In an era when three in four people say they avoid advertising altogether, what information do consumers trust? Customer feedback.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.Here’s everything you need to know about customer feedback, the benefits it can offer your business, and the right software to moderate it.<h2>Why is customer feedback important?</h2>Here are four key reasons why you should be collecting, showcasing and analysing ratings and reviews:<h3>1. To support your customers</h3>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.<h3>2. To boost conversion rates</h3>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.<h3>3. To monitor internal performance</h3>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.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.<h3>4. To understand your customers’ experiences</h3>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.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.

<h2>Using feedback to connect with your customers</h2>There are several ways you can use reviews to build better relationships with buyers and improve their loyalty to your brand:<h3>1. Create a personalised experience</h3>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.<h3>2. Respond to all feedback</h3>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.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.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><h3>3. Tell people when their feedback made a difference</h3>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.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.

<h2>How to choose a customer feedback platform</h2>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:<h2>Choose whether you want to collect open vs. invite-only reviews</h2>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:<h2>Invite only platform:</h2><table><thead><tr><th>Benefits</th><th>Drawbacks</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Beat the fakes - No one can post fake reviews on your website, as only genuine buyers are invited to leave feedback.</td><td>If someone visits your website but doesn’t engage or make a purchase, you can’t collect feedback from them (unless you run surveys).</td></tr><tr><td>Trust your data - With real feedback from real customers, you can be sure that fake reviews aren’t skewing your data – so your business decisions are always backed by valid insights.</td><td>As only real buyers can leave feedback, you may collect fewer reviews than you would with an open platform.</td></tr><tr><td>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.</td><td>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.</td></tr><tr><td>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.</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table><h2>Open platform:</h2><table><thead><tr><th>Benefits</th><th>Drawbacks</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>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.</td><td>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.</td></tr><tr><td>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.</td><td>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.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Open review platforms tend to operate like comparison sites, which means you risk losing potential customers to competitors.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>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.</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>Decide where and how you want to display your reviews</h2>The best way to show off your positive feedback is by using widgets that work for your company and industry.Review platforms 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.<h2>Check the moderation rules</h2>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.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.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><h2>Getting more customers to give feedback</h2>Follow these key tips to encourage buyers to leave a review:<h3>1. Make your invitation enticing</h3>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.<h3>2. Thank people for their time</h3>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.<h3>3. Dare them to be honest</h3>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.<h3>4. Draw attention to what you want them to talk about</h3>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.<h3>5. Tap into their sense of social responsibility</h3>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.<h3>6. Use humour</h3>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.<h3>7. Encourage sympathy</h3>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.<h2>Start collecting customer feedback, your way</h2>At Feefo, we’re proud to be a trusted, invite-only review platform. Get in touch with our team today to find out what we can do for you.

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The complete guide to customer feedback: How it works and why it can benefit your business

