You Don't Know If You Don't Ask: Seeking Feedback for Your Business That Leads to More Revenue

I don’t know about any of you, but I could write a book filled with all the one liners I’ve heard from my parents over the years. Sometimes it was advice I didn’t want to take or knew would be difficult, but also deep down I knew was the right thing to do. One piece of advice that I’ve received from them a lot in my life is “You don’t know if you don’t ask.” Asking can be tough. Asking can be vulnerable. Asking can mean hearing answers we don’t want to hear or are afraid to hear. But, asking is also filled with opportunity.  

Simply asking customers about their experience with your business after an interaction says a lot about your brand. It shows that you care, and, if you follow up with dissatisfied customers, it shows you want to get better. In addition, research has shown time and time again that it is less expensive and more fruitful to grow revenue through current customers (where you can also benefit from referrals) than constantly investing in acquiring new ones.  

Your customers and prospective customers are searching for your services and products online. They may take interest in local companies that can meet their needs. What do you want them to find about your brand? Digital activity has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This has forced brands to accelerate all things digital. Forrester analyst, Michelle Beeson, recently dubbed this as a brand’s “digital destiny.” Beeson says the most successful brands will take more control of their digital destiny moving forward. Since consumers do not differentiate digital and physical channels, brands must focus on one customer experience that incorporates all touch points.  

A customer’s collective experience leads to your brand’s overall reputation in the marketplace. And, perception is reality. In fact, according to Weber Shandwick data in The State of Corporate Reputation in 2020: Everything Matters Now report (via PR Newswire), executives believe their companies' reputation accounts for 63% of their market value on average. According to Hubspot: 

• 81% trust their friends and family’s advice over advice from a business 
• 55% no longer trust the companies they buy from as much as they used to 
• 65% do not trust company press releases 
• 69% do not trust advertisements, and 71% do not trust sponsored ads on social networks 

The bottom line is that your customers are your best growth opportunity. In the world we live in, customers need you less and less. They learn from their friends and family. They don’t trust marketers, they trust other customers. A lot of the time they’d rather self-serve than call. 

Once you’ve served a customer, they will either be happy/satisfied, or they will be unhappy. A few things are true when it comes to your business’s ability to control and impact your customers’ experience: 

• Your customers need to be able to access information about your products and services – no one can teach them better than you. 
• You have the data (or can ask for the data) that points to what makes your customers satisfied – use it to your advantage. 
• Your business has the most to lose from a bad customer experience. 
• Investing in customer service leads to new revenue streams (see Hubspot Research diagram) 

So, what do you do now? Start telling your story. Better yet, let your very happy customers start telling it for you. Start asking your customers for feedback (not one and done, but over time). If you are already doing those things, continually refine your process and insights collected from the data. Identify holes in your customer experience. Turn your very happy customers into brand advocates. 
 
Written by: Lindy Tentinger - President of Forbin