Voice of the Customer: Why is it important?
With any business, there are customers who are buying your product or procuring your services. One of the most important factors in having a successful business is keeping customers happy. But when customers are unhappy, business owners can learn a lot about what aspects of the business need improvement and take the necessary steps to enhance their business. Here we’ll break down why the voice of the customer is important when selling on Amazon, and how consumer feedback can be used to improve customer satisfaction issues.
Genuine Feedback
For starters, the voice of the customer is critical because it is a source of genuine feedback, barring fake reviews on Amazon of course. Most consumer reviews represent real feedback from individuals who have tried your product. A customer who purchased your product went through the entire buying experience from viewing your listing, to ordering, to using the product in their everyday lives. Thus, feedback from these individuals can be super helpful to companies in detailing what works about the product, and what doesn’t.
There are many types of customer satisfaction issues that a company can have. These include issues with the ordering process, inaccurate or unappealing product detail pages, shipping issues, concerns with the product’s functionality, and finally, problems with returning a product. There are many areas a business owner must keep an eye on, and sometimes, things fall through the cracks. Customer feedback is a great way for business owners to understand which issues are directly impacting customers and the consumer experience. This way owners can take actionable steps towards improving whatever part of the process is lacking and improve customer satisfaction and in turn, increase sales.
Positive vs negative feedback
As a seller, you would not be happy to see negative feedback from consumers regarding your brand or products. But although positive feedback is helpful too, negative feedback is actually even more useful for business growth. Positive feedback lets sellers know what they are doing right, and which processes to maintain in the business. Positive feedback will also inform sellers of what the current consumer perception of the brand is, which is also helpful. But negative feedback is what motivates change.
When business owners receive negative feedback, they get new ideas for how to improve their business. Sometimes, consumers even suggest ideas for a business regarding how to resolve some issue or enhance the brand, and a wise business owner would take feedback like this into account. Granted, you cannot fulfill the wishes of every customer. However, sometimes consumers have ideas that business owners and their employees did not consider because they were not aware of some of the issues consumers are dealing with. In fact, according to a 2018 survey, 55 percent of respondents from the United States indicated that they believe most brands take action on feedback provided by their customers. This means that when consumers are providing feedback, they are doing so intentionally.
One example is if consumers are complaining that the cap of a thermos is difficult to screw on and off. The thermos seller might adjust the size or material of the thermos to alleviate this issue. This negative feedback from shoppers can motivate businesses to become more efficient and more successful and create products that are truly tailored to the customer. This is a strategy that many business owners take advantage of. Negative customer feedback is like a free analysis of your brand and products. And good sellers will often listen to what consumers want to hear, and deliver.
market intel
Consumer feedback is also extremely useful because it represents intel directly from your market. Businesses have many ways of trying to understand their market and consumer base and trying to anticipate the needs and desires of their customers. Consumer feedback provides useful information about the market that a business is targeting. Not only does it tell business owners about any issues with the product or customer experience, but feedback can also give businesses information like a customer’s age bracket, gender, ethnicity, occupation, beliefs/desires, and socioeconomic status. With all of this information at hand, business owners can better understand who their target market is. This will help with not only improving customer satisfaction issues but will enhance marketing efforts and lead to increased sales. Businesses often create “buyer personas” to represent their consumer base using information like this. This allows businesses to understand what kind of people are buying their products, and how to better satisfy and meet the needs of those people.
ratings/reviews
Consumer feedback is important in any business, but when selling online on a platform like Amazon, feedback from shoppers can make or break a business. As you know, Amazon uses a star rating system to rank products. Machine learning is used to calculate a product’s star rating, and consumers ranking a product and leaving reviews directly influences the algorithm. Thus with Amazon sellers, the voice of the customer is vital for a company to maintain a high star rating. Many shoppers will not consider buying a product on the platform unless it has at least a four-star rating and positive reviews. To learn more about ratings and reviews, check out our blog here.
So if you’re a seller on Amazon, and you’re receiving negative feedback from consumers, you’ll be quite motivated to start making changes to your business to improve the customer experience.
Collecting consumer feedback
Reviews are not the only way for business owners to receive helpful feedback. Sellers can obtain feedback using customer surveys, email questionnaires, and social media, to name a few. Social media in particular is an excellent tool for hearing from your customers and gaining new insights about the consumer experience. These methods of procuring feedback will also create a closer connection between seller and consumer, which is helpful for any business.
To wrap it up, the voice of the customer is central to success in any business and helps owners build a community with their consumers. Whether you’re getting consumer feedback from Amazon reviews or social media, the insights customers provide can be super helpful in resolving any issues with the customer experience, enhancing a brand, and supporting the overall growth of a business. So listen to your customers when they have a complaint, many times they’re actually helping more than hurting.