<h2>What is customer engagement?</h2><p>Customer engagement is all about the interactions you have with your customers and the way they interact with you. These interactions or engagements can range anywhere from messaging a company via live chat, to making a purchase on a website.</p><p>It’s up to you what engagements you believe are valuable and meaningful to the relationship with your customers. Visiting a website could be counted as an engagement, but it’s not necessarily meaningful, unless they fill in a form or make an enquiry.</p><h2>Why is customer engagement important and what are the benefits?</h2><p>Investing time and resources into your customer engagement strategy can result in lots of positive outcomes. It can help your business understand the relationship you have with your customers, improve your communication with them, boost customer loyalty and attract new customers.</p><p>Your bottom line will benefit from engaging with your customers and offering them a great experience, with research showing that <a href="https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/" target="_blank">86% of buyers will pay more</a> for a better customer experience. Aside from increased sales and revenue, a strong customer engagement strategy can also help to reduce churn. As many as <a href="https://www.providesupport.com/blog/real-cost-of-losing-customers-due-to-poor-customer-service/" target="_blank">60% of consumers stop doing business with a brand</a> if they have a negative experience.</p><p>Getting your customer engagement strategy right can also benefit your brand awareness and recognition, which is key to bringing in new leads. <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/ekolsky/cx-for-executives" target="_blank">72% of customers will share a positive experience</a> with at least six people – for your brand, this could include referrals to friends and family, positive reviews online, great case studies, or promotion on social media.</p><h2>How to create a customer engagement strategy</h2><p>If you’re ready to create a customer engagement strategy, carrying out a thorough analysis of your customers and their interactions with your business is the best place to start. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be in a much better position to create a successful customer experience strategy that's bespoke to your business.</p><p>Use our step-by-step guide to source the information you need to create your customer engagement strategy.</p><h2>Improve your customer experience</h2><p>Your customer experience has a huge impact on your engagement, so it’s important to get it right. Start by defining what your customer journey looks like with a customer experience map, which plots how your customers engage with your business and how they feel at each stage.</p><p>This allows you to see where the positive engagements are happening and when your customers are happiest, as well as any areas that need improvement. Good customer experience maps are highly detailed and cover every channel and touchpoint where a customer may encounter your brand.</p><p>Another key part of improving your customer experience is understanding who your key customers are. The best way to do this is to create customer profiles or personas. Customer profiles help you identify who your ideal customers are and how you can attract and retain them.</p><h2>Collect feedback</h2><p>To fully understand every interaction a customer (or potential customer) has with your brand, you need to ask them what they thought at each stage of their journey. There are lots of different ways to collect feedback, but the two main methods are customer reviews and surveys.</p><p>Customer reviews are ideal for understanding which of your engagements are working, where customers are most engaged and which touchpoints are most important to them. Tools like Feefo’s Feedback Request Manager allow you to collect feedback at every stage of the customer journey, as well as tailor feedback campaigns to your different buyer personas.</p><p>Most businesses only collect feedback on the buying experience and the product or service, but what about the after sales service? If a customer had to contact your support team, ask them for feedback on the assistance they received. This can help you understand how helpful your support staff are, and if they need further training.</p><p>You also need to understand why a consumer decided against doing business with you. Surveys are a great way to get insight from anyone, whether they’ve bought your products or not. They’re completely private and anonymous too, so you can collect more detailed and more honest feedback.</p>

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<h2>Offer personalised experiences</h2><p>Research shows that <a href="https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences" target="_blank">80% of customers are more likely to purchase</a> a product or service from a brand that provides personalised experiences. Customers want to be treated as individuals, so it’s important to tailor your messaging in each communication with them as much as possible.</p><p>This is where your customer profiles come in handy. Use the information gathered for your customer profiles to tailor every engagement a consumer has with your brand, from when they browse your website, to when your customer service team are replying to their review. Making your customers feel seen, understood and appreciated at an individual level as you engage with them is a great way to deliver an exceptional customer experience.