E-commerce: Why is customer feedback important and how can brands collect it effectively?

Customer feedback is crucial for e-commerce brands. And when your most loyal customers provide their opinions about your brand and products, listening to them will help you recognize what’s working well and what may be in need of improvement. It’s an opportunity for your brand to make changes to your brand, products, product detail pages, and so much more.

Here’s a deeper dive into why you should listen to customer feedback and best practices when collecting that feedback.

Why listen to customer feedback?

When your e-commerce customers are eager and willing to share their opinions about your brand or products, listening to that feedback will go a long way. The good feedback will give you the momentum you need to keep delivering on the customer experience, and the negative feedback will open up a whole world of opportunities to improve the customer experience.

Here are some of the benefits of listening to customer feedback:

• It outlines areas of improvement: If your shoppers are leaving feedback about the quality of your products, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the materials or ingredients that go into manufacturing them.
• It helps to boost loyalty: When customers see that you’re listening to their feedback and making improvements to your products, it shows them that you care. It also indicates that you value their business and want to make sure that they’re happy with your products and returning to your site.
• It could lead to more business: Once you start making improvements, your customers will take notice. Your most loyal customers will return to your site to stock up on their favorites, increasing their average order value. Plus, some may even start to refer your brand and products to family and friends leading to more business.

5 best practices when collecting feedback

Understanding the importance of customer feedback can have a huge impact on your brand. And with the following best practices, you can ensure that you’re continuing to nurture your relationship with your customers by listening to their feedback.

1) Have a dedicated space to collect feedback

Before listening to your customers’ feedback, you have to make sure you have an organized way to collect it. Using a reviews solution that can automate the feedback process for you can really pay off by saving you time and effort. This will allow you to collect feedback about your site and products by sending an automatic request via personalized emails or SMS marketing.

2) Collect as much detailed information as possible

If you’re looking to understand overall sentiment about your products, you’ll need to gather all of the nitty gritty details. Capturing in-depth details about the color, taste, texture, smell, and size can be a really powerful way to show shoppers that you value their opinions. Plus, these details can help other shoppers along the path to purchase.

3) Display customer feedback on your site

Speaking of the path to purchase, whether the reviews are positive or negative, ensure that all of your product feedback is getting displayed directly to your site. This will allow shoppers to read your product reviews and determine whether the product is the right fit for their needs.

4) Respond to customer feedback

Acknowledging your customer feedback is one of the key pillars to retention. Show your customers that you see and hear them by responding to positive and negative reviews. You can thank them for their kind words, offer encouragement, and/or find a possible solution to their problem.

5) Act on the feedback

Once you’ve responded to a customer review about a product, don’t just let it sit there on your product detail page — act on it. If it’s a positive review, consider displaying it more prominently on your site within key conversion areas as a form of social proof. If it’s a negative review, strategize on what you can do to improve and make things right for the customer so that they remain loyal to your brand.

The impact of customer feedback

Feedback is vital to all businesses — regardless of size or industry. And what you do with that feedback says a lot about your brand and brand values. If you’re looking to gain a deeper connection with your customers and show that you trust their opