Asking your clients for feedback is invaluable for your business. You learn how they perceive your brand and what changes you may need to make to deliver the best experience for them. When you understand more about them and who they are, you can create experiences that speak directly to their needs.

 

1. Always ask – Make it a practice to ask for feedback, good or bad

There are many opportunities to ask for feedback, for example after a group presentation, special event, client or team meeting. And you need to ask and make it easy to receive the feedback.

While not as easy to receive, you can learn invaluable information from a dissatisfied comment, allowing you to correct the situation, opening the door to learn more from the person who shared. Often the complainant knows what they would prefer, giving you a clear path to take action.

Positive feedback can be converted into powerful testimonials, see #6 below.

 

2. Use a survey – Create one place to collect feedback

We created a feedback survey on the platform SurveyMonkey to request participant feedback in our monthly sessions.

Participants are told a link will be shared with them following the session, inviting both positive and negative feedback.

Find a platform or tool that works for you and consider what feedback is useful to receive.

 

3. Ask for audience preferences – What works for them

We also used a survey to request input on the best day and time for our audience to attend our virtual programs.

Asking your audience what works for them shows you are client focused. Ultimately, we increased attendance by accommodating the most popular day and time.

What would you like to increase with feedback from your target audience?

 

4. Email a request to your best clients – How do they describe what you do?

Knowing what’s most important to your best clients, and how they describe what you do for them results in powerful insights and testimonials.

When communicating with clients, it’s essential to use their words, not yours. These words will resonate with them and with other clients like them.

Make a list of your best clients and send an individual simple short email request like, “What’s one thing you can always count on from (me)?” (Or insert the name of your business)

 

 5. Assign someone to ask – Ask in person

If you participate in events or trade shows, consider gathering live testimonials from attendees. Capture these moments on video if possible.

Ask a team member to take photos or video of attendees (with permission) and request quick comments, e.g. “What’s your biggest takeaway from the event?”

You can collect the responses as a Voice Memo and transcribe them. We use www.otter.ai to simultaneously record and transcribe, which makes it easy to re-listen and edit if the transcription misses a word or two.

 

6. Where to use social proof – Be strategic

What do you do with all the feedback?

 

Sales Proof for a specific product or service. Add any applicable comments to help a potential purchaser understand the value others experience.

For example, we feature several different testimonials collected following an consultation. Each one has been selected to offer greater insight and comfort to anyone interested in investing in Kolbe™ for themselves or their team.

 

Social media is all about sharing. You can create graphics with some or all of the testimonial words and add a headshot of the person providing those words. We use Linkedin headshots, with permission. The graphic can be shared on your preferred social media platform with a tag to the author’s social site, giving both of you profile on social media.

Monitor social media for mentions of your brand and reshare. Request permission to use positive mentions or testimonials as social proof on your website or marketing pieces.

 

Email Marketing Use positive customer feedback in your email marketing campaigns and feature snippets of testimonials in newsletters or promotional emails.

 

8. Get permission – Ask before sharing

Once you have feedback, provide an effusive “Thank you”.

Before sharing it on your website, social media, or in other promotional materials, edit the commentary submitted to focus on any specific aspect you want to feature.

Then send it back to your client for permission to share, requesting their preferred acknowledgment, e.g. Ms. Susan Little, CEO, BestCo or SL, CEO.

Permission respects their privacy, and ensures authenticity.

 

If you haven’t been collecting social proof for your business, it’s time to start.

Contact us to discover the best approach for you.