</p><h2>Show your human side</h2><p>Make your brand, and the interactions you have with your customers, more human. Try to strike a balance between automation and human interaction. For example, if you use chatbots on your website, you may want to automate simple questions to save your customer service team valuable time. However, you still need to ensure you have customer service agents available to take over these conversations when a customer asks a more challenging question or wants to make a complaint.</p><p>Think about your brand’s ethics and beliefs, too. 71% of consumers prefer <a href="https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/insights/strategy/brand-purpose" target="_blank">buying from a brand that aligns with their values</a>. Whatever your passion is, tell people about it and give them a way to get involved. This will help create more opportunities for consumers to have meaningful engagements with your brand and could be the key difference between someone choosing your business over another.</p><h2>Increase your number of customer touchpoints</h2><p>You want consumers to encounter your brand as much as possible before, during and after they’ve purchased something from you. This can help to:</p><ul><li>Increase your chance of converting a browser into a buyer.</li><li>Build customer confidence through the buying processes – they may even choose to spend more with you.</li><li>Encourage customer loyalty, repeat purchases and recommendations.</li></ul><p>Your customer touchpoints will vary depending on your business, but there are several different ways people could encounter your brand, depending on what stage of the buying journey they’re in.</p><p>Pre-purchase touchpoints include ratings and reviews, advertising, content marketing, social media, word-of-mouth recommendations, influencer marketing, PR, organic search, testimonials and case studies.</p><p>During purchase touchpoints include your website, product catalogue, store, brand or office, sales team, ratings and reviews.</p><p>Finally, post-purchase touchpoints cover transactional emails, marketing emails, support team follow ups, feedback requests and subscription renewals.</p><p>If there are touchpoints listed above that you haven’t considered before, it could be worth taking advantage of these opportunities to engage with your customers by adding them to your customer journey map. This list can help you analyse where your business is falling short when it comes to communicating with your customers, so you can improve your customer engagement strategy.</p><h2>Digital customer engagement channels</h2><p>Digital customer engagement is the process of using online or digital channels to interact, listen to and acquire a customer. Whether it’s through your website, app, social media or third-party websites, engaging with your customers through digital channels is crucial. Let’s look at some of the most popular tools for engaging customers digitally.</p><h2>Paid search</h2><p>Pay per click (PPC) search ads are a low-cost way to market your business online. They are the ‘sponsored ads’ that appear on the top and bottom of the search engine results page (SERP). To get the most out of PPC, it’s important to target your ads to ensure they reach the right users, include the keywords that your audience are searching with, and provide clear call to actions (CTAs) to encourage browsers to click on your ad.</p><h2>Email newsletters</h2><p>Emails are one of the most engaging channels of communication. Email marketing provides an excellent return on investment, while email newsletters are the<a href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2020_B2B_Research_Final.pdf" target="_blank"> most effective method of nurturing leads</a>. Email newsletters are a cost-effective digital engagement channel, as they can reach all your customers (and potential customers) directly through a single campaign.</p><h2>Social media</h2><p>Social media is a free, easy to implement and widely used digital engagement channel. Engaging your customers on social media will help increase your brand’s awareness and build an online community of followers who share and engage with your brand. Share your Feefo reviews on social media to keep customers engaged with your products and reply to comments directly to show you value their feedback.</p><h2>Live chat</h2><p>Chatbots and live chat servicing help speed up requests and queries, and many businesses choose to automate frequently asked questions to save time and resources. Customers who want quick answers will reach out to the chat option and will engage with your brand more when their query is resolved quickly.</p><h2>Webinars and events</h2><p>Webinars, talks and live events are a great way to engage customers in an interactive setting. Webinars are a<a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/webinar-statistics/" target="_blank"> favourite among B2B professionals</a>, with more than half of users participating in them at least once a week. Your business can use this channel to engage your partners, clients and even employees. It’s important to choose a topic that your customers are interested in and try to keep it to 45 minutes or less.<span></span><span></span><span></span></p>

