How to Collect Customer Feedback Using Email Marketing
There are two problems with reviews. Typically, customers leave feedback on the company when it has brought them to white heat. For every negative review written, there are a hundred good ones, but, not in written. Of course, some companies take reviews themselves, but almost all do it crookedly. Let's talk about how to get a review that will be believed and which will bring new customers.
Why do customers need reviews at all?
A review will work for the business in a plus only if it is useful to the client. But what is the use of a review?
There are two opposite opinions: "reviews inspire confidence in the product" and "reviews are complete nonsense, written to order, no one believes them." Reviews help to reduce doubts that someone has already used the product. Second, a comprehensive review helps you understand when a product is right for you and when it is not.
A bad review is a review that does not provide details. When you read: “The seller was great, I will definitely work with you again,” questions like: “What was great? What did you like? " pop up. And most importantly, this kind of review can be written about any seller.
A good review takes the product apart and describes in what conditions the product is used, what the customer's expectations were and whether the product meets them.
Email newsletter
This method is perfect for companies that have the ability to collect customer email addresses. Collecting customer email addresses can be easily organized for types of businesses with a relatively high check, and you can use the email address database not only for collecting reviews, but also for productive email marketing.
So, if you have the addresses of your clients, send them a mailing list with the following content: “Thank you for choosing our company. Please share your impressions - leave a review (link to the page for collecting reviews). " The friendly the newsletter is, the more reviews it will attract. If it's appropriate - be sure to add a picture to the text - it will attract the attention of more people
How to take a review and not screw it up?
If a company sells its products in millions, people will write reviews about it (even if the company doesn't want to), but if you are a small company and there are tens or hundreds of customers, you may never get a response. Companies understand this, ask the client to leave a review and ... make a mistake. They say: "Please leave us a review / your opinion is very important to us." And the client is happy to help. "Very satisfied. All is well. Thank you, ”he writes. Or sends thanks on an official letterhead.
It is very important that the focus of your inquiries remains on the customer, not your product. Take an interest in the person. Ask, what problem did he face? What options did you look at? Why did he decide that your product suits him? What did he like? What didn't you like? People love to share their experiences, and based on their answers, you can tell a fascinating story about your product
How to take feedback through a questionnaire?
This method is ideal if you have a lot of buyers and have their contacts to send them a link to the survey. It is important to accompany the link with a small letter in which you ask people to give you time and give feedback on your product.
Perhaps you think people are too lazy to write a review? For some, yes, so this method is good if your client base is at least 300 people. But there will definitely be people who want to write a detailed review.
Questionnaires can be created using Google Forms. From the questionnaire, you will receive a series of disparate answers that need to be combined into a coherent story about the product. Agree on the final version with the buyer and take permission to publish.
How to take feedback: interviewing a client
If the clients on your accountdo not use questionnaires, than you can interview. An interview can be recorded on video or on a phone, transcribed and turned into text. The final version, must be agreed with the client.
Moment selection
The best moment to request a feedback is when the client is happy with you, when he is bursting with positive emotions. It seems obvious, but in reality it is not. For example, if you provide long-term services, such as accounting or marketing support, the moment always seems inappropriate. All the time it seems that the main achievements are still ahead, that it is too early to take a review. Don't get fooled by this feeling. Take a review now (of course, if the client is happy with you), after all, nothing prevents you from taking another review from this client in the future. Otherwise, you can wait for a situation when cooperation with a client stops, and you will be left without a client and without a recall.
Who to interview
It is better to use outside people or newcomers for this, who do not yet associate themselves with your company (and even more so have not worked with this client). The external person, does not know anything about the client and therefore is interested sincerely. In addition, it is very easy for him to take a research position if a client starts criticizing the company. He will ask what he didn’t like and why, instead of arguing with the client, defending the company's actions or trying to please him.
How to draw out important details
You can take a list of questions here, but if you just mechanically ask them, there will be no sense. For instance:
Interviewer: Why did you choose our bike?
Client: I liked the value for money.
It is very important not to be satisfied with such a murky answer and keep clarifying:
Interviewer: What does quality mean to you in relation to a bicycle?
Client: It is important for me that it is light, and I can bring it to the fourth floor without any problems, because we do not have an elevator.
The matter got off the ground, but it is important to keep clarifying: "What else is important to you?" In this way you get really real feedback, which will be very helpful to others in understanding why they should buy your company's products.
Don't be afraid to ask about flaws. There are no perfect products for all occasions, each has its own limitations. The bike may work well in the city, but not on rural roads. This does not mean that the problem is with the bike, it means that it is necessary to show the context of its use and create the right expectations for the client.
Use feedback effectively
When the reviews are collected, they can, of course, simply be placed on a separate page, but you can also think of something more interesting. For example, you can neatly embed testimonials into promotional materials or combine them with case studies.
Another way to use reviews is to spice up your case studies. It can even help out when you have a nondescript review, which in itself would look pale, but together with the case looks normal.
And finally, you can do a full-scale interview with a client, diluting it with examples of the work that was done for him.