What do ecommerce storefront customers really want? The answer to this question isn’t as straightforward as you might think. Sure, they probably want lower prices, and a lightning fast customer service response time, but what do they really want, and more importantly, how can you get them to tell you?
There are several ways to ask for, and receive customer feedback.
Many ecommerce retailers (and retailers in general) make the mistake of assuming that if people aren’t complaining about their service, they must be perfectly happy. In the real world, however, busy people often don’t take the time to complain about a product, service, or business until they are very unhappy-usually after more than one negative experience.
Business owners need to understand this and be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to asking for and responding to customer feedback.
Make it easy and convenient for your customers to communicate with you.
Survey Cards
Yes, people still use regular mail from time-to-time, especially if you make it easy for them in the form of a postage-paid card that can be easily dropped in a mailbox.
Including these with customer orders allows customers to provide feedback on the quality of service and the products that they’ve just received-as well as any additional comments, as soon as they receive their orders.
Email Surveys
You probably have a list of customer emails at your disposal, so why not use them? A short and to-the –point email survey can go a long way towards garnering valuable customer feedback, particularly if you offer your customers something (i.e. a coupon, link to a landing page containing a special offer, etc.) in exchange for completing the survey.
You don’t have to limit your survey to the customers in your list. If you have a physical storefront as well as an ecommerce storefront, you can ask customers to take the survey in-store on a computer or tablet device. You should also reach out to your Facebook fans and Twitter followers, which brings us to our next tip.
Social Media
These days, social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others are popular places for consumers to share their experiences, good and bad with businesses. Monitor your Facebook page and Twitter feeds for mentions of your product and company, and set up notifications on Twitter to alert you to specific product or company mentions.
As I said in the last section, you can also use Twitter and Facebook to poll your customers and fans, asking them to rate their experience with your company, for feedback on the quality of service that they received, and more. Don’t underestimate the value of social media when it comes to connecting with customers and potential customers online.
Use the feedback that you receive to improve your site and reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Ask Them Directly
Whether you have a sales department, or you are the sales department for your online business, you should take the time to call some existing customers to find out about their overall experience on your site.
Sometimes, people respond more readily to personal calls, and are more willing to give feedback over the phone than via email or a customer response survey card.
However you reach out to your customers, be sure to ask them questions like:
- How did you hear about our business?
- What was your main reason for purchasing?
- Was any part of the checkout process confusing or difficult to understand?
- Are you satisfied with your experience i.e. would you purchase products from the site again?
- Do you have any suggestions for improvement?
Once you know what your customers want, you can work on implementing their suggestions and incorporating their feedback into your overall marketing and business strategies.
Miva