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<h2>Videos</h2><p>Video is an effective medium for keeping your audience engaged. You don’t need a big budget to create quality videos, so this is a channel that works well for businesses of any size. If you’re posting videos to social media channels like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, keep them short and snappy to make them engaging and shareable. Quick tutorials and guides on how to use products also work well.</p><h2>Traditional customer engagement channels</h2><p>More than <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/future-of-marketing/digital-transformation/online-to-offline-marketing/" target="_blank">80% of shoppers still prefer to purchase a product </a>they need immediately from a store, so it’s important to engage with your customers offline too. Consider whether your brand could use some of these more traditional channels to engage with your customers and deliver a great experience at all touchpoints.</p><h2>Create a welcoming environment</h2><p>First impressions matter, so make your store welcoming and inviting for shoppers. Emphasise your brand’s identity to capture your audience’s attention and consider offering in-store perks like free WiFi, allowing your customers to engage with your content while they’re shopping.</p><h2>Offer self-service</h2><p>Give your customers the chance to be independent while making a purchase decision by offering self-service kiosks. Boost engagement and improve the customer experience by allowing them to customise their own experiences in-store. Most stores now offer self-checkout options, which can help customers avoid long queues, making their shopping experience easier and hassle-free.</p><h2>Collect feedback in-store</h2><p>Asking customers for their feedback in-store, as well as online, is a great way to enhance customer loyalty. There are a range of tools you can employ to encourage customers to leave feedback, from touchscreens to QR codes on receipts.</p><h2>Offer referral and reward programmes</h2><p>Your customers can be a valuable asset when it comes to promoting your brand. Offer rewards and referral incentives to encourage your audience to recommend you to others. Brands with referral programmes benefit from higher conversion rates than those without.</p><h2>Customer engagement metrics and tracking tools</h2><p>Reviewing your performance will help you to fine-tune your customer engagement strategy and keep it relevant to your customers. Some of the best key performance indicators to measure when tracking your results include:</p><ul><li>More positive customer reviews – monitor your review website, social media channels, customer service inbox and any other spaces online where customer conversations might be taking place.</li><li>More traffic on your site – software such as Google Analytics can help you to measure how many people are visiting your website.</li><li>Year-on-year increase in search volume for your brand keywords or upward trend – sign up for an SEO monitoring tool like SEMRush, which will help you to keep track of how many people are searching online for your brand.</li><li>More leads or sales – a successful customer engagement strategy can lead to increased leads and revenue. Implement robust tracking so that you can clearly show month-on-month and year-on-year increases across both metrics.</li><li>Longer time spent on page – an engaged website visitor is a visitor who spends more time on your website. Google Analytics will help you to track time spent on page and average session duration, which shows how engaged people are with your website.</li></ul><h2>How Feefo can improve your customer engagement</h2><p>Collecting feedback is an important part of your customer engagement strategy. Feefo has a range of tools you can use to improve your customer engagement.</p><h2>Help shoppers find the feedback they need</h2><p>Your website is one of the most important parts of your customer journey, especially if you’re an ecommerce business. Once someone is on your website, you want to keep them there until they make a purchase, booking or enquiry.</p><p>Feefo’s Dynamic Topic Display tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically identify themes in your feedback so browsers can easily find the reviews they’re looking for. Not only does this help save consumers valuable time, but it also helps to keep them onsite, engaged and more likely to convert.</p><h2>Analyse your customer feedback with ease</h2><p>Feefo’s Customer Sentiment Insight tool can help your business identify issues and successes quickly. It identifies popular themes in your feedback and the emotion surrounding them, allowing you to analyse this feedback internally by automatically grouping them into categories. These categories advise you how to act on each topic, allowing you to quickly and easily see which engagements are positive for customers, and which need improvements.</p><h2>Track specific customer engagements</h2><p>If you know exactly what you want to track across your feedback, Feefo’s Insight Labels allow you to do exactly that. For example, if you tag reviews left after customers have been in touch with your customer service team with the staff member’s name, you can track who’s getting the most positive or negative feedback, so you know who needs additional support or training.</p>

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Customer engagement: the complete guide on how to succeed in customer satisfaction 

