15 Best Ways for Collecting Customer Feedback for Small Business

Top 15 best tools to find a way to a customer's heart!

Small business can use different tools to collect customer feedback. Knowing what a customer thinks, could benefit the businesses operations. They can use the feedback to decide on various strategies that can improve their business.

1.  Groups

An owner can form focus groups to look at how their customer responds to their products. They can reach out to established consumers and ask them to participate in a group interview. The business can provide some incentive such as food or sample product in return for their time. This can allow them to get more informed opinions in a discussion format to get input.

2.  Social

Small businesses can review their social media accounts for feedback. This tool can give them a more up to date view of what their customer has discussed about their company. A business can also review other businesses in their field to see how their customers feel about certain issues. Using their combined information the business can determine what areas they are stronger in and what they need to work on.

3. Email

Owners can email directly to customers to get feedback. They could use periodic emails to get information. Having this ability can allow a customer to explain more fully the way they use the company’s products. A business can be careful to not over use this method and can also give the customer relevant content they might be interested in reading. Maintaining reoccurring contact at appropriate intervals can keep the business in the consumers mind and also understand their concerns or other issues.

4. Behavior

A small business can examine consumer behavior directly at their location. They could ask an employee to fill out a survey while watching how customers interact with the place of business. Using this method they can get more real world information about what types of actions a customer takes in response to things such as samples or new store lay outs.

5. Suggestions

For further real world input a business can place suggestion boxes throughout their store. They can prominently display areas that customers can give feedback. The business can have a printed explanation of how they want to improve their function and ask for the customers suggestions.

6. Review

A business can periodically look at review websites. They can have a list of relevant customer review sites that deal with the types of products or services they market. This can be a way to gain insight into how the customer describes the business to others online.

7. Checkout

During the time a customer checkouts and completes a transaction a company can ask for feedback. This could be more effective if the question is kept short and to the point. This question can be changed at specific intervals to get current opinions about what the customers thinks.

8. Mobile

For companies asking for feedback on their website they can ensure that it is mobile friendly. A company can work with a web developer to make sure that their online survey is able to be filled out via a mobile device. A larger percentage of consumers are accessing information via mobile devices and having feedback tools that are mobile friendly could increase the response rate.

9. Usability

If a company is dependent on online sales for their revenue, they can test the usability of their website. Smaller businesses could invite suggestions from long term customers if they change their website. A company could also invest in a working with third party provider to get further testing about the usability of their website. Depending on the percentage of online sales they can determine how much to invest in this metric.

10. Discussion

Small businesses can join and interact on various discussion websites that are relevant to their business. They can identify different sites that provide users a community to discuss more general topics. A business that has services or products that this type of online community might use can review things they discuss.

11. Widget

A business could research third party providers that give them the ability to place feedback widgets on their website pages. These can allow customer to more easily ask different questions. Having these on their site can allow the customer to become part of the site’s community. Reviewing the things asked could give the company more in depth information about their customers.

12. Telephone

A business can survey their customer via phone calls. If a customer has chosen to provide relevant contact details the business could periodically contact them to get their feedback. The business can determine the appropriate amount of time to contact various customers. They can further segment customers on the products they bought to ask more detailed question regarding their experiences.

13. Chat

A business can supplement their website using a live chat feature. They can research different third party providers that can give them the ability to chat directly with customer visiting their website. A customer might appreciate being able to ask detailed questions regarding the company products or service in real time. The company can use this function to increase interaction and strengthen the content areas that have more questions asked about.

14. Analytics

A company can examine their customer’s user activity on their website via analytics. They can use various website analytic programs to keep track of different metrics. The business can examine how their customers use their website. They can more rapidly identify potential issues that might be affecting sales by analyzing this type of activity.

15. Forms

A company can use paper forms to get feedback from their customer. They can provide a detailed list of questions for customers to answer. Providing some type of incentive can increase the possibility of the customer choosing to fill the form out while at the businesses location.

Using feedback can make the business more attuned to their customers’ needs. Getting more insight into their customer could lead to increased business. Researching and implementing various tools a company could improve their business through customer feedback.