Customer Feedback Survey Is the Key to Product Innovation, and So Is Customer Experience

While we all have heard about how epic brands like Kodak and Nokia failed to adapt and failed to take their chances to innovate. This eventually led to the demise of these brands.

Are these the only brands that became extinct because they didn’t adapt? Most importantly, they did not listen to what the customers and market wanted – this is the main premise of brands becoming extinct.

Why Do You Create Products?

Firstly, you identify a need in the market, and you create a product to fulfill the need. The needs could even be latent ones where the customer segment is not even thinking about the need.

Secondly, you identify a gap in the market not filled by the incumbents, and you decide to fill those gaps with your offering.

This is the fundamental behind creating products. Once you become successful, the same principles should apply to sustain your brand.

You will have to keep innovating by constantly listening to your customers and understanding the market dynamics to stay relevant.

When brands miss out on this, they tend to lose customer steam and eventually exit the space.

A Few Examples of Brands That Went Out of Business

Have You Heard of Segway?

It was a personal motorized scooter invented and brought to the market in 2001. It was the new low-pollution, quick way to travel short distances.

They planned this as a revolutionary mode of transportation.

What did it turn out to be?

They fizzled out because there were rules that stated where you could and couldn’t ride it, and it also came with a hefty price tag of $5000.

This turned out to be a gimmick, and it was used by Mall Cops in American movies and students in Glasgow’s hipster west end.

If only segway had cleared it out with the authorities on where it could be used. If only they had done this before setting the price and expectations, they could have positioned this for a different market.

It could well have been a success story.

I Still Cherish the Tie That I Bought From Tie Rack

Tie Rack was founded in 1981, and it had outlets in train stations and airports to attract the attention of business people.

They only sold ties, scarves, and cufflinks.

However, they failed to do their research, and they did not listen to their customer’s shopping preferences.

It turned out that men were mostly buying their ties when they bought shirts.

In 2013, it was announced that Tie Rack would begin the closure of their remaining 44 retail stores.

A little bit of listening could have changed the path for Tie Rack.

Toys R Us Was One of the Most Recognized Toy Store Chains

The brands signed a 10-year contract to be an exclusive vendor of toys on Amazon. However, Amazon allowed other toy vendors to sell on its site anyway.

Toys R Us sued Amazon.

As a result, it missed the opportunity to develop its e-commerce presence.

In 2017, the company filed for bankruptcy because of its huge debt and retail competition.

In hindsight, they should have been proactive in setting up their online presence instead of partnering with Amazon.

What Do These Mistakes Teach Us?

It is essential to seek customer feedback and keep improvising to stay relevant at all times.

Why is customer feedback relevant?

Let us look at some examples of how successful brands make use of customer feedback.

Example 1

Slack is one of the most popular communication tools for a reason: it listens closely to user feedback.

The users pointed out that searching for old messages was difficult. Slack did not teach the customers how to search; instead, they improved the search functionality.

They turned a pain point into a strength.

This constant iteration based on feedback helped Slack grow its user base rapidly.

Example 2

Dropbox started as a file storage service.

Their users requested features like shared folders, version history, and integration with third-party apps.

Dropbox listened, and those changes made it more valuable for businesses and teams, turning it into a collaboration tool, not just a file storage solution.

Example 3

Here is the legendary example from Apple.

When Apple was working on the first iPhone, it listened to feedback from its iPod users, who wanted a device that could handle more than just music.

That insight helped guide the development of the smartphone revolution.

Example 4

Why is Tesla considered an innovator?

It constantly gathers feedback from customers through online forums, social media, and even directly from its cars.

Based on feedback, they addressed concerns like battery life, range anxiety, and charging times.

It helped them turn its users into brand advocates.

How Do You Go About Collecting Customer Feedback?

It is very important to ask pointed questions and not broader ones to enhance your product and keep your users interested.

1. Ask at the Right Time

Right after a customer buys your finance software, ask them this question:

• How was your experience activating and configuring the software?
• Did it meet all your needs?

You must ask these questions when the experience is fresh in their minds.

2. Keep It Specific as Well as Open-Ended

Ask customers to rate their experience on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, as they can offer clear insights. However, it may not point to the specific needs of your customers.

This is where your open-ended questions would make a lot of sense.

Ask a simple question: What could be improved?

It allows people to give you deeper feedback.

3. Have You Considered Making It Easy to Give Feedback?

Have you considered embedding feedback forms directly into your product or software?

Recently, I saw a movie on Netflix, and I loved it. At the end of the credits, it had an option to ask for your feedback.

It had three options – thumbs down, thumbs up, and double thumbs up.

Thumbs down – Netflix won’t suggest similar movies for you. Thumbs up – Netflix would, and double thumbs up – you are a true fan, and Netflix would go out of its way to suggest similar stuff.

Do we make it that simple for your users to give feedback?

Imagine having a provision for your users to give feedback while they are using the software. It would be much easier, and they are more likely to engage.

4. Personalization Is Key

If you know the business case for your users, then it becomes very easy to personalize.

How about something like this?

Hi, First name. We noticed you recently purchased the license of our financial planning software for your equity needs. We’d love to hear how it is going and how we can improve the experience.

5. Use Multiple Channels

While we spoke about the in-app feedback process, provide your customers with options to offer feedback via SMS, email, telephony, messaging apps, and social media.

6. Engage in Conversations

Have you considered conducting interviews with your key customers to see how they are using your offerings and talk about their experience?

This would give you far more than you imagine as feedback, which you can use as a part of improvising and enhancing your products.

Look at user forums and groups where users can freely share their ideas or problems. You can actively engage or monitor discussions to gather feedback.

7. Act on Feedback

This is the most critical step in the feedback process. You have to close the loop.

Let us assume that one of your users gives feedback on improving the usability aspects of some key tabs.

You send them back a message stating: Thank you for your suggestion. We have enhanced the usability aspect of this feature. Would you like to try it now and let us know your feedback?

This would build trust and encourage future feedback.

The process of collecting feedback is an ongoing endeavor, and this will help you make sure there is improved user adoption.

You can only invent so much, but innovation and improvisation are definite possibilities, and more often than not, innovations can lead to invention. Seeking feedback is the most important process of innovation.

The only way you’d know what your customers want is by engaging them and asking them the right questions at the right time. Otherwise, no matter how big a brand you are, you will be the next dinosaur.