When and how to ask feed-back to customers

The right time and channel to request the feed-back to customers, depends on the specifics of each business, but there are some rules. The Important thing is that at any step of the client in interaction with the brand, the company knows what the customer’s perception is.

A chronological vision of the process of purchase is necessary for the step-by-step analysis of the interaction. When a customer goes shopping, it goes through different phases, each with its own rhythm and special features. Customer expectations are not the same when parking the car upon arrival in the car park and when queued to pay at the house. Each phase involves a different „mental framework” for the client and should therefore be analysed separately. Moreover, the analysis must be made including on the premergatory stages and the post-acquisition stage of the product. For example, when the customer plans and when researching the market, he searches the internet for information, looks at the sites of suppliers or manufacturers, makes comparisons and reads the reviews of other customers. The interaction ends after a considerable time from acquisition, when you recommend or criticize online or to a person known the buying experience that he had.

Timing of the feed-back request

If we were to refer to the 3 indicators in the article „How do you measure customer experience?”, they apply as follows:

• CES (Customer Effort Score) can be applied at the time of purchase;
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) is suitable to be analyzed after the product/service has been „consumed”.
• The NPS (Net Promoter Score) is the indicator used at the end of the relationship or after a longer period of time. The analysis of this indicator has an emotional component of loyalty and allows the assessment of the customer’s „engagement”, if it is a brand promoter or a detractor.

Channels through which to collect the feed-back

Depending on the specifics of each business, research can be done via several channels:

• Online by rating
  • Directly on the provider’s website
  • In social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter etc.
  • Specialty Forums
• On the client’s email, through satisfaction Quizzes
• SMS, short questionnaires that can be answered all by SMS
• SMS to online, SMS information on research, with reference to questionnaire through a link
• By phone: An operator calls the client to request feed-back
• In the store, by:
  • Satisfaction Quizzes by the seller
  • Through an application on the tablet or other device
  • By pressing a button with „smiley face” or „sad face”
• On the field, from door to door or on the street. This method is no longer used because of today’s technology that makes research much easier and less costly.

So today there are a lot more ways to ask for customer feed-back, the important thing is that they are listening, not just hear.