As the writer Christopher Morley once said, 'There is only one rule for being a good talker – learn to listen.'
Obtaining customer feedback can give you vital insights into what your customers think of your company, product or service. But it goes beyond that. If your customers feel that they're part of the conversation, and that you value their opinions, they will be more engaged and far more receptive to your message.
So, whether you're planning a marketing campaign, looking to improve your customer service, launching a new product or looking to update an old one, the first thing you need to do is open your ears wide and listen to what your customers have to say.
Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a well-established customer feedback methodology. A good VoC initiative will help you read, hear or see how your customers really feel about your business, your products or your services, giving you insights that can help you fine-tune or even transform the customer experience.
The customer interview is one of the most vital methods for gaining insight into what is important to those who use your service/product. A good interview will provide you with a solid understanding of how your customer feels about your business, products, services and support. It will provide feedback that highlights potential areas for improvement or development, flags any potential issues and may even provide ideas for new products or services.
Once gathered, customer feedback can help you to improve your customer experience, uncover and solve any current or potential problems, improve your product or service, and increase customer retention and sales. The information can be used to produce various documents, including white papers, web pages, training material, brochures, press releases and blog posts.
Basically, you can market 'at' your customers until you're blue in the face, hoping that they'll hear you above the noise created by so many companies who've chosen the same path, or you can engage with them, listen to them and get to know them, and improve your business, product and sales as a result.