3 Reasons Why Customer Feedback in Online Communities is Crucial for Brand Success

77%^[i] of consumers lean towards a brand that values their feedback by acting on it.

However, most companies struggle to get honest feedback from their customer base. When you create a new product or launch a new service, you probably have an idea about your customers’ core needs. But, you can only know about their actual experience, flaws, etc., after they use your products/services and provide feedback.

So, is there a way for companies to source honest feedback from their customers? The answer is – Yes.

An online community influences the success of a brand in many direct and indirect ways. From fostering relations to uncovering brand advocates, they play a crucial role. This is why the success of community and brand depends on the customers’ feedback and suggestions.

Let’s find out how you can source customer feedback from the community and how it has a deep-rooted impact on your community’s success.

Why is Customer Feedback Important?

Data is an invaluable asset for any organization and feedback is probably the most important form of data. It enables an organization to view its services and products from a customer’s perspective and evaluate their performance.

Here are some benefits that organizations can reap by proactively collecting customer feedback –

• Improve customer satisfaction
• Inspire employees/vendors to perform better
• Instill a sense of involvement within customers
• Ensure continued learning and growth for your brand
• Identify areas of improvement

Collecting Customer Feedback From Communities

Clearly, customer feedback is crucial for a business to grow. But what’s more important is to ensure collected feedback is authentic before taking action on it.

This is why online communities are a preferred channel to collect feedback. These are designed to foster candid interactions and engage customers. When customers are able to connect directly with the brand, they tend to share high-quality, useful feedback.

Customer feedback is often time-sensitive and requires immediate attention. So, gathering intended information in a hyper-engaged community becomes a challenge. To make it easier to filter meaningful feedback from communities, a community manager can –

• Create a dedicated thread/space for customers to provide feedback
• Recruit a dedicated team for feedback handling
• Appreciate meaningful feedback
• Encourage customers to discuss feedback and observe the discussions
• Participate in feedback discussions when needed
• Evaluate the feedback and implement actionable solutions

Impact of Customer Feedback on the Success of Communities

An online community enables a brand to foster deeper relations with its customers. Having said that, customer feedback plays a crucial role in fostering relations. Because when a brand encourages and acts on customer feedback, it shows that it cares for its customers. As a result, customers feel comfortable telling brands about their experiences and expectations more openly. This is how a brand earns loyal customers.

Here is how customer feedback impacts the success of an online community –

1. Understand Your Customers’ Expectations

The key to unlocking customer satisfaction is by understanding what they expect. As a member of the community, a customer would be interacting with other customers and the brand. Community managers are required to offer a safe environment to the members in the community. It enables customers to share their insights, expectations, and what they care about which keeps the community thriving.

2. Identify Areas of Improvement

Having good knowledge of where your customers are struggling will enable you to make much-needed improvements. Negative feedback is a great opportunity to look for gaps in the service or product delivery and do better. Find conversations in your community where your customers talk about their struggles and use them to find potential improvements. After you successfully come up with a solution, build a case study and feature that in your community. Let others know that you’re listening and making continuous improvements.

3. Identify Your Brand Advocates

When customers leave feedback, it means they actually want you to do better. So, look for members who often leave comments, reviews, feedback in your community and treat them as your super members. Interact with them as they can influence others to connect with your community and brand.

Collecting feedback from customers is important for the longevity of the organization. Thus, it remains the primary objective for the most successful brand. An online community enables you to build an environment for your customers to leave honest feedback. Leverage your online community to collect, analyze, and utilize authentic feedback.

Wish to Build Multidimensional Online Communities That Boost ROI? Talk to us!

References
[I] HAVAS