How to Make Use of Customer Reviews
Owners of large and successful businesses know the real value of an honest customer review. These feedback from customers are often overlooked or even deliberately ignored by neophyte entrepreneurs, and it’s can be costing their respective businesses hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars in profit.
Nowadays, many small and medium sized businesses have already set up their own social media profiles, some of them may even have their own websites. With this, customers can directly tell you about how they felt doing business with your enterprise.
While this may seem like a fairly new idea, customers have been expressing their opinions ever since the industry of business began. However, thanks to modern technology, the act of freely expressing your feelings about a business is now made easier and more convenient.
Still, no matter how honest a customer review is, it remains as nothing but a block of text on a website unless you know how to properly utilize it to your advantage. What can you do with a customer’s feedback? Is your business using it as a stepping stone towards success? But more importantly, how do you do it?
If you’re not quite sure what to, here are the ways for you to make use of your customer reviews.
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Use feedback to improve your product/service
Innovating your product or improving your service may sound easy, but most businesses have a difficult time finding points of improvement and detecting flaws in whatever product or services that they offer.
By listening to your customers’ observations, opinions, and even negative remarks, you can begin innovating your product in ways that you never knew was possible. Your customers ideas can be precious, and you may wonder, “How come I never came up with that idea?”. Well, since you’re using the product everyday, there is a chance that you might overlook some key points because you and your team are too focused on a different area.
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Optimize customer experience
Customers are the lifeblood of every business out there. Without them, a business cannot function due to the lack of profit. By making sure that your customers receive the best products/services and after sales support, you are minimizing the possibility of negative customer experience.
Customers want things to happen easily, in fact, that’s perhaps the main reason why they choose to avail of your product or service rather than resort to DIY methods. By optimizing their experience with your company, you are not only doing them a favor, you are also leveraging your brand and its profitability by satisfying the needs of your target market.
If they point out the things that made their experience rather unsatisfactory, assess it and see if improving it can resolve any future user-friendliness issues. If yes, then do what you can to get it fixed as soon as possible, and don’t forget to inform and thank the customer for their valuable input!
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Use it as an indirect marketing tool
Many marketing strategies out there require that you pay huge amounts of money. While growing businesses will inevitably have to pay for advertising, there are other ways to increase your brand awareness as well as your client network.
By reading and responding to reviews, you are giving your business a good PR. Take note that you need to respond to all customer reviews, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. In fact, negative reviews deserve more attention because the customer felt bad about their experience, and when left unattended, these reviews will pile up until your online presence becomes muddy that they’re driving customers away.
By responding to these reviews, you’re showing prospects that you are a trustworthy company that handles their responsibility well. This can increase your brand’s reputation and will most likely generate new clients.
These are only three of the ways to make use of customer reviews. Just remember, you should always entertain your customers’ ideas because they are the reason why your business is still up and running.