How to Gather Customer Feedback

Relationships are built over a longer period of time, extensive knowledge is required of a customer’s needs and challenges, and—when all is well—a customer’s loyalty may extend for a greater period of time.

Here at Baillie Lumber, we value every customer we have and continuously strive to meet their needs. At the same time, we recognize that those needs are often in flux, and that it’s vital for us to fully grasp those changing needs and adapt to new conditions. 65648498

In order to do this, we rely upon accurate and timely customer feedback. Here are tips for how you and your business can gather feedback for analysis and future action:

Provide a variety of customer feedback channels. Your customers all have preferred methods of communicating with their suppliers. It’s your responsible to cater to those preferences, by offering multiple points of contact—from email and phone to texting and website communication formats.

Create and distribute customer surveys. A brief, focused survey is often the most effective means by which to evaluate what’s happening with your customers. Online survey tools are designed to gather data needed to achieve this goal. Action steps to keep in mind:

Be clear about objectives. Before distributing a survey, understand what you hope to achieve. For example, if you’re seeking to improve customer service, keep survey questions focused on this area.

Ask the right questions. How your questions are worded is very important. Any wording that seems unclear or confusing to your intended audience will only generate inaccurate response information. Comm100 suggests sending a sample survey to a trusted customer, so it can be used “as a test or pilot survey study to ensure that the questions you’re asking … are as clear as possible.”

Keep it short. Both your questions and the survey itself should be brief. This increases the likelihood that customers will actually complete and return the survey to you.

Address negative responses ASAP. If a trusted customer expresses an issue with some aspect of your business (product quality, timely delivery, etc.), do everything in your power to address the issue immediately. Just as importantly, if a specific problem is mentioned by more than one customer, it’s imperative that you and your team find ways to resolve what might be a systematic problem at your earliest convenience.

Every business depends upon its customers to stay in business. Only by gathering feedback can they gain insights that help boost future growth.

Brett Del Prince
Baillie Lumber
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