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<p>You need to use a mix of <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-retention/consumer-insights" target="_self">customer insights</a> and intuition to re-engage them and recapture their attention – not just for brand loyalty but for advocacy as well. It <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/12/12/customer-retention-versus-customer-acquisition/?sh=405129e1c7d6" target="_blank">costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one</a>, and existing customers are more likely to try your new products and spend more.</p><p>The time to focus on customer retention is now. Let’s look at some effective ways that you can continue to engage your audience to keep them coming back.</p><h2>What is customer engagement?</h2><p>Customer engagement refers to any interaction between a customer and a business. It can include any communication channel, both online and offline, prompted by either party.</p><p>Traditionally, customer engagement has been nurtured and developed by customer service departments, prompted by sales and marketing. With consumers now able to access brand communications in a variety of different ways, it has expanded to include various other touch-points along the <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-acquisition/customer-journey-mapping-guide" target="_self">customer journey</a>. It essentially covers every interaction with a customer that a brand has.</p><p>Learn more about <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/customer-engagement" target="_self">customer engagement here</a>.</p><h2>What are the benefits of customer engagement?</h2><p>There are many reasons why keeping your audience engaged can be beneficial for your business. Here are a few examples:</p><ul><li><strong>Increase in revenue</strong> – Simply satisfying a customer is not enough in today’s world: you need to truly immerse them and capture their attention. After all, customers who are completely engaged show a <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/241766/customers-coming-back.aspx" target="_blank">23% higher share in profitability, relationship growth, and revenue</a> when compared to the average customer.</li><li><strong>Can reduce customer churn</strong> – Unengaged customers are more likely to jump ship to your competitors, meaning your company could miss out on revenue.</li><li><strong>Higher customer loyalty</strong> – Engaged customers are happy customers, and happy customers turn into loyal ones. Customer engagement provides an emotional connection between the brand and your audience, and this can ensure that your customers’ lifespan is much longer, giving more value to your business.</li><li><strong>Increased brand awareness</strong> – Engaged customers also remember your brand more easily, solving their needs quicker and satisfying their wants earlier.</li><li><strong>More cost efficient</strong> – Since it can cost you more to attract new customers rather than keep your existing ones, to keep expenses as economical as possible, implementing a customer engagement strategy is key.</li></ul><h2>What is a customer engagement strategy?</h2><p>A customer engagement strategy is a method for identifying the most effective ways a business can engage with its consumers. It should map out how the business will do so to fit in with its wider goals.</p><p>This strategy should also include relevant customer engagement ideas, the channels and platforms on which the brand intends to prompt engagement, and the customer persona that it intends to target. A customer engagement strategy should align with existing marketing activities and campaigns and strengthen their impact.</p><h2>7 customer engagement strategies to try</h2><h3>1. Harness the power of social media</h3><p>There are over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/507405/uk-active-social-media-and-mobile-social-media-users/" target="_blank">57 million active social media users</a> in the UK as of January 2023, and the number is increasing rapidly. So, there’s a very good chance that a majority of your customer base is among them.</p><p>People love voicing their opinions, especially grievances, on public forums like Facebook, X (formally Twitter), or Instagram, so keep a regular eye on them. Engage customers by responding to them immediately and offering solutions to satisfy them. This shows existing customers that you value their opinion and lets future customers witness your engagement and conflict-resolution skills as well.</p><p>Social media provides a cost-effective method of marketing your brand while keeping your customer engaged on a platform they’re already active on.</p><h3>2. Entice them with rewards and incentives</h3><p>If there’s one thing everybody loves, it’s free gifts and discounts. And that’s a surefire way to get your customer engaged. Offer customers rewards and incentives in exchange for feedback, participation in an event, or referring your brand to their network.</p><p>Essentially, you need to reward your customers for engaging with you, in turn, boosting even more engagement and loyalty.</p><p>Look at starting a referral scheme or appointing brand advocates from your existing customer base. Customers will be made to feel special as they represent your brand to others while doing it for the incentives you offer.</p><h3>3. Deliver spot-on customer service</h3><p>If provided with excellent customer service, <a href="https://c1.sfdcstatic.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/documents/research/salesforce-state-of-the-connected-customer-4th-ed.pdf" target="_blank">78% of customers</a> will return to a company even after they make a mistake.