedback?  Would you like to receive a response to know that your feedback has been received and your input has been valuable? 

Sending a response to your customers after receiving their feedback is a great way to build a stronger relationship.

Suggestions on how to respond to feedback:

• Send a ‘thank you’ message or email to let your customer know that you have read their feedback.

For positive feedback: ask if you could use this feedback for future marketing and/or advertising activities. 

Addressing negative feedback can be difficult when you don’t agree with what is being said. This is what you should keep in mind when replying to negative feedback:

• Acknowledge your customers feelings.
• Offer a possible solution.
• Explain how this feedback helps you improve your future services.
• Keep your emotions out. 
• Be objective.
• Don’t blame or shame your customer.
• Don’t argue via any form of written communication. If you feel the need to discuss something in further detail, reach out in person or via a phone call (keep it civil). 

Before we describe how to set up your automated feedback workflow, it is important to know that there are two ways to receive feedback:

1. Feedback that you have actively asked for.
2. Feedback that was given via word-of-mouth or in written form (online or offline) out of your control.

Setting up a customer feedback process will help you manage that first category in the short term, both can also have a positive impact on the feedback that is not within your control.

Create a strong online reputation

Building a strong online reputation is a great way to grow your business. There are many factors that will determine a business’ online reputation and in this article we will focus on how feedback can impact your online reputation.

Are you already consciously using search engines like Google, YouTube and Yahoo to attract new customers to your business?

Activity: How well are you currently ranking on Google?

1. Navigate to www.google.com
2. Type in the following: “Plumber near me” (replace ‘plumber’ with your service)
3. Review the results. 

Are you in the top 3 recommendations?
It is always great to rank high in those first three Local Google Recommendations. Even though you can’t control this completely, there are several ways to increase your chances of reaching the top of this list!

Google uses the following three criteria to determine which company ranks in the top 3 search results:

1. Relevance
   The relevance of your business and its services compared to the search result.
2. Location
   Your location vs. the search location. The further the distance, the less likely you will show up in search results. 
3. Prominence
   This means how well-known your business is according to Google. Contributing factors are the amount of links and/or articles directed towards your business name/website and the amount of reviews and positive ratings on Google. 

Watch this video to learn more about how you can increase your chances to rank higher in the search results and/or keep your spot in those top results safe.

How does your score compare to your competitors?
We can keep this section nice and short: review score matters. If your review score is a lot lower than your competitors, then it is very likely that you will get less leads via search engines than the competition with a higher review score.

However, there are two numbers that play a role in the customer decision process on which company to look further into:

1. The amount of reviews.
2. The average rating of those combined reviews.

Google’s algorithm will rank a profile with multiple reviews and an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars higher than a business with a single review of 5 out of 5 stars. That’s one of the reasons why you should start to ask your customers for feedback today!

Would you choose yourself over the competition based on your current ranking?
Try to look at this objectively from a customer perspective. If you were looking for a business to deliver a service in your niche, would you choose yourself based on the data available to you?

Don’t worry if the answer is currently no. You are here! Reading this article is the first step in your journey to use customer feedback data to grow your business.

What data should I collect from my clients?

Depending on the size of your business, niche or industry you might want to ask for specific data. For the purpose of this blog article, we will focus on the type of data that any business can and should ask their clients after providing a service or selling a product:

• Overall ‘rating’. (How satisfied are you with our product or service?)
• Highlight. (What did you like best about our product or service?)
• Room for growth. (Do you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement?)
• Potential Fan. (Would you recommend us to someone close to you?)

There are thousands of other questions that you might want to ask and our suggestions are by no means the only options available to you. 

However, asking four simple questions - one from each category - will give you a complete overview of the customer experience. 

Overall Rating - How satisfied are you with our product or service?

Use this data to determine a base ‘satisfaction’ level and set goals to improve this/keep this the same.

Asking your customers about how they would rate the overall experience is helpful because it gives you a quick overview on how people would rate your company via an online review. 

Highlight - What did you like best about our product or service?

Use this feedback for future marketing/communication campaigns. 

Did you know that most people looking for a plumber value a ‘reliable’ and ‘trustworthy’ service over the ‘technical ability’ of a plumber? You might be surprised what people enjoyed about your service. If you notice that multiple customers have the same or a similar response to this question, use that data to your advantage! Why not use this information to target new customers in your advertising strategy or your posts via social media? 

Room for growth - Do you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement?

Use this feedback to improve your services, communication or the overall customer experience.

If you truly want to grow your business based on customer feedback, this is going to be your most important question. Why? Because it will give you an insight into what actually really matters to your customers, what is missing in your current service delivery and what you should do to improve the overall customer experience. 

Potential Fan - Would you recommend us to someone close to you?

Use this feedback to grow your business!

When a customer would recommend you to a friend or family member, it means that the service was meeting - and most likely exceeding - their expectations. 

This question requires your additional action!

If the answer to this question is ‘no’, try to follow up with a question: we would love to hear where we went wrong. 

If the answer to this question is: ‘yes’, thank them for their response and add a Task in your Formitize Task-Module to ask them for a Google Review next time you book a service with them. 

How to ask for a Google Review:

To generate a custom Google review link, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Business Profile account.
2. Select the location or business you want to manage.
3. Click on the ‘Get more reviews’ button.
4. Create a custom short URL by clicking the pencil to edit.
5. Share with your customers.

How do I collect feedback from my clients and analyse feedback data?

Amazing! You made it here. Your determination to learn more about how you can grow your business through customer feedback is greatly appreciated! In this final step, you are going to set up your client feedback process.  

The best time to ask for feedback
Let’s keep this nice and simple. The best time to ask your customers for feedback is immediately after you have provided your services. 

Asking for feedback as soon as possible will increase the likelihood of your customers responding to your feedback request. Let’s set up your feedback process!

Feedback Process for Formitize Users

Set it up once, done! Formitize allows you to automate your feedback process with just a few simple steps. 

Step 1 - Adding Feedback Form from the Formitize Form Bank: 

Navigate to the Formitize Formbank (click on link).  

Navigate to ‘Form Categories’ on the left side of your web portal and click on ‘Surveys’.

Choose ‘Customer Satisfaction Survey’ and click on ‘Upload Template’. 

Step 2 - Enabling the Web Form Functionality:

Navigate to ‘View Form Templates’ (click on link).

Click on ‘Customer Satisfaction Survey’ and navigate to ‘Webform options’ on the right side of your web portal. Click on the checkbox to enable the webform functionality. 

Click on ‘Save Details’ to save your progress.

Step 3 - Setting up your automated Feedback Process.

Copy a link to your webform within the Form Details section (this is where you have previously enabled the webform functionality).

Navigate to your Jobs Module and click on ‘Job Type Templates’. 

Click on ‘Job Status Updates’ and then click on the ‘+-icon’ to set up your feedback automation.

1. Click on the email icon.
2. Select ‘Job Complete’ under the ‘Trigger When:’ section.
3. Email to ‘Contact’s email’ (this is automatically selected).
4. Add a subject.
5. Add your email content. 
6. Click save. Done!

How did we do?

Well, how did we do? Did this article give you some new insights in how to use customer feedback data? Let us know. We would love to hear from you so that we can improve our future posts to better meet your needs. 

How did you do?

We hope this article was insightful - and above all, we hope that you are able to set up your own customer feedback process. Make sure to let us know if setting up an automated feedback workflow has been helpful to you. We always love to hear our customer’s success stories!