Every business should have a strategy for gathering customer feedback. Whether it’s done with the help of surveys, feedback forums, or on the brand’s official social media channels, customer feedback is valuable.
Customer feedback not only informs product decisions, but can also help you improve customer experience. In this blog post, we explore the ways businesses can use social media to help them find customer feedback.
What is customer feedback?
Customer feedback is a marketing term that describes the process of obtaining a customer’s opinion about a business, product or service. It can come in the form of surveys, online forums and other social messaging.
Why is customer feedback important?
The benefits of having access to customer feedback are endless. It informs product decisions and helps you improve both your product and service. Responding to customer feedback shows that your company is listening to your customers’ concerns, and that you care about their satisfaction. As well, feedback from your clients provides insight into what they need and want to see in the future. Monitoring customer feedback also lets you measure customer satisfaction, which, if done right, can help with customer retention. Another benefit of customer feedback is that there is potential to create brand advocates.
How to use social media to gather customer feedback
Most businesses that are active on social have social media managers who consistently monitor and listen to their social media audience, knowing at all times what is being said about their brand. This knowledge can also be used as a form of customer feedback. Here are some ways to gather customer feedback from your brand’s social channels.
- Use Facebook as a feedback forum. Many of your customers are already on Facebook and checking it regularly, so why not meet them on a platform they already use? Things like questions, votes, updates, and group chats will facilitate conversations that will be valuable to your product later. You can use Facebook Questions to get recommendations or learn from people in your events and groups.
- Host Twitter chats to gather insight on topics. A Twitter chat is a live Twitter event in which a certain topic is talked about. Twitter users meet at a predetermined time to discuss said topic. Usually they are moderated by a host who poses questions to the group. Twitter chats provide opportunity to network as well as gain customer insight. You can host Twitter chats about anything from product development to what the participants think about the latest social media release. Make sure you also include a relevant and brief hashtag that relates back to your business. Here’s some advice for choosing the right hashtag.
- Use LinkedIn groups to ask questions. Either join groups with members who are prospective customers or create your own Linkedin Group. If you create your own group it’s an excellent way to build community. If you join other groups it’s a great place ask questions. Make sure your questions aren’t overly salesy but ask questions that you know will inform your business decisions. For example, LinkedIn Groups allow you to create free polls. You can ask for feedback on a specific product or what your customers would like to see in the future.
- Host Google hangouts with core customers. At Hootsuite, we host customer hangouts where we not only show our gratitude, but we also gain incredible customer insight on what is working for them and what we can improve on in the future. Face-to-face interaction is invaluable, and Google Hangouts provide you with a chance to talk to the customers directly by putting a human element into a brand interaction.