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Asking your customers for feedback is the best way to gain insight into what their pain points are and get you the information you need to make significant changes.&nbsp;Customer feedback can take lots of different forms and businesses can collect it in a whole range of different ways. This guide explains why gathering customer feedback can be beneficial to your business and the best ways to collect useful, actionable insights.&nbsp;<h2>The benefits of collecting customer feedback&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2><h3>1. Get to know your clients directly&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>Company reviews provide a direct line of communication between your customer and your business. Existing customers can provide objective feedback about your products and services and you will be able to better understand who they are and what their needs are.&nbsp;If a certain group of customers is finding problems and the rest are happy with it, then that gives you more insight into who your target audience is.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>2. Take on your competition with confidence&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>You will have the opportunity to benchmark your services against your competitors and identify ways to do better.&nbsp;&nbsp;Keep an eye on what customers are saying about your competition. If they are complaining about an issue, make sure never to repeat the mistake. If they are praising them, find out how you can offer the same and offer better.&nbsp;<h3>3. Help you identify areas to improve&nbsp;</h3>Embrace negative business reviews and take all criticism on board as part of the learning curve for your business. If there's a recurring grievance trending among multiple reviews, then you need to look at fixing it. If it’s a one-off, then find out more details about what went wrong and try to ensure it doesn't happen again.&nbsp;Never delete a negative review unless it contains something malicious or offensive. Instead, always respond to a negative review with an apology and make a plan with them to resolve the issue. It lets the customer that you care and also highlights to potential clients that you are responsive and you listen to feedback.&nbsp;<h3>4. Build trust and credibility&nbsp;</h3>As a company, it's important to appear as authentic as possible, particularly on the internet.&nbsp;&nbsp;The best endorsement you can get is from existing patrons. Transparency and sincerity are crucial, and word-of-mouth marketing is extremely useful for setting your business apart from the rest.&nbsp;&nbsp;Both good and bad company reviews, but especially the good, tell strangers that your business is real and trustworthy, which helps give other customers the confidence to buy from you.&nbsp;<h3>5. Improve your visibility&nbsp;</h3>Customer reviews provide you with the exposure you need — and more so if you are a new or small company. Each new online review opens the door for more people to have their say and give their opinion about your services, and this increases your chances of getting discovered by more and more new customers.&nbsp;<h3>6. Grow user-generated content (UGC)&nbsp;</h3>A high number of business reviews also help you rank higher on search engines. Customer reviews are a great opportunity to get user-generated content (UGC) that increases your brand’s visibility across the internet and supports your search engine optimization efforts.&nbsp;Google likes robust pages with a lot of content that usually product pages lack so badly. With a substantial amount of reviews on your pages, you can prompt Googlebot to pick up long-tail keywords from UGC that your page can rank for — especially if those reviews include keywords that web users are searching for.&nbsp;<h3>7. Improve your Google Ads quality score&nbsp;</h3>Google says that ads with star ratings get a <a href="https://adwords.googleblog.com/2011/04/5-simple-ways-to-improve-your-adwords.html" target="_self">CTR of 17% higher</a> than those without ratings. Make sure to have at least 100 company reviews live from the last 12 months and encourage your customers to leave their feedback for your business across the web.&nbsp;The more times you're mentioned, the more important Google thinks you are.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>8. Influence future buying decisions&nbsp;</h3><a href="http://learn.podium.com/rs/841-BRM-380/images/2017-SOOR-Infographic.jpg">93% of customers say that online business reviews have a direct impact on their purchasing decisions</a>. Customers can see what it’s like to do business with you, how you make other customers feel, how you compare to the other options they’re considering and what sets you apart.Company reviews act as a viable customer touchpoint in their buying journey. Seeing a plethora of positive reviews helps accelerate their journey to the next step towards a purchase — leading to more conversions for you.&nbsp;

<h3>4. In-app customer feedback collection&nbsp;</h3>In-app customer feedback software can sit inside a range of different apps and products — often hiding away somewhere at the side of the screen, in a bottom corner, or even a pop-up prompt to give some feedback or rate the app after a few minutes of using the product.&nbsp;&nbsp;They’re used to collect customer feedback in real-time, so the customer is using the product as they are being asked how they feel about it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Benefits of in-app feedback collection:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>As the product collects customers’ information, the feedback tends to be extremely concise and relevant to their exact point in the customer journey</li><li>Once the mechanism is integrated into your app or software, there’s not much for you to do other than wait for the feedback</li><li>Response rates can be quite high. Since the feedback collection takes place within your product or app, customers can access it whenever they need to, and whilst this usually means they’re reporting a bug or an error, it’s the feedback you need to make things better.</li></ul><h3>Disadvantages of in-app feedback collection:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Because of the types of questions that are commonly asked, this isn’t the customer feedback method for you if you’re after detailed responses</li><li>As this method is always ‘switched on’ and extremely accessible to your customers, it could easily lead to an influx of responses, some of which may be completely irrelevant</li><li>Depending on how your feedback collection is set up, you might not have enough information to follow up with your customers and delve a little deeper into their responses.</li></ul><h3>5. Feature requests&nbsp;</h3>Feature requests are ideas and suggestions from existing customers about how they think a product could be improved. Not all feature requests are the same — they can be bug reports, ways to improve current features, or completely new ideas.&nbsp;&nbsp;Companies can collect and manage customer requests in various ways, including:&nbsp;<ul><li>Feedback boards</li><li>Idea portals</li><li>Apps, such as Trello</li><li>Specific software dedicated to hosting this type of customer feedback</li></ul><h3>Benefits of feature requests:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Collecting customer requests help you solve problems, and so long as you’re taking note of what your customers are asking for, you’re ultimately making your product stronger and picking up on issues that could have otherwise gone unnoticed</li><li>Even if you don’t put the customer feedback into action, allowing real users to speak up is a great way of making them feel as though they’re part of your product roadmap</li><li>Feature request boards are great for creating a real sense of community for you and your customers.</li></ul><h3>Disadvantages of feature requests:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Often the requests and problems are very specific to individual users and may not benefit the majority of your customers</li><li>Unless your customers are actively asked to provide ideas, feature request boards are often underused.</li></ul><h3>6. Social media&nbsp;</h3>Social media is cost-effective and provides genuine insight into customer behaviour, as people are happy to share their opinions socially. <a href="https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-interaction/" target="_self">80% of customers expect companies to interact with them through social media</a> over other marketing channels. Talk to customers where they are most comfortable and they’re more likely to tell you their honest opinion about you.&nbsp;<h3>Benefits of social media:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Interactive features like polls, quizzes, questions, chat, and rating options on Instagram stories are a great way to engage your audience and obtain feedback</li><li>You can gain customer feedback under the guise of competitions and interactivity by asking for their feedback in exchange for a prize. The more likes, mentions, comments and shares you get, the more people you can ask for feedback</li></ul><ul><li>Comments on social posts can offer you valuable insights into what you’re doing well and where you are lacking</li><li>You can also monitor your competitor’s posts to see what their audience is saying. What is their tone of voice like? Are most of the comments positive or negative? Identify any key issues that you can address, or avoid, from your competitor's feedback.</li></ul><h3>Disadvantages of social media:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Managing social media accounts will require extra resources to commit to keeping up your brand’s media presence</li></ul><ul><li>Not all feedback will be useful — it’s extremely difficult to moderate social media feedback and you may find that many customer interactions aren’t always constructive.&nbsp;</li></ul>

<h3>7. Live chat&nbsp;</h3>Live chat allows customers to air their grievances, ask questions, resolve issues, and locate what they need as soon as they want and in real-time.&nbsp;Keep transcripts of all interactions with your customers, from live chats to recording sales and customer service calls. Take swift action on resolving any issue, use the transcripts to identify patterns and problem areas you can improve on and, if you can, get back to that customer to tell them you have resolved their issue.&nbsp;<h3>Benefits of live chat:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Live chat provides direct feedback from your customers in an unbiased way and as it’s all collected online, you will have an archive of transcripts that you can refer back to in the future</li><li>Transcript logs can give you data insights into things like peak hours, average first response time, and chat duration. These figures will give you valuable information about your customers and the quality of your customer service.</li></ul><h3>Disadvantages of live chat:&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Going through large transcripts from hundreds and thousands of customers can be time-consuming.</li></ul>&nbsp;<h2>Top tips for collecting customer feedback&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>Perfect your timing - Timing is crucial as it can increase, or decrease, your chances of a customer offering their feedback. Asking for feedback once the customer has ordered but before they receive the product, is unlikely to get you any kind of product feedback. Conversely, by sending an email 24 hours after confirmed delivery, you’re far more likely to gain a response from your customers.Personalise your feedback form — Your brand image can often be emotive for customers, so include your recognisable colour palette and logo when asking any questions. Secondly – and, arguably most importantly – personalise the questions to your database. Make your questions widely applicable to all customers or create segments of audience data to make each question more personal and relevant.Make it user-friendly — A user-friendly feedback form will help to reduce your bounce rate and encourage users to complete all the fields. Common pet peeves for feedback forms include:&nbsp;<ul><li>A poor mobile experience</li><li>Compulsory text fields</li><li>Minimum character limits on text fields</li><li>A long survey with lots of questions and multiple pages</li></ul><ul><li>Having to input phone numbers, email addresses or names</li><li>An unclear journey</li><li>A survey that’s not optimised for a customer’s device</li></ul>Ask clear and concise questions — Think about what you need to get out of the customer feedback and try not to get bogged down with questions about every element of their experience with you: prioritise based on what’s truly important. When using rating scales, make it clear what each end of the scale means. Here are a few examples of questions to include in your feedback surveys:<ul><li>How satisfied are you with our product/services?</li></ul><ul><li>Would you buy this product/service from us again?</li></ul><ul><li>How easy did we make it for you to solve your issue?</li></ul><ul><li>Did you find all the information you needed online, or did you need to speak to us?</li></ul><ul><li>Would you still buy our product if it cost more?</li></ul><ul><li>What would you like to see in our future product ranges?</li></ul><ul><li>What would you change about your experience with us if you could?</li></ul><ul><li>How did you hear about us?</li></ul>

