8 Ways to Get Feedback from Your Online Customers
Customer preferences are constantly changing, so your business would be remiss to ignore such a crucial consideration. Your organization needs to constantly grow and evolve to suit the needs of its customers if you hope to succeed in ecommerce. Your customers have a wide range of options when it comes to shopping online, so endeavour to do everything in your power to stay ahead of the competition. The best way to find out what your customers want is to get that information directly from them. Here’s how to do it:
1. Be Active on Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to get feedback from your customers because these platforms give everyone a chance to voice their opinions. However, it is not just about reading what your customers have to say; you need to engage with them as well. Get conversations started to get the most valuable feedback.
2. Show Personality on Your Website and Blog
It makes it difficult for your customers to engage with you if you don’t present an approachable persona. Rather than creating a website that is dry and technical, inject a bit of personality into your content. Use friendly, conversational language that is enjoyable to read. This way, your customers will feel more comfortable interacting with you.
3. Make Your Contact Details Readily Available
Be sure to present your organization’s contact details clearly on your website. Having a “Contact Us” page or including a phone number at the top of each page can go a long way towards helping your customers to get in touch with you. Try to give your customers a variety of options to choose from so that they can contact you using their preferred method, whether it be email, phone, social media or online chat.
4. Share Feedback from Other Customers
Many people are reluctant to engage online if they are worried that no one else is. Displaying testimonials from past customers can encourage others to share their feedback as well. It can also help to show negative feedback sparingly, as long as you can show your organization’s response to solving the issue as well. This shows your customers that their feedback will be heard.
5. Act on Your Customers’ Feedback
This is the most important thing you can do to gain your customers’ trust and encourage them to continue to share their feedback with you. Although you do not need to make changes based on every single piece of feedback you receive, you should absolutely make adjustments if you notice patterns forming in what your customers are telling you. Be sure to communicate that the changes were because of the valuable comments your customers made so that they know they are being heard.
6. Incorporate Website Analytics
With today’s modern technology, it is easy to set up tracking systems on your website so that you can monitor your customers’ behavior. If you notice that particular pages of your site are getting more traffic than others, it is a safe assumption that your customers prefer that type of content. Try to look for any patterns in the popular pages so that you can incorporate more of what your customers are looking for.
7. Analyze Your Conversions
When your customers choose to make (or not make) purchases, take note of what stage of the sales funnel they reached and how they arrived at that destination. If you notice that many customers are loading up their virtual shopping carts but stopping halfway through the payment process, there may be an issue with this aspect of your website.
8. Ask for Feedback Throughout Your Sales Funnel
The best way to find out why customers stopped just short of making a purchase is to ask them. Perhaps the checkout process took too long to complete, or your customers may find that your shipping costs are too high. The only way to know these specific reasons is to ask. Incorporate a pop-in window or a virtual chat so that your customers can tell you what ultimately influenced their purchasing decisions.
