3 Easy Ways to Get Feedback from Customers and Use It

People are complex bundles of emotions. But that’s not a bad thing, especially when it comes to getting feedback from customers.

Follow the Science, as they say. A study published through Harvard Business Review found that the very act of asking for customer feedback was enough to keep people from churning and coming back for more. 

And that’s even if they don’t respond to the request for feedback. 

So that’s good news if you’re looking to build recurring revenue and a base of loyal, repeat customers for your Shopify store. 

But how can this be?! It’s got to do with consumer psychology.

Even just a simple satisfaction survey appeals to the average person’s innate desire to be catered to. Asking for an opinion makes someone feel seen, heard, or otherwise important. Think of the positive feelings you get when someone wants to know what you think. 

This is the effect asking for surveys, or feedback, from customers, has. In essence, you’re reinforcing the positive feelings customers associate with your brand. 

Another thing — customers might not realize how much they liked your product until you ask about it. 

Result? They’ll be more likely to keep buying from you and refer others to your offerings. 

Feedback also gives you a wealth of insight into how your customers feel about your brand, where you can improve, and what you’re doing well so you can, well, do more of it. 

All right. Enough of the psychobabble. Let’s get down to brass tacks — how to get customer feedback and use it to your competitive advantage. 

Easy, Fast Ways to Get Feedback from Customers

There are so many different ways to get customer feedback. But we’re only going to cover the top 3, easiest ways today. Easy doesn’t mean ineffective, though. 

1. Surveys for Customer Feedback Questions

Surveys are one of the easiest and most straightforward ways to get feedback from customers. You can send a series of questions to your email list. Or post a link to a survey on your social media channels. 

It doesn’t have to cost anything to run a survey. You can use free tools like Survey Monkey to ask customer feedback questions. 

How many questions should you ask? Less is more. Too many questions can annoy customers or cause them to speed through the survey, which harms your data quality. Stick to 12 or fewer questions. 

2. Instagram Stories

You can do a lot more with Instagram than just share photos. Instagram Stories allows you to collect customer feedback, too. You can ask questions directly within the Instagram app or create a poll. 

3. Emojics Plugin for Shopify

A straightforward and minimalist customer feedback tool for Shopify is the Emojics plugin. This plugin takes advantage of inbound reaction feedback, which tends to get a high response rate. 

Using emojis for gathering feedback can increase engagement up to 15% — simply because people are familiar with emojis and who doesn’t love them?

Emojics plugin will install a simple reaction button on each product listing on Shopify, like so:

Image courtesy of Emojics.com 

People like it when you make things easy and quick for them, including giving feedback. Customers don’t have to spend time answering a lengthy questionnaire or flitting through a list of choices to provide their input. All they gotta do is click an emoji. Win-win for you both. 

How to Use Customer Feedback: Market Research and More

So, now you’ve got your customer feedback. What’s the best way to use that data? 

1. Using customer feedback to improve product roadmaps

Your customer feedback can give you valuable insight into creating a product roadmap that’s as close to market-fit as possible. Data can be classified into improving existing products to meet or exceed expectations or develop disruptive, game-changing products. 

2. Making product improvements

You can only do so much when you’re close to the product but not necessarily an active user of it. Use feedback directly from users to make improvements to your existing product line. 

3. Improving customer service and preventing churn

Sweeping negative feedback under the rug will create a negative feedback loop, and you’ll lose customers. Instead of becoming defensive or fearful of negative feedback, use it as a learning opportunity to improve your business. Negative feedback gives you direct insight into where you need to improve to keep customers happy. 

Your Next Steps

Creating an excellent eCommerce store and selling top-notch products is only half the battle to building a sustainable business. Keeping your customer and their experience front-and-center plays an essential role in business success. 

Commit to gathering customer feedback and using it to implement the necessary changes to drive your business forward.