By Chantal India, on 6 January 2022
In marketing, there are many metrics that must be taken into account to determine whether a campaign is successful. Customer satisfaction is a key metric because it directly affects the growth of a brand.
In this article, we'll explain why measuring customer satisfaction is essential for scaling your business, and how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can do so efficiently.
Why Customer Opinions Are Important
Customer satisfaction measures customer responses after they purchase a product or service from your brand. With this data, you get insights into customer needs, expectations, and the purchasing process. This information is valuable because it can be used to improve your products and services as well as customer care.
For SMEs, customer satisfaction is important for a number of reasons such as:
- Achieving customer loyalty: it is much easier to have loyal customers when they have a good purchasing experience.
- Gaining referrals: when a customer is satisfied with all parts of the buying cycle, they are more likely to recommend you to others in their network.
- Positive reviews on social media: Customers who are satisfied with a purchase tend to leave positive reviews on social networks, Google, or other platforms and websites. The more positive reviews there are, the more trust the brand generates.
- Standing out from the competition: there are many companies offering similar products or services, so make sure to personalize communications with your customers so that they receive relevant offers.
In order to grow as a brand, it's essential to strive for excellent customer service, since your customers are the ones who can ultimately keep your business afloat.
4 Tools for Gathering Opinions and Reviews
There are several tools you can use to collect customer reviews. These are useful for measuring results and identifying what you can improve.
1. Google Forms
Google Forms allows you to create forms quickly and easily. Although it is not exclusively designed to collect customer opinions, satisfaction surveys can be created in a few minutes.
One of the features that makes Google Forms a good tool for measuring customer satisfaction is that the author can set default answers or give the customer the option to write what they want. It can also be connected to a spreadsheet so that all of the responses are centralized.
Google Forms is completely free, making it ideal for companies that don't have a high budget.
2. Trustpilot
Trustpilot is a website where customers can leave their opinions about any brand.
The platform is completely free for customers, but companies can choose between a free or paid plan that offers more detailed reports, greater customization, and more.
3. Google My Business
Google My Business is a free Google tool that aims to help brands find customers and manage their online visibility.
With it, you can respond to Google reviews left by customers. Keep in mind that companies that respond to reviews, regardless of whether they are good or bad, create greater consumer confidence.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the most complete tools available since it allows you to manage absolutely anything to do with marketing. For example, you can create surveys and send them to your customers by email. It also has a dashboard that allows you to visualize and compare all of the data collected.
This tool is paid but has different plans available, making it a great option for any company.
6 Strategies for Gathering Customer Reviews and Opinions
Customers are more likely to leave a review when they have a bad experience. To avoid this, you should encourage all customers to leave their opinion.
1. Order Confirmation Emails
One tactic is to send the customer an email confirming the arrival of the product along with a link that leads to a survey or a web page where they can give an opinion on the purchasing process.
The customer will see that the brand cares about how its products arrive and the company will know where to improve in the process. If there are a lot of negative opinions, check if the website has any problems or if there are any issues with the shipping company.
2. Email Within One Month of Product Purchase
One month after customers make a purchase, you can send an email asking if the product has met their needs. You can also ask if it works properly, if they are satisfied with it, and if they would recommend it to a friend. This is best done by setting up an automated workflow in a tool like Hubspot.
It is important to pay close attention to customer opinions because if they are negative, it means that your brand is not fulfilling its promise to customers.
3. Chatbots and Shopping Assistants
Users want answers to their questions and solutions to any kind of problem that may arise during purchasing, shipping, or using the product they bought.
The most common thing to do is to ask the customer to rate the conversation (via chat, phone, or email) from 1 to 10.
4. Offer Discounts in Exchange for Reviews
To encourage customers to leave a review, you can offer them a discount on their next purchase.
This way, in addition to getting information about their experience, you can also foster customer loyalty, since a discount makes purchasing more enticing.
5. Add the Option to Leave a Review in Your Newsletter
Newsletters are a powerful communication channel between brands and users, so they can be used to inform customers that their opinions are important to the company. You can include a link to Trustpilot, for example.
6. Highlight Previous Reviews on Your Website
To help users and potential customers trust your brand, you can feature your best reviews on your website. You should always choose positive ones that speak not just about the product, but also about the customer service or purchasing process. Phrases like "everything was fine" and "very happy with the product" do not provide any value, so find ones that are more specific.
All reviews you feature should be accompanied by the user's name to boost brand awareness.
In conclusion, measuring customer satisfaction is important for any company. Make sure to include it in your brand's online strategy!
