Are you looking for customer feedback, but aren’t getting many responses? It’s a common problem for businesses.
There’s a number of reasons why customers aren’t so keen on providing feedback these days. Online feedback forms take time to access, the process isn’t convenient and filling out a comment card is about as exciting as watching paint dry.
So, how do you motivate customers to give you feedback? After all, feedback helps you improve your business, measure customer satisfaction and relate to your audience on a human level.
To motivate customers to give you feedback, you need to be a little creative. Here are three ways to motivate customers to provide feedback that go beyond the drab comment box:
Make providing feedback easy with a popup survey on your website
One of the reasons why customers don’t provide feedback is because it’s not a convenient process for them. A lot of retailers ask customers to fill out an online survey when they get a chance. It’s easy to forget, and it’s not convenient. Customers have to keep their receipts that contain the survey website and actively seek out your survey.
Ditch the “fill out a survey later” idea and get customer feedback instantly by adding a popup survey on your website. One of the most convenient ways to collect feedback from customers is to catch them while they’re visiting your website.
If customers are prompted with a survey that can be completed instantly, your participation rates will be higher because customers aren’t inconvenienced. It’s a good strategy for any business. Even if your website isn’t an ecommerce mecca, you’ll still get some great responses.
Use a tool like SurveyMonkey to create and embed the survey. The survey should be short and concise. Ask no more than 3-5 questions. If the survey is too long, customers will abandon it mid-survey. Since you only have a few questions to solicit feedback, make sure you choose your questions wisely.
Collect feedback at a fun event
Customers aren’t motivated to leave feedback because it’s kind of a boring process to them. The thought of filling out a comment card and dropping it into a box is, well, boring.
So, spice it up. Motive customers to leave feedback by creating an event in your store. Let’s say your coffee shop just rolled out a new kind of coffee bean and you’d like to collect testimonials to use for marketing purposes.
Set up a table that offers customers a free sample, and ask them to write their thoughts on a poster nearby. Hang the poster on the wall with a few markers attached. The poster itself will draw attention, and encourage customers to check it out.
Provide a worthy incentive
Nothing motivates customers like an incentive. Consider offering a coupon to anyone that provides instant feedback.
For example, restaurant owners can ask customers to leave feedback at the end of a meal. Ask customers to write their thoughts on a comment card, or ask them to use their smartphone to leave a few words on your website. If customers leave feedback, they get dessert on the house.
This idea encourages customers to leave feedback instantly. In return, customers are given an incentive that can be redeemed instantly.
You can provide a coupon that customers can use at a later date too; it’s up to you. Whatever the incentive is, make sure it’s worth a customer’s time. Research suggests that a cash incentive, or a way to save money, is more effective than a lottery or a change to win a big prize. In fact, lotteries don’t have a significant impact on response rates, according to Stanford research.
In our example above, the free dessert offers a cash savings and instant redemption, which could provide the extra motivation that a customer needs to get the job done.
Wrap up
Collecting feedback doesn’t have to be a chore. With a little creativity, you can make the feedback process fun and simple for your customers. How will you collect feedback this year? Add your ideas to our list in the comment section below.
Remember, once you have feedback, you can start using it to market your brand or product. Here’s a list of five ways you should use feedback to boost revenue.
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