Customer Feedback in 2024: An In-Depth Guide

A recent study shows that ~75% of customers consider customer experience one of the most significant factors influencing purchasing decisions.¹ However, less than half of customers are satisfied with the service they receive. This data highlights the need for businesses to prioritize customer feedback to improve their customer experience and gain a competitive edge.

This article explores

• How to collect customer feedback
• The benefits of gathering customer feedback
• Best practices for collecting customer feedback.

What is customer feedback?

Source: Statista

Figure 1. Customer attitudes toward brands in 2022

Customer feedback refers to the insights, opinions, and sentiments customers express regarding a product or service they have used. It is a valuable source of information that can assist businesses in identifying areas for improvement and making data-driven decisions.

In today’s competitive environment, businesses must provide their customers with a seamless and personalized experience. Gathering and analyzing customer feedback is critical to achieving this goal. Businesses can improve their products, services, and overall customer experience by learning what customers like, dislike, and need.

6 ways to gather customer feedback

Companies collect feedback from their customers through different methods. Here are some:

1- Traditional surveys

Traditional surveys can provide valuable insights into customer experiences, such as customer satisfaction, product features, or customer service. A customer feedback survey can be distributed through emails or phone calls.

2- Focus groups

Focus groups involve small groups of individuals asking to comment on a good or service. They can give companies a better understanding of their customers, enabling them to develop more specialized goods and services.

3- Interviews

These entail one-on-one talks with individuals over the phone or in person. Businesses can learn more about a customer’s experience through in-depth interviews, which can also help them pinpoint areas to improve.

4- Online surveys

Conducting online customer feedback surveys helps companies understand the customer journey cost-efficiently to gain insights. Online surveys can be emailed, embedded on a website, or shared on social media, which makes them advantageous compared to traditional methods.

Learn more about the advantages of online surveys through our in-depth article.

5- Phone calls

These entail a customer support agent contacting a client to obtain feedback on their experience. Businesses can get real-time feedback on a customer’s experience through phone calls, allowing them to resolve any problems or concerns right away.

6- Chatbot customer services

Chatbot customer services can be designed to elicit information and ask particular questions about products, services, or user experiences. Chatbots can give organizations an affordable option to get real-time customer insights and can be accessed 24/7.

5 benefits of collecting customer feedback

1- Improve customer satisfaction

According to research, there are 26 unhappy consumers for every satisfied customer, and businesses address only 4% of customer complaints. By collecting feedback and acting on them by listening to the voice of customers, companies can address unhappy customers’ needs, which increases customer satisfaction scores.

2- Build brand loyalty

86% of loyal customers recommend the company to friends or family, 66% write positive reviews, and 46% remain loyal even after a negative experience. Businesses can create a virtuous cycle in which customer loyalty and satisfaction improve over time by implementing changes based on customer feedback and communicating these changes to customers.

Through this process, businesses can create a loyal customer base that is more likely to recommend the brand to others, resulting in increased sales and revenue over the long term.

3- Improve marketing strategies

~85% of marketers acknowledge the importance of customer experience in their success; however, only 14% report having strong capabilities in this area. Collecting and analyzing customer feedback enables businesses to identify common pain points to be addressed.

Companies can collect customer feedback to:

• Improve their messaging, targeting, and consumer segmentation strategies
• Develop customer profiles
• Increase their overall conversion rates and customer acquisition
• Track and assess the effectiveness of their marketing activities.

4- Identify product improvement areas

Source: Maze

Figure 2. The customer feedback loop in developing new products

Companies can spot patterns and trends in customer feedback, like recurring complaints or improvement requests, and they can turn them into actionable feedback. Given the impact on customer success and the possibility of revenue development, organizations can use consumer data to rank improvement areas. 

Businesses can also obtain qualitative data from consumer feedback in addition to quantitative data, such as specific product features that customers want to see added or improved. By doing this, businesses can produce goods that more effectively satisfy the demands and expectations of their clients. This may lead to:

• Higher customer satisfaction
• Brand loyalty
• Revenue growth in the long term.

