Customer feedback could help you beat competitors

It has for long been touted as a definite way of enlisting public opinion about service delivery or a given product; but how can feedback help business facing a nose-dive-fall improve its fortunes? My experience as a marketer has brought forth the bitter truth that much as a business may create mass awareness about a product, but ignores market response (feedback) about the product, the ffort would be as good as throwing money into oblivion. What entrepreneurs should always remember is that a multimillion dollar campaign does not always assure them of sustainable returns in the long-run. Companies obtain feedback using different means. For instance, telecom firms, use their regional retailers and distributors who them forward feedback from their clients, a sample of which is used to represent the entire customer base. Empirically, they may be right, but such statistical data many times is insufficient and could be misleading as it isn’t representative of the entire customer sentiments about a particular product or service. Invariably, this approach raises other questions like how well the feedback is used. Therefore, it important to devise means of getting feedback, putting in mind the size of your customer base. But what is the fuss about feedback, and how well can it be used?Ideally, the essence of feedback is to ensure customer satisfaction, establish a product’s position in the market and, above all, ensure customer retention. A firm’s business analysts are expected to use the information gathered to find remedies to the issues raised. This could result in a company rebranding or changing packaging of its products to create more product appeal. Feedback is also a huge tool a firm can use to realign its position in the market. If used well, feedback will help a company beat the competition and cement its presence in the market. Real time feedback In this computer era, companies use different ways to obtain feedback in real time, conveniently and fast. On this front, new approaches like the ‘Feedbox’ system have come in handy. The system enables firms to sign up and create accounts with the service provider to be able to keep track of customer response among different branches online. Statistically, it shows variances between different branches. The system can easily help organisations understand customer needs and hence improve service delivery. Also, businesses in Rwanda like in other countries, besides social media platforms, use the traditional suggestion boxes to obtain customer feedback. However, this old school approach means that response to customer queries is often slow. That’s why organisations should embrace technology and develop creative ways of getting and responding to customer feedback instantly. For instance, recently I had a cup of coffee at a coffee shop in Nyarutarama and noticed that their coffee was difference; richer and tasty compared to my usual coffee bar at Kigali City Tower run under the same brand. I was excited and wanted to express my appreciation to management, but my efforts were futile. Such disconnect between the customer and a proprietor can always create problems in getting feedback. For businesses like coffee shops or restaurants, real time feedback would help an organisation’s management control the quality of a product or service delivery at several branches immediately. This is especially important in the present cutthroat competition, where many a business are looking to leverage better customer service to gain an edge over the competition. Therefore, embracing mechanisms that can help a firm obtain feedback from clientele and then respond right away, as well as address the anomaly in question, is a sure way of outcompeting rivals.