How to Decide How You Will Obtain Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is essential to the health of any business. It can come in the form of customer research or via unsolicited customer comments about you online, whether positive or negative. There are two basic kinds of customer research. Quantitative research defines your business by measuring something, such as the extent of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your price. Qualitative research helps explain why the statistical finding is what it is and why customers think and feel as they do. Both are essential to a deep understanding of your customers.

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  Use quantitative research if you want key metrics that define how well your business is doing, such as what percentage of your customers is happy doing business with you and what percentage is not. The time-tested form of quantitative research is the customer survey, which targets a scientific sampling of your customer base or prospect universe. Customer surveys can be performed by phone, mail or via the Internet. A well-designed customer survey can tell you what percentages of your customers think your price is too high, too low or just right. It also can explain the percentages of people who like and dislike the design or color of your new product.

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  Use qualitative research to dig deeper and learn why your customers think and feel the way they do. The classic form of qualitative research is a focus group, in which a small, scientifically selected group of six to 12 customers or prospects are prompted by a professional facilitator to discuss, in detail, key issues about your market relationship with them. Focus groups, which are typically deployed in clusters of six to 60 over a short period of time, are used by Fortune 500 companies and other large enterprises, and they pay big dividends to a small business that needs insight.

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  Use a combination of quantitative and qualitative customer research to benchmark your business against competitors. A benchmarking study, based on customer feedback, will give you an in-depth perspective on where you stand in your industry and why. For example, you can get a detailed understanding of how your customers feel about critical issues, such as your pricing, product quality and customer service. Then you can measure yourself against key competitors bench marked in the same study according to the same criteria.

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  Monitor social networking and review sites frequently. Peer-to-peer social networking will occur online independent of you and your marketing department. The bigger your business gets, the more it will happen. To a large extent, your company image and brand reputation will be created by what customers or prospects are saying about you at review sites such as TripAdvisor or Yelp (see the Resources section), rather than by what you're proclaiming about yourself in your ads or press releases. It's critical that you monitor all relevant review sites, as well as customer comments on your website, to have a genuine understanding of what your customers are thinking and doing. Then respond accordingly. The goal is two-way communication, even with an unhappy customer.

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  Consult with an expert to determine your research strategy and tactics. Customer research is a proven science, but it requires precise skills and capabilities. Depending on your budget, hire a big national research firm or a local freelance marketing consultant.