Take customer feedback and make digital lemonade: Cool things small business owners should do with customer comments

I say every week in my blogs “Thanks for reading and please leave your thoughts and ideas below”. But, what do small business owners do when people leave their comments, feedback, thoughts, ideas or a piece of their heart on their website?

Well, don’t let it go to waste. You have to take the information given to you and put it to use for the good, even if the comments aren’t so much on the good side.

Only the good comments please

I really like this article by Akshaya Ventkat about the 5 Cool things you can do with customer feedback. I encourage you to check it out but think of it but keep in mind how you can utilize these ideas on your website. Things like:

• Link for positive customer feedback – Take those positive letters and photocopy, take a picture or share the emails (all with permission from the writer) and put them on your website for all to see.
• Use small statements for social media posts – Include a short customer quote in social posts and short digital content. Even if you don’t get approval, you can use first names only or initials and business industry or another identifier that matters.
• Contribute positive comments to employees – When you contribute customer comments directly to your employees, your customers will see the direct connection to your employees which are an extension of you. Doing this on your website shows your commitment to your employees and makes them happier and more engaged.

Take your licks: Bad comments are good too

It’s hard to get people to be honest when they don’t have good customer service and to have them clearly indicate what was bad about their experience our what they would like to see different. When you do get very real and relevant feedback, you should think of this as a great opportunity to improve and not as a negative showing how bad you are.

Here’s how you make lemonade with the bad comments:

• Acknowledge them immediately and if given publicly. respond publicly – You can gain a life long supporter (or more) just by responding to someone who had a bad experience and letting others see you handle it in the best, most positive way. Thanking the customer for their great feedback and rewarding them for being incredibly honest and helping you grow your business through a free product or service to get them to come back and see you. If the second experience is positive, they will leave you very positive feedback. Then take that and refer to the above section.
• When  you change a service because of a great customer suggestion, highlight them on your website – You will gain their supporters and show that you listen to your customers and make changes to make a better experience for them. It also shows that you are a progressive business.

Whether good or bad, customer feedback should be taken, treasured and used for your benefit and to make your business a better place. What is some recent feedback that you received and how did you handle it? Leave your ideas for others below.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!