</p><p>Top-notch customer service starts by making your customers feel like you truly care about them. This mission needs to be communicated across every team in your business – not just the ones facing customers. From finance to marketing, every member should be dedicated to providing the best customer service they can.</p><p>Offer customer service that provides what the customer is looking for and actively anticipates what they need before they know themselves. Provide high-quality customer service consistent with your brand’s mission and voice. Prioritising your customer service will ensure that customers trust you and will approach you first with any resentment before taking external action. This is essential as it allows you to control the situation before it gets out of hand.</p><h3>4. Create a loyalty program</h3><p>We’ve seen this work really well with coffee shops over the last few years. They hand you a card to get stamped every time you buy a drink, and after paying for nine drinks, you get your tenth coffee for free.</p><p>You can make a loyalty scheme work for almost any kind of business today. Whether it’s pushing them towards buying in bulk for a discount or upselling in slow-moving areas, customers get rewarded for their loyalty, and you get guaranteed business.</p><p>Here are a few ways you can introduce a loyalty program:</p><ul><li>Annual birthday or anniversary discount</li><li>Email-only discounts</li><li>Free delivery over a minimum order limit</li><li>Themed and limited-time programs during the festive season</li><li>Creating a ‘VIP’ group of customers and treating them to pre-sales and exclusive discounts.</li></ul><h3>5. Keep in touch in a personalised way</h3><p>Keeping a customer engaged is an ongoing process and is like maintaining a friendship. If you make no effort to stay in touch, the relationship is not going to last very long. Set up regular touch points throughout the customer’s buying journey to establish your brand and messaging along the way. The customer will engage with you if they see you more often.</p><p>Send regular emails, SMS campaigns, and post often on social media. Even after a successful transaction is complete, there is plenty of potential to touch base and remind the customer of your existence. A nice ‘thank you’ note shows them that you appreciate their patronage and may encourage them to come back again. Or, send them company news and update them on the latest products they would be interested in.</p><p>Providing a complete <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/how-to-improve-your-brands-customer-experience" target="_self">customer experience</a> is key to maintaining customer engagement in the long run. Never go for more than six months without connecting with your customer. Use their first name, remember their birthday, and remind them of their last purchase to truly personalise their shopping experience and make them feel special.</p><h3>6. Ask for their opinion</h3><p>Customers love sharing their opinion, so simply ask and engage with what they have to say.</p><p>Actively request every customer to leave reviews and testimonials for your company. This can be through Google reviews, on social media, or independent review websites – like Feefo.</p><p>You can also consider embedding reviews into your website and alongside each product offering to display social proof to new customers.</p><p>Make reviewing your business a fun experience. Not all businesses need in-depth ratings. A scale of between 1-5 stars will look nice and is easy to use and understand by all.</p><p>An important aspect to remember when dealing with reviews: pay attention to the<a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/negative-reviews" target="_self"> negative ones</a>. Never leave a negative comment unattended for long, which means you must always monitor all mentions of your brand. Be professional in all communication and offer a solution immediately. A negative review is still a customer attempting to engage with you, so don’t let this opportunity slip.</p><h3>7. Create engaging content</h3><p>Over 25 years ago, Bill Gates said, ‘content is king’, and this statement is even more relevant today. Everything you post and create from your company is content and should be used to engage your customer.</p><p>Play around with different mediums to see what works best for your business. Some common forms of engaging content include:</p><ul><li>Short and snappy videos</li><li>Blog posts on relevant topics</li><li>Infographics and images</li></ul><p>There are plenty more types of engaging content you can adopt, but whatever you choose, make sure it’s share-worthy, relevant, and engaging.</p>

