Everyone running a business wants two things to happen:
- You want your customers to come back for more business
- You want your customers to tell other people about you
Both of those will keep you in business without much money or energy spent marketing your services.
But how do you know what your customers think about you and your business? How do you know what they tell others? Well, there’s no better way but to ask them. Customer feedback has been my best friend when it comes to learning more about myself and growing my business in the right direction. Whether it’s positive or negative feedback you’re bound to learn and adjust your practices / skills / prices / offerings …. you get the idea. And the more you align with your customers, the more business you will get from them (directly or in a form of recommendation).
Here’s the top 3 reasons why you too should ask your client for feedback:
To learn why they enjoy being your client
Customers continue to do business with you for a variety of reasons (good rates, great customer services, responsiveness, superb communication) but you will rarely hear them say it unless you ask. Find out why your clients keep coming back for more and you may just discover patterns. You can then concentrate on offering those things that get you most positive feedback and you’re bound to strengthen your client retention rate.
To learn what else they would like you to offer
You clients may have needed more then you offered them but you never asked so you missed the opportunity. My specialty is web design but I also provide full range of web services to my clients, depending on their needs. I always ask the question “what else I can do for you” and I keep getting more work. With any type of business there might be opportunities laying around that are initially unidentified. Only by asking you can cash in on what could potentially be a missed opportunity for your business.
To show that their opinion matters
This is a magnet for repeat business. It shows that you are human and imperfect but willing to learn and grow. It proves to your customers that you are not just in it for the money but you do want to provide value. It’s great for building a deeper relationship that will make you stand apart from your competition.
Client feedback can be a great tool you should utilize to learn how to best position your business to improve your bottom line.
What Questions Will You Ask Your Customers?