When we want to ensure that we are serving our customers properly and professionally, we usually ask for constructive feedback on improving our business. One of the best ways of knowing how your product or your service is catering to your target market’s needs and wants is by effectively tracking the satisfaction of customers.
Normally, professionals from small businesses such as cafes or restaurants can directly ask customers how they are enjoying their food or looking through online reviews that are often left by mobile applications like Yelp and Google Reviews. But even though this can give a customer a bigger picture of what a business has to offer, this doesn’t necessarily paint the whole picture. Even though you might get a semblance of a person’s feedback on your business based on these reviews, most individuals won’t really care too much about a question on whether they are enjoying their food or not.
In the past few years, many businesses have been taking up an online business model, especially when most users can easily have products delivered to their doorstep. With online businesses steadily rising in popularity, it’s even more challenging to determine customers’ satisfaction. Fortunately, with advancements in technology, it’s easier to pinpoint customer satisfaction while knowing the ebb and flow of the market’s wants through methodical processes.
If this is the case, how do we measure the satisfaction of customers online?
Is Tracking Customer Satisfaction Important?
Even before the advent of the internet and digital services, customer satisfaction has always been an integral part of knowing where your business stands. The earliest forms of tracking customers’ satisfaction are through simple data collection, which is through surveys.
When businesses track their customer satisfaction, they are essentially identifying different ways of increasing the retention of customers. Retention is especially important when there are competitors that are also vying for control of a target audience. In fact, 96% of customers don’t want to conduct business with a company or corporation that is negligent on customers’ experiences. At the same time, 55% of customers would pay more to be treated well in customer experience.
Most data and statistics can teach us the following:
- Poor customer experience can increase the likelihood of them switching to competitors or being put off from the industry.
- Customers appreciate responsive and fast service, but a good chunk of industries cannot meet the market’s standards.
- Compared to pricing and issues regarding the product, customers are more sensitive to poor customer service. Most customers won’t mind the product’s pricing and issues as long as they are treated right.
Not only is tracking customer satisfaction integral in the E-commerce industry, but it’s also crucial in different industries that will rely on potential clients and customers, such as most financing businesses. Some mortgage services are quite keen on their customer satisfaction and will do anything in their power to ensure that their customers are satisfied with quality service.
In summary, customer satisfaction is one of the best ways of collecting necessary data on what customers like and dislike. A company or business that won’t hear out constructive feedback and the community’s voice is geared towards failure when the business isn’t built around the desires of the market.
Moreover, several studies have suggested that tailoring your business to constructive reviews and responses can increase loyalty for your product and your business.
Tracking and Collection Data on Customer Satisfaction
But how do we keep track and accurately “measure” customer satisfaction? There are three tried and tested methods of painting a bigger picture of how we can see how the public sees your business:
- Online reviews
- Statistics through search engines and engagements
- Surveys that are done in person or online.
These three approaches are known for being accurate and direct feedback of customers and how your business performs in catering to these needs and wants. Surveys and reviews are especially important since they personally come from clients and customers.
When customers respond to your survey, it’s best to rate them with a 1–10 scale as this will give you a good indication of how they generally feel about your business. The general rule of thumb is that anything below a score of 6 means that the customer is dissatisfied with the business and will have a higher likelihood of switching to a different one. 7–8 means that they are neutral and don’t necessarily have any strong feelings towards your business. 9–10 means that the customer is loyal to your business and will likely buy even more products.
When it comes to an online business, website and search engine metrics and statistics are a great way of knowing what a customer wants. In most cases, search engine optimization is usually geared towards this type of metric.
There are a variety of ways of painting a bigger picture of how the public perceives your business. But no matter what the reviews say, it’s important to address the shortcomings and issues in your business organization.
