Most of us know the importance of getting good client feedback from your clients, and try to get it whenever possible. But are we using them in the best possible way?
Client feedback is not just giving them a chance to shower praise or vent their frustrations. The real value of those testimonials doesn’t come until you start analyzing it and using it in a proper way to improve your business. But unfortunately we show enthusiasm only in collecting the praises and putting them happily on our company websites.
The first step towards handling client feedback is analyzing it thoroughly. You can analyze the feedback individually, and an also compare them with the client feedback that you have already received. Here are a few simple questions to analyze client feedback:
• What’s the best point that the client said?
• Is there anything bad about you or your works? If so what is it?
• What have you understood about your client and your business dealings with him/her?
• Is there anything surprising in the feedback? If so what is it?
• Did you analyze the feedback with the feedback from the other clients? Is there an overall theme or message in the comments that you received?
Once you get a complete idea of the comments that you received, you can start using them to improve your day to day activities related to your business. Here are some simple ways to get started:
Try to resolve the complaints as soon as possible. If a client is telling you about the unhappiness or disappointment in your service, your products or about the dealings with your company, address such comments immediately. Such comments should be wisely used. Try to contact them to know more about the source of their unhappiness and explore to know what you can do to correct it soon. It can be either a simple problem or may need your deeper attention. But try to work it out with the client and improve the situation soon. To be precise, make sure to address genuine complains in the best possible way.
If you see a few clients complaining about a set of similar problems, it is time to analyze your whole business process. Perhaps your process is badly in need of a change. Don’t hesitate by making unnecessary excuses. It is your business that’s going to suffer if you don’t act on-time.
Client feedback can at times be real eye openers too. It can throw light on areas where your clients might have really struggled and you might have had no idea about. Correcting such difficulties will open the doors for new sale opportunities.
Convert them in to testimonials:
Lastly, remember the most potential part of client feedback. Yes, I am talking about testimonials. You can quote them on your website, marketing materials, newsletters and business networking profiles. You can even do case studies on good feedback and present them to prospective clients. This will be an added advantage for your business and will surely increase your leads and sales.
Well, these are simple steps that you all can do, but how many of us really take time to do these?