Create an incentive for completion — One of the best ways of encouraging customer feedback is by creating an incentive for them to fill out the survey. This can include:<ul><li>Entry into a prize draw</li><li>A discount code for their next purchase</li><li>Money off their next purchase: £5, £10, £20 for example</li><li>Free shipping</li><li>An invitation to an exclusive VIP group</li></ul><ul><li>A free gift</li></ul>Try to discourage neutral ratings — Neutral reviews don’t always give you the best insight into how you can improve, or the specifics of a customer’s experience with you. Use even numbers in rating scales to discourage these: ratings on a scale of 1-10 make 5 a negative (1-5), and 6+ are positive (6-10), while ratings on a scale of 1-9 give 5 as a perfect neutral.Be clear about the expectations before customers start — When you’re inviting customers to get involved, tell them how long it will take and/or how many questions there are. This sets a clear guideline that the customer is almost agreeing to when they click to get started.&nbsp;Demonstrate to the customer that their voice will be heard — Often, customers don’t take the time to give businesses their feedback as they think it’s pointless or no one will respond to their feedback. To show the customer that their feedback is valued:<ul><li>Explain why you’re collecting feedback and how the data will be used</li><li>Allow them to speak to someone</li><li>Create a follow-up process</li><li>Respond to reviews left on your website and third-party websites</li></ul><ul><li>Answer customer comments on social media</li></ul>Use Net Promoter Score (NPS) – NPS is a generic customer feedback metric that helps you measure your level of customer loyalty, quickly resolve issues, and gain an overall view of customer satisfaction. The NPS question is standardised across all businesses, and is as follows: “How likely are you to recommend [business] to a friend, relative or colleague?”This is answered on a scale of 1-10 where the following bands apply:&nbsp;<ul><li>Score 0-6: Detractors. Unhappy customers who are likely to go elsewhere and possibly damage your brand with word-of-mouth</li><li>Score 7-8: Passives. Satisfied customers but could be swayed by the competition. Not necessarily brand loyal</li><li>Score 9-10: Promoters. Loyal customers who will continue to buy from you and refer your brand to others.</li></ul><h2>Start collecting customer feedback today&nbsp;</h2>Obtaining customer feedback should be an ongoing process and a vital part of your marketing strategy. Online review websites are a powerful marketing tool for customers to share what they like and for others — both customers and businesses — to listen.&nbsp;Our team at Feefo are happy to answer any questions you may have and show you how your business can make the best use of your customer reviews. Get in touch with us today to learn more.&nbsp;

A guide to customer feedback: how to use feedback to better your business

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A Guide to Customer Feedback: How to Use Feedback to Better your Business

Did you know only 8% of people are confident they could spot a false review and 40% of businesses have been negatively affected by fake reviews?We wanted to explore how the UK is being affected by the growing problem of fake reviews. So we spoke to over 2,000 UK consumers and 500 small-business owners to find out. We discovered an urgent need for more protection from fakes.In our latest report, we help you understand what a fake review is, how to prevent them and how to navigate the complex legal landscape when it comes to fraudulent feedback. The cost of fake feedback is available to download for FREE using the form below. The report can help you:<ul><li>Discover the impact fake reviews can have on your business and consumers</li><li>Learn how to tackle fraudulent feedback with a verified approach</li><li>Understand the legal landscape in the UK and EU, and how to stay onside of new regulations</li></ul>