3 Ways Customer Feedback Can Supercharge Your Online Retail Strategy

I'm often asked by online retailers how using an online feedback solution is going to help them increase conversions and sales. On the surface, the question is quite reasonable. They know that providing the products and services their target audience wants, along with competitive pricing and a great user experience, is a winning strategy in e-commerce. What will listening to their customers really add to what they already know about growing their business?

Based on Kampyle's experience working with tens of thousands of online retailers, it's determined that customer feedback impacts your business in three transformational ways:

1. You gain competitive and actionable insight that drives increased conversions and revenues. When designing and strategizing your site, the best usability experts are your customers. Without their feedback you might think you know what they want, but you could be way off. The success of your website’s funnels from search to checkout all depend on a high conversion rate. Getting conversion rate optimization right is like shooting in the dark when lacking real insight from your customers.

For example, Hotels Combined, an international hotel comparison site, noticed on its Google Analytics account that one of its search features was hardly being used. It assumed the feature didn’t provide real value and removed it. Hotels Combined immediately began receiving feedback from a small but high-value group of users stating that this feature was one of the main reasons they liked using the site and they wanted it back. Without this incredible feedback, the online travel site would have no doubt alienated those important users (and their wallets), all the while thinking it had done the right thing.

Takeaway No. 1: Listening to customers isn't only about making them feel like you truly care (although this is very important of course). Rather, customer feedback is all about gaining a competitive advantage with real insight into what influenced your customers’ overall experience and satisfaction level. Improved customer experiences directly impact and improve conversion rates, which in turn increases revenue.

2. It creates new lead generation and inbound marketing channels. In the last year, Kampyle's clients began using its feedback solution for lead generation and inbound marketing. They noticed that around 50 percent of feedback included the online visitor's contact details — either email address, phone number or both. These feedback submissions turned out to be an excellent lead source for sales and marketing, with over 45 percent of them ultimately converting into sales.

With over 800 million users, Facebook has also been integral in transforming customer feedback into inbound traffic and leads. When your online customers share their feedback, offer them the option to post a promotional message or link about your product or service on their Facebook wall. These posts are a very effective way to extend your brand's reach and drive traffic from your customer's Facebook friends to your site.

Takeaway No. 2: Feedback isn't just about optimizing your site. With intelligent forwarding in place, feedback can easily be leveraged to increase qualified leads, inbound traffic and social marketing reach — directly impacting your bottom line.

3. It economizes and streamlines support. Customer support has become a huge differentiator — look at companies like Zappos and Rackspace, for example — and many retailers are now pouring resources into this area. However, excellent tier-one support can be logistically challenging and prohibitively expensive. This is where online customer feedback can be used to provide first-rate customer support at an economical price. Customized and relevant auto-reply emails triggered by feedback content can be sent to customers, thereby reducing the need for immediate real-person response. The feedback can also be segmented, prioritized and distributed to the appropriate teams, ensuring that the right level and correct type of support is given to customers who really need it.

Takeaway No. 3: You need excellent customer support to differentiate your business. When managed properly, customer feedback can provide you with a smart and affordable way to give your customers the service they deserve.

Ariel Finkelstein is the co-founder and CEO of Kampyle. Since 2007, Ariel has overseen Kampyle's growth from an emerging startup to a leading SaaS provider of online customer feedback solutions, serving both SMB and enterprise companies around the globe. Ariel can be reached at ariel.finkelstein@kampyle.com.