5- Reduce customer churn

Collecting feedback can assist businesses in reducing customer churn by identifying the reasons for it and making targeted improvements to address those issues. Businesses can proactively identify areas where their products, services, or customer experience falls short by regularly collecting customer feedback.

This can assist them in taking action to address these issues before customer churn and even increase customer retention rates. For instance, after focusing on their customer services to understand customers’ needs and build positive relationships, American Express increased customer retention by 400%.²

How to develop a customer feedback strategy?

Creating a customer feedback collection strategy entails identifying the appropriate channels for collecting feedback, developing a structured approach for gathering and analyzing feedback, and communicating feedback results to relevant stakeholders. Here we explain the 6 best practices for gathering feedback.

6 best practices for collecting customer feedback

1- Choose the right questions

Make sure your questions are clear, specific, and relevant to your goals. Avoid using ambiguous or confusing language that may lead to misunderstanding.

For instance, “How satisfied were you with your experience?” is an example of a bad customer feedback question in a survey.

This is a poor example because it is too broad and does not provide specific information that can be used to improve. It also provides no context for the evaluative experience, such as the product, service, or interaction that the customer had.

“How satisfied were you with the ease of use of our online checkout process?” might be a better question. This question is more focused on a specific aspect of the customer’s experience, providing more meaningful feedback that can be used to make targeted improvements.

2- Develop a structured approach

Keep in mind that the customers have individual differences, meaning that they have varying degrees of preferences, likes, and dislikes. Thus, it is crucial to clearly state the goals of the strategy for collecting customer feedback, including:

• Who will be the target audience?
• The types of feedback that will be gathered
• How will the feedback be used?
• Who will be in charge of making changes in response to the input?

3- Use the proper channels

Businesses should consider which channels are best suited to different customer profiles. For example, younger customers may be more likely to provide feedback through social media or online surveys, whereas older customers may prefer phone or email feedback channels.

Source: Insider Intelligence

Figure 3. The preferred social media channels by Gen Z between 2020-2025

Businesses can tailor their feedback collection strategy to maximize participation and ensure that feedback is collected from a diverse range of customers by understanding the preferences of different customer segments. Businesses can create a more effective omnichannel customer feedback-gathering strategy by leveraging customer data to identify the most appropriate feedback channels for different customer segments, resulting in more meaningful insights and a more satisfied customer base.

4- Ask for feedback in a personalized manner

70% of customers state that impersonalized experience makes them feel frustrated. Thus, personalizing the consumer feedback collection process is becoming increasingly crucial for organizations looking to acquire a competitive advantage. As a result, there may be more involvement, more insightful input, and improved customer experiences. Businesses can use tailored feedback to improve operations and foster deeper client relationships.

Businesses that don’t offer individualized feedback collection will probably lag behind their rivals as customers grow accustomed to personalized experiences. By embracing personalization, organizations may better understand the wants and preferences of their customers, which will ultimately lead to commercial success.

Here is an example of a personalized request to provide feedback:

“Hello [Customer Name], we appreciate your recent purchase of our luxury skincare line. Would you be willing to provide feedback on the products you’ve tried?”

5- Offer incentives

Source: ALDI

Figure 4. Example of a voucher from ALDI supermarkets in exchange for customer feedback

When not offered incentives, 60% of customers respond to survey questions without paying attention. Discounts, free goods or services, or tickets to a prize drawing are just a few available examples of incentives. Businesses can express their appreciation for customers’ feedback and commitment to enhancing the customer experience by providing rewards.

Incentives might drive customers to submit more thorough feedback and increase participation. Businesses can obtain more comprehensive feedback data that can be utilized to drive targeted improvements by providing incentives for completing longer surveys or providing more in-depth comments.

6- Automate the process

In 2022, more than half of companies report investing in AI, and the top use case is service operations optimization, such as customer care.³ Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be used to automate gathering consumer feedback. Businesses may more effectively detect trends, patterns, and areas for improvement using AI-powered solutions for gathering and analyzing enormous volumes of customer input.

If you have questions about collecting customer feedback, feel free to reach us:

External Links

• 1. “Future of CX.” (PDF). PwC. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
• 2. “Future of CX.” (PDF). PwC. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
• 3. “The State of AI in 2022.” McKinsey. December 6, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023.