<h2>Customer engagement examples</h2><p></p><figure style = "margin: auto; text-align: center;width: 345px;"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/9mFbCiGBH8aMVQsy8jV5cdDPCSBoljcWBudPZseuklZA5RRGRtEaZiBCsY_zj0NBoYC15X_fiW6M5ZVTYZKW5NntVQq0jLW_VuR2ZIxv9sKPAGwBZDcbDbxHEXjKoxzeI4Y1s0tUkdmGqY3I" style="margin-top: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: auto;margin-left: auto;text-align: center;width: 345px;" /></figure><h3>1. IKEA</h3><p>IKEA is a great example of how to engage your customers. Their hashtag <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ikeaatmine/" target="_blank">#ikeaatmine</a> shows exactly what IKEA’s products look like in a real home.</p><p>Hashtags are a great way to keep the conversation going and make sure you’re constantly posting about the latest trends.</p><figure style = "margin: auto; text-align: center;width: 430px;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/5TPOE41yqt11NeFIvR0QilmAkXB08jFfq3ME5R6JGLplzC9W73nVHr6kBUQY-FjzAJExQSAs-ob8-QVobH98TRodFEiNBClasF2ijPJS5QcasoIJu2IhELLMzJdTlnyAlB6wLBjKegsdQUH2" style="margin-top: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: auto;margin-left: auto;text-align: center;width: 430px;" /></figure><h3>2. B&amp;Q</h3><p>We love this example from B&amp;Q. They shared <a href="https://twitter.com/BandQ/status/1276539407617712128" target="_blank">video content </a>on how to create a butterfly haven, giving their audience helpful and actionable tips.</p><p>Videos are perfect for your social media channels, as they’re much easier to digest, and you can encourage customers to share their own projects.</p><figure style = "margin: auto; text-align: center;width: 398px;"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/iwxFrYEQa-goMCaj8vbqIaPmcuAXW157s9Gq-mXn2QldMjR-8CYwNl1XxXDlJ-wreqFm6eCwO6Z9hzmeenY6o2HtVGjesXAUB2HPX-Ff97sHED17U0RQ1NpKTvvp8LkcKcjm8yiQWHolp1mz" style="margin-top: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: auto;margin-left: auto;text-align: center;width: 398px;" /></figure><h3>3. Apple</h3><p>Apple is also a master at how to encourage engagement via social media hashtags. They’ve done it super effectively with their <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/shotoniphone/?hl=en" target="_blank">#ShotOniPhone</a> campaign. Customers simply need to create content with their Apple devices and share using the hashtag.</p><p>The result? Apple gets content curated on their customer’s feeds, and the users get featured on Apple’s media in return. With over 28 million posts shared using their #ShotOniPhone hashtag, it’s a certified success.</p><h2>What is a customer engagement platform?</h2><p>A customer engagement platform is any platform where customers interact with a brand. Some of the most common examples include:</p><ul><li>Email marketing campaigns</li><li>Loyalty programs</li><li>Podcasts</li><li>Studies and PR campaigns</li><li>YouTube channels</li><li>Social media networks</li></ul><p>These platforms can be used two-fold: both by the brand to push out communications and by the customer to interact with the brand. But, businesses should also implement customer engagement channels where the customer instigates contact first, such as helplines, email inboxes, and chat functions. These tend to serve slightly different, often problem-based, purposes, but are still valuable communication and customer engagement channels.</p><p>At present, video content is one of the most popular customer engagement tactics, as it’s an excellent method for quick and easily consumable information sharing and can be condensed and optimised for various platforms.</p><h2>Customer engagement is a long-term strategy</h2><p>No business can master customer engagement immediately. You will need to undertake at least two or three of the ideas mentioned here and monitor their results over time to see which ones work best for your business.</p><p>Whichever techniques you take for a spin, do so with the intention of delivering products and services your customer truly needs and wants. Segment your customers to see which idea is working best for which demographic. Not all customers are the same, so you need to engage them in a voice they understand and on a platform they use.</p><p>Combining these customer engagement ideas will help boost engagement and establish a long-term connection with your customer.</p><p><a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/contact" target="_self">Contact </a>our Feefo team today to see how we can help you keep your customers coming back.</p>

7 Effective Customer Engagement Strategies to Increase Sales

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<p><span><span>In an era when three in four people say they avoid advertising altogether, what information do consumers trust? Customer feedback.</span></span></p><p><p><p>Feedback provides so much more than social proof, though. If you’re not currently collecting ratings and reviews, or you are but feel like you could get more from them, you’re in the right place.</p><p>Here’s everything you need to know about customer feedback, the benefits it can offer your business, and the right software to moderate it.</p><h2>Why is customer feedback important?</h2><p>Here are four key reasons why you should be collecting, showcasing and analysing ratings and reviews:</p><h3>1. To support your customers</h3><p>According to Feefo’s 2019 Consumer Trends Report, 96% of UK consumers use reviews in some way and 64% read them before making a purchase. But shoppers don’t always trust what they see online – 72% of them worry about fake feedback. Invite-only reviews, which are guaranteed to come from your genuine customers, are a great way to support prospects as they decide whether to buy from you.</p><h3>2. To boost conversion rates</h3><p>Adding customer reviews to your website can massively increase conversions, especially when they are displayed on product pages. In fact, people are 270% more likely to buy a product with five reviews than one without any reviews. <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/customer-stories/salon-services" target="_self">Our work with the hair and beauty company Salon Services</a> also shows that customer spending rises by 294% when reviews are showcased online.</p><h3>3. To monitor internal performance</h3><p>By analysing the customer feedback you receive, you can keep tabs on how well each branch, store, and member of staff is doing. Tools like Feefo’s Insight Labels make this easy, as you can track reviews by categories like staff names, branch locations and product types.</p><p>Using reviews in this way allows you to spot products and services that should be improved or stores that require further investment. You can also use positive reviews to motivate staff by rewarding those who receive excellent feedback.</p><h3>4. To understand your customers’ experiences</h3><p>Collecting and analysing feedback across the entire customer journey can help you dig deeper into the experiences of shoppers, their loyalty to your brand, and so much more.</p><p>Feefo’s Customer Sentiment Insight tool uses AI to automatically identify themes in your reviews. If topics like ‘delivery’ are constantly mentioned in a negative context, this will be highlighted to you, so you can find out what’s going wrong and how to make it right.</p></p></p>

<h2>Using feedback to connect with your customers</h2><p>There are several ways you can use reviews to build better relationships with buyers and improve their loyalty to your brand:</p><h3>1. Create a personalised experience</h3><p>Whether you’re trying to convince your customers to take advantage of an offer or you’re asking them for their honest feedback, you need to speak to them as individuals. Our Feedback Request Manager allows you to build and design feedback campaigns, so you can ask the right questions to the right people at the right time.</p><h3>2. Respond to all feedback</h3><p>Write a review takes time and effort – so when people leave feedback be sure to thank them (whether good or bad!). While we recommend responding to as many reviews as possible, you’ll want to prioritise negative feedback, as this gives you the opportunity to repair broken relationships. You may even be able to turn those one- and two-star ratings into five stars.</p><p>When responding to negative feedback, get in touch with the customer privately so you can fully understand their situation and fix any issues. Once you’ve done as much as you can, respond to the review publicly, so other potential customers can see you provide an excellent service, even when things go wrong.</p><p>For more tips on how to reply to customer comments, check out our<a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/responding-to-reviews-guide" target="_self"> complete guide on dealing with positive and negative feedback.</a></p><h3>3. Tell people when their feedback made a difference</h3><p>Customer reviews should help inform any changes you make to your business. And when you improve something thanks to that feedback, it’s important to let people know.</p><p>Whether you’ve increased the responsiveness of your customer service team or fixed a problem with your website, use your marketing channels to show customers you listen to all feedback – good and bad.<span><span></span></span><span></span><span></span></p>

<h2><span>How to choose a customer feedback platform</span></h2>
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<p>If you want to make the most of your customer feedback, you need the right platform. Every platform offers something different, so it’s important to pick one that’s right for your business. Here are some key considerations to think about:</p>
<h2>Choose whether you want to collect open vs. invite-only reviews</h2>
<p>One of the biggest decisions to make is whether to opt for an invite-only platform like Feefo, where you only get feedback from verified buyers, or an open platform, where anyone to leave feedback about your business whether or not they’ve purchased from you. Here are the benefits and drawbacks of each:<span></span><span></span></p>
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<h2>Invite only platform:</h2>
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        <p>Beat the fakes - No one can post fake reviews on your website, as only genuine buyers are invited to leave feedback.</p>
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        <p><span>If someone visits your website but doesn’t engage or make a purchase, you can’t collect feedback from them (unless you run surveys).</span></p>
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        <p>Trust your data - With real feedback from real customers, you can be sure that fake reviews aren’t skewing your <span>data – so your business decisions are always backed by valid insights.</span></p>
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        <p><span>As only real buyers can leave feedback, you may collect fewer reviews than you would with an open platform.</span></p>
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        <p>Win more customers over - People are 15% more likely to buy when reading a verified review over an anonymous review. They want to hear from customers who have genuinely interacted with your brand.</p>
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        <p><span>You must proactively reach out to customers for feedback – Feefo makes this easy with an automated email or text message that we send to each of your buyers.</span></p>
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        <p>Streamline the feedback process - Customers don’t need to sign up or log in to leave a review, because their feedback is tied to a specific sale or interaction, so you already know who they are. This means they can share their thoughts with you quickly and easily.</p>
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<h2>Open<span> platform:</span></h2>
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<table class="styled-table">
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        <p>Get lots of feedback - With an open platform, anyone can search for your company and leave a review – so you may be able to collect more feedback faster.</p>
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      <td><span>Anyone can leave feedback, even if they haven’t interacted with your brand or purchased from you. This opens the door to fake reviews from competitors and spam accounts, which can put your reputation at risk and skew your data.</span></td>
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        <p>Hear from non-buyers - If someone visits your website or branch but doesn’t make a purchase, they can still leave feedback about your brand.</p>
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      <td><span>Flagging and removing fake feedback is challenging, as it’s difficult to spot a fake review from a real one unless the writer gives proof of purchase.</span></td>
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      <td><span>Open review platforms tend to operate like comparison sites, which means you risk losing potential customers to competitors.</span></td>
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      <td><span>Customers often have to create or sign into a profile to leave a review, which is time-consuming and may put them off giving feedback.</span></td>
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<h2>Decide where and how you want to display your reviews</h2><p>The best way to show off your positive feedback is by using widgets that work for your company and industry.</p><p><a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/collect-reviews" target="_self">Review platforms</a> offer different widgets and products, so establish what you’d like to achieve with your feedback before seeing what’s out there. That way, it will be much easier to narrow down which platform is right for you.</p><h2>Check the moderation rules</h2><p>Even if you’re using an invite-only platform, you may still get a review that is inappropriate from time to time – for example, one that contains bad language or is talking about the wrong product. In cases like this, you need to be able to flag feedback. A good, trustworthy platform will have clear moderation guidelines to determine whether a review should be removed or not.</p><p>Businesses should not be able to remove any review they want. If that worries you, it shouldn't – 52% of consumers become suspicious if there is no negative feedback on a product or service they want to buy.</p><p>Make sure you read a platform’s moderation guidelines before signing the dotted line. You can read Feefo’s moderation guidelines <a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/5707407/Websites%20Pdfs/Review_Moderation_Guidelines.pdf" target="_blank">here.</a></p><h2>Getting more customers to give feedback</h2><p>Follow these key tips to encourage buyers to leave a review:</p><h3>1. Make your invitation enticing</h3><p>We all receive dozens of emails every day. Ensure yours stand out with a clear subject line and a message that incentivises to your customers to leave feedback.</p><h3>2. Thank people for their time</h3><p>Everyone likes to feel appreciated. Thanking someone, even before they have gone through with providing feedback, puts them in a position to do as you ask.</p><h3>3. Dare them to be honest</h3><p>People love sharing their opinions with others – it can feel extremely freeing. Use that to your advantage by daring your customers to leave an honest review about you. Encourage them in a cheeky way, or you can keep to a formal tone.</p><h3>4. Draw attention to what you want them to talk about</h3><p>This is especially useful if you require feedback regarding a particular product or service, or if you have recently launched something new. In your email, use the key words you want your review to focus on in a bid to guide your customer in the right direction.</p><h3>5. Tap into their sense of social responsibility</h3><p>We all want to feel like we are making a difference. Reviews give people the power to have an influence, so they provide a great opportunity for you to tap into the need for social responsibility.</p><h3>6. Use humour</h3><p>Humour is always a great tactic, especially if something has gone wrong. Maintain your professionalism, but also show your personality (if that's part of your brand image and tone). Customers are more likely to engage with a brand they can relate to.</p><h3>7. Encourage sympathy</h3><p>Tell your customer how hard you’ve worked and what efforts have gone into getting them the right product. You could even name a member of staff that made their experience possible. Tell them that your business depends on their happiness and that it starts with them giving you feedback.</p><h2>Start collecting customer feedback, your way</h2><p>At Feefo, we’re proud to be a trusted, invite-only review platform. That's why over 6500 brands trust us to help develop their <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/how-to-improve-your-brands-customer-experience" target="_self">customer experiences</a>. Get in touch with our team today to find out what we can do for you.<span></span><span></span><span></span></p>