When you’re an expert at what you do and you’re your own boss, it’s sometimes easy to forget the value of listening to customers and anyone who is interacting with your business.
Why Listening to Customers is Important
Whether a business is small or large, brand loyalty will always be a key pillar in maintaining upward success. Brand loyalty begins with listening to customer needs and making informed decisions that respond to these needs. Sometimes the trouble with listening to customers is getting them to speak! Break down these barriers with the following tips:
Use Social Media
Social media is invaluable when it comes to collecting customer feedback. Doing a general search for your brand or following a hashtag on any social platform can help direct you to customer conversations. To get general feedback on what you’re doing, Instagram and Facebook polls are a great way to let customers have a say in your product!
Incentivize Leaving Reviews
Review sites like Yelp, Google Reviews, and the Better Business Bureau are helpful to other consumers, but even more helpful to business owners! Get your customers to leave more reviews by promising small incentives like 10% off their next purchase for leaving a review.
Comment Cards
A little old-fashioned, but a very convenient way for customers to immediately assess their feelings towards their experience. Try putting comment cards in more accessible places in-store or automatically offer cards after service without waiting for a request.
Email Surveys
If you are fortunate enough to have a big email list–use it! Lots of customers, especially those of an older demographic, still prefer being contacted via email. Email gives customers the freedom to respond to surveys at their leisure and gives you a great marketing opportunity to dish-out other brand-related messaging.
Use Product Sampler Sites
Using product sampler sites, such as samplesource.com can help you get early feedback on a new product. The best part is you can choose your ideal target audience so you can test whether your product is appealing to the audience you’re trying to target!
There are endless ways to get your customers talking to and about you! Staying in control of these conversations through excellent customer service and active responses will be sure to build your business an army of loyal customers!
Interested in finding more ways to take your business to the next level? Inclera partners with you to provide payment processing, financial planning, and analytics solutions to take your business in the right direction. Want to learn more about what we can do for you? Follow us on social media!