Feedback: A Key Tool in Your Customer Experience Marketing Strategy

Retaining current customers is essential for your business to succeed.

That’s why Customer Experience Marketing has emerged as a lead marketing strategy.

Customer Experience Marketing focuses on building relationships with current customers through each of your brand’s touchpoints. Their experience becomes the center of all business practices, which now follow the customer along their lifecycle with your company.

Relationships are born out of trust. And as we continue wading through the pandemic, earning customers’ trust is more important than ever before. Salesforce reports that “73% of customers say trust in companies matters more than it did a year ago” and “54% of customers say it’s harder than ever for companies to earn their trust.”

One way to build that strong trust is by seeking and reacting to customer feedback. It’s another way to show that you care about the experience that people have with your brand and that you want to continuously improve that experience.

Here are a few tips for actively using feedback as part of your Customer Experience Marketing strategy.

Create a Plan and Assign a Dedicated Team for Handling Customer Feedback

What do you do when a customer leaves a review, calls to complain or provides any other type of feedback? Who is responsible for responding? Do you have a plan for following up?

How you acknowledge customer feedback, especially negative comments, can alter someone’s entire experience.

Remember these tips:

• Respond in the same channel where feedback was given.
• Look at criticism as an opportunity. Approach it as a chance to identify weaknesses in your operation and make positive changes, build trust and strengthen customer relationships.
• Keep responses across platforms consistent with your brand and credo. In one study, Salesforce noted that, when the reply style is inconsistent, 60% of customers say it “feels like they’re communicating with separate departments, not one company.”

Be Human

No one wants to have their complaints answered with a sterile, one-size-fits-all response. As it is, Salesforce reports that “52% of customers say companies are generally impersonal.” Addressing each customer’s input with a standard reply won’t fix that perception.

Key points to remember:

• Train and remind your employees to actively listen to customers and then give appropriate, thoughtful responses. That creates a personalized experience and builds trust. If pre-scripted replies are required, provide your content team with real examples of customer experiences to help them craft meaningful responses.
• Ask questions. Learning more about the situation can lead you to the real cause of the customer’s issue. For example, a comment of “I waited too long” can actually mean “I wasn’t given the proper time expectations” or “I wish this were something I could find on your website.”

If You’re Going to Ask for Feedback, Listen to Understand

Are you willing to make changes based on the feedback you’ve received? If not, consider how you’d feel if someone asked for your opinion and then ignored it?

How you learn from customer feedback can mean the difference between losing a customer and creating a long-term relationship.

If next steps are required, convey that information to the customer and follow up if necessary. A Customer Relationship Management tool can help you track your progress with a complaint.

When you’re ready to explore other ways to strengthen your Customer Experience Marketing strategy, reach out to us.