How to Get Customer and Prospect Feedback…

and how to use it as a marketing advantage!

For many, feedback is detrimental – a negative, unplanned disturbance. It’s that dreadful, high-pitched squeal from the public-address system that sometimes occurs when the speaker at the podium first opens his or her mouth to say, “Good morning.”

In business, there’s another form of feedback. This is the response you obtain from customers and prospects. It’s what tells you how well your company is doing.

1. Naturally, the very best feedback you can get is a sale – cash in your bank account.
2. The second-best feedback is to have a customer or prospect – really talk to you and tell you what they think, good and bad.
3. In the world of the most preeminent companies, those that invite feedback – and use it to improve – continue to outperform those who don’t.

Not only do these better companies seek honest evaluations about their performances, what was learned is shared with sales, marketing, customer service, and the product development department.

Unfortunately, there are so many questionnaires and surveys floating around that responses can be slim. So, get creative, get bold. Or, get on the phone and talk to people one at a time – and listen, listen, listen!

Canned questions are fine but use them as thought starters. Let customers talk to you and tell you, in their own words, what they see, hear and feel.

Look at what other companies are doing.

To become a useful tool, data must be transformed into information that can help drive strategic direct marketing programs and financial decisions. To minimize manual data collection and conserve resources, a company should focus on metrics from readily available data.

In today’s direct and digital marketing, data can be relied upon to capture information needed to drive decisions. The idea of having a good marketing automation tool to capture more data at a reasonable price is a worthwhile investment.

When you summarize feedback in the form of charts, graphs, or simple to understand language, you’ll always know the score. You’ll know if you’re winning or losing – and to what degree.

 

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