by Samulel Gitukui
One of the most important aspects of product design and improvement for any business is useful feedback from the customers. It is the customers themselves who know what they are looking for and what exactly they need from a product.
However, it is no easy task to get reliable customer feedback and many entrepreneurs would rather not go through the seemingly grueling task. Still, with the right strategy, you can get customers to tell you everything you need to know to turn your product into something that conquers the market.
Here's how!
1. Ask for feedback
It might sound simple but as much as asking for feedback is the most direct and effective way to get it, it still needs to be approached in the most efficient way.
The idea here is to get as many responses as possible, since fewer answers can be skewed by the noise. The more the responses are, the less susceptible they are to being skewed, making the results more reliable.
You can get useful feedback by getting customers to leave comments. To do this, there are tools that you can utilize such as Zendesk for sending comment requests through emails. You can also ask customers to take surveys.
2. Know the ‘WHY’
Most times on the comments, customers will send you feature requests on what about the products they would like to see improved.
Naturally, any business person might be tempted to alter the products as per the customer’s requests without understanding why they are asking for them in the first place.
It’s important to know the reasons behind the requests otherwise you might find yourself making changes all too often.
3. Identify trends
Feedback will tend to be quantitative in nature. You might find yourself being biased by all the information and proceed to provide the simple solutions first.
By developing a list based on frequency of requests, you can instead focus on providing solutions to those that have the most impact. After you’ve done this, then you can focus on the second request on the list.
4. Segment your customer requests
Some requests will be from paying customers while others from free customers. However, the free customers may only focus on the features about the products. Even if you were to spend a considerable portion of your resources to fulfill their needs, it would still be unclear whether they would convert to paying customers.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t put any focus on fulfilling free customer requests. The trick is to know what to prioritize. With paid customers, there is a high chance that providing solutions to their requests will create loyal customers.
5. Go with the largest impact
Regardless of the type of business, there is one challenge that every entrepreneur must face—limited resources.
You will not be able to handle all the requests. By prioritizing on the those that have the largest impact, you can utilize your resources more efficiently and come up with solutions and product changes that reach the most people.
One of the most important aspects of product design and improvement for any business is useful feedback from the customers. It is the customers themselves who know what they are looking for and what exactly they need from a product.
However, it is no easy task to get reliable customer feedback and many entrepreneurs would rather not go through the seemingly grueling task. Still, with the right strategy, you can get customers to tell you everything you need to know to turn your product into something that conquers the market.
Here's how!
1. Ask for feedback
It might sound simple but as much as asking for feedback is the most direct and effective way to get it, it still needs to be approached in the most efficient way.
The idea here is to get as many responses as possible, since fewer answers can be skewed by the noise. The more the responses are, the less susceptible they are to being skewed, making the results more reliable.
You can get useful feedback by getting customers to leave comments. To do this, there are tools that you can utilize such as Zendesk for sending comment requests through emails. You can also ask customers to take surveys.
2. Know the ‘WHY’
Most times on the comments, customers will send you feature requests on what about the products they would like to see improved.
Naturally, any business person might be tempted to alter the products as per the customer’s requests without understanding why they are asking for them in the first place.
It’s important to know the reasons behind the requests otherwise you might find yourself making changes all too often.
3. Identify trends
Feedback will tend to be quantitative in nature. You might find yourself being biased by all the information and proceed to provide the simple solutions first.
By developing a list based on frequency of requests, you can instead focus on providing solutions to those that have the most impact. After you’ve done this, then you can focus on the second request on the list.
4. Segment your customer requests
Some requests will be from paying customers while others from free customers. However, the free customers may only focus on the features about the products. Even if you were to spend a considerable portion of your resources to fulfill their needs, it would still be unclear whether they would convert to paying customers.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t put any focus on fulfilling free customer requests. The trick is to know what to prioritize. With paid customers, there is a high chance that providing solutions to their requests will create loyal customers.
5. Go with the largest impact
Regardless of the type of business, there is one challenge that every entrepreneur must face—limited resources.
You will not be able to handle all the requests. By prioritizing on the those that have the largest impact, you can utilize your resources more efficiently and come up with solutions and product changes that reach the most people.
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