How to Gauge Customer Satisfaction

When it comes to running a successful business, there are few things as important as customer feedback. We all know how much less expensive it is to retain customers than it is to acquire new ones so it make sense that making sure customers are happy is the key to running a profitable business.

No matter how heavily you market your business, it won’t matter if all of your sales are one-and-done. In order to make sure that doesn’t happen, here are some steps to take when it comes to keeping your customers happy:

1. Monitor website usage. Do customers head straight for reviews? Do they ignore certain tabs? Observe what visitors to your website seem to gravitate toward and figure out why. Doing so will allow you to make your website as user-friendly as possible.
2. Obtain feedback. Once a customer has made a purchase, send more than a thank-you email (although a thank-you is always a great idea). Instead, ask what they liked about the process of buying from you. How could it have been easier? Why or why wouldn’t they buy from you again?
3. Make a call. If your customer had a bad experience, make a phone call to make things right. While technology is everywhere these days, getting a call when things go wrong will make a tremendous impression on a disgruntled customer.
4. Ask for reviews. Customer testimonials, product reviews and photos posted by actual customers using your product will go a long, long way toward increasing sales conversions. How far? Research shows that such tactics increase conversion rates by more than 150 percent!
5. Have an actual conversation. Calling customers who were unhappy with your product is one thing but how about some direct feedback from people who are reading your newsletters or opened an account on your website? If you don’t have time to do this personally, you can outsource these calls to a telemarketing firm. You will be surprised at how such conversations uncover issues you may never have thought of.

Let’s face it, there are hundreds of ways to measure data and outcomes but nothing beats one-on-one interactions with real customers to find out what they really like—or dislike—about their customer experience. And when you understand a customer’s motivations for doing business with you, you can better tailor your business to suit all of your customers’ needs.