We’ve all heard the phrase “the customer is always right”, but that motto needs to be amended. It should be “the right customer is always right”.
Listening to the wrong customer can be just as bad—or even worse—than ignoring customer feedback in the first place. The feedback could bring you to the wrong conclusion and wind up doing more damage to your brand than good.
To prevent this scenario, you need to be able to tell the good feedback from the bad. Fortunately for you, we have some handy tips that you can use to do just that.
Is the Source Within Your Target Market?
Always look at the source of your customer feedback. There will be cases where customers who are not part of your core audience will just “not get it” and complain about aspects of your business that fly in the face of their expectations, not understanding that your brand is more suited for someone else. This is especially true for age-specific brands or brands with niche audiences.
Handle these comments carefully. Acknowledge them, but do not give them any more attention than absolutely necessary.
Specific and Informative
It’s not enough for a customer to say he “doesn’t like it”. When possible, establish a dialogue with the customer and try to discover what exactly it is about the product he doesn’t like. If something broke, find out the circumstances of the product failure and how you can replicate it. Once you have this information, you can forward it to the relevant service/product managers for them to address the problem.
Appropriate to the Product
Sometimes customers will give feedback that is inappropriate to the product. An example of this is a customer complaining about poor performance for something the product wasn’t designed to do, like using sewing scissors to cut wire. In this case, the customer’s feedback can be safely ignored because your product wasn’t built for that purpose. You should only concern yourself with comments within your product’s area of expertise.
The sole exception to this rule is in the matter of safety. Safety is a top issue for any product or service, and comments regarding this should be given the proper consideration at all times.
Is it Practical?
Customers will sometimes have high expectations for your products that you can achieve, but would not be practical within the context of the business. Perhaps customers want to make a product lighter, more durable, or contain more features. Unfortunately, the economy of costs versus benefits sometimes makes these expectations impractical. Adding in more features, for instance, would affect the usability and friendliness of a device. Using better quality materials would drive up an item’s cost and make it less affordable for customers. Even offering something like delivery or shipping entails a cost that has to be passed down to the consumer. If the customer is willing to pay it, then the business can move forward and introduce these changes. If the customer isn’t, and the business moves forward with it anyway, then the business will just have thrown a lot of money down the drain.
Do you know any other qualities of good customer feedback? Share them with us below!
