Feedback

Unlock the Power of Feedback: Proven Strategies for Improving Your Online Product

As an online business owner, it’s important to gather feedback about your product in order to improve it and keep your customers happy. But with so much feedback coming in, it can be difficult to know where to start and what changes to prioritize. In this article, we’ll discuss some tips on how to gather feedback and effectively use it to improve your online product.

Gather Feedback from a Variety of Sources

One of the first things you’ll want to do is gather feedback from a variety of sources. This can include customer surveys, social media reviews, and even in-person conversations. By gathering feedback from different sources, you’ll be able to get a well-rounded view of what your customers like and dislike about your product.

Ways for gathering customer feedback for your site:

Surveys: Use online survey tools to gather feedback from customers about their experience on your website. Make sure to keep the survey short and to the point, and to target specific aspects of the website that you want feedback on.
In-person communication with relevant audience representatives or even friends/colleagues.
User testing: Recruit a small group of users to test your website and provide feedback on its usability and overall user experience.
Online reviews: Monitor online review sites such as Google Reviews, Yelp, Trustpilot, Reddit, etc to see what customers are saying about your online product.
Social media: Use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to gather feedback from customers. Respond to comments and messages in a timely manner and consider creating a social media account specifically for customer support.
Contact forms: Include a contact form on your website that allows customers to provide feedback or ask questions. Respond to these messages promptly and consider creating a separate email address for customer support.
Live chat: Implement live chat on your website to allow customers to communicate with you in real-time and provide feedback.
Analytical tools: Use analytical tools such as Google Analytics to track the behavior of visitors on your website and gather data on how they interact with your site.
Ask your support team. Their track of customer inquiries and complaints: Support team members can take note of common issues or complaints that customers have with your product and use this information to identify areas for improvement by n y sharing it with relevant team members.

To give an example, Amazon.com gather feedback from customer reviews on its product pages, comments on its social media posts and also have a form on the website where customers can leave feedback. This helps Amazon to have a clear view of customer’s preferences and improve its product accordingly.

Prioritize Improvements Based on Impact and Feasibility

Once you’ve gathered feedback, it’s important to prioritize the improvements you want to make. Start by looking at which changes will have the biggest impact on your customers and your business. Then, consider the feasibility of implementing those changes. Some improvements may be simple to make, while others may require a significant amount of time and resources. According to a study by McKinsey, companies that prioritize customer feedback see a 4-8% increase in revenue.

A few tips:

Use the data and feedback to develop a plan for implementing the improvements and track the results.
Keep in mind that small changes can have a big impact, so don’t underestimate the importance of small improvements and test them before implementing them.
Regularly review and analyze customer feedback data to identify patterns and trends in customer needs and pain points, this can help you make informed decisions about which improvements to prioritize.

Personally, I prioritize the improvements based on the impact they will have on my business and the feasibility of implementation. For example, if a customer suggests a new feature that would significantly increase sales but would be difficult to implement, I would prioritize it higher than a suggestion for a small design change that would be easy to make, but have no impact on overall customer satisfaction. And vice versa, a small improvement like adding explanatory placeholders with text examples to the input fields, 1 hour of work overall (writing text and coding) could bring more people to conversion, then adding a feature like “suggested tags” which takes 3 full days to implement but have no major impact on sales.

Keep Your Customers in the Loop

As you make changes to your product, it’s important to keep your customers in the loop. Let them know what changes you’re making and why. This will help to build trust and keep your customers engaged. You can also use the feedback you gather to create a roadmap of future improvements and share it with your customers to let them know what to expect in the future.

I always keep my customers in the loop by sending them email updates and posting on social media about new features, improvements, and any upcoming changes. This helps to build trust and keep my customers engaged and excited about my product.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When gathering and using customer feedback, it’s important to avoid some common mistakes.

Ignoring negative feedback – It can be easy to only focus on positive feedback, but negative feedback can also provide valuable insight into areas where your product needs improvement. Be sure to address any issues or concerns raised by customers in a constructive manner.
Not involving your team in the feedback process – Your team members can also provide valuable insight into customer feedback and can help prioritize and implement improvements. Be sure to involve them in the feedback process and encourage them to share their own ideas for improvements.
Don’t be a perfectionist. You can’t please everyone and there is not a single online product that is completely bug-free. It’s okay to not implement all the improvements or fix all the bugs that you gather from the customers. It’s fine to do at least the easiest to implement or that many customers face. This will help you to focus on the most important changes and not waste time and resources on unnecessary improvements.
Not keeping track of feedback and improvements – It’s important to keep track of the feedback you receive and the improvements you make in order to measure the effectiveness of your strategies. This can also help you identify patterns in customer feedback and make future improvements more efficiently.

Conclusion

Gathering feedback and using it to improve your online product is essential for the success of your business. By gathering feedback from a variety of sources, prioritizing improvements based on impact and feasibility, and keeping your customers in the loop, you can ensure that your product stays relevant and meets the needs of your customers.

#business #Cases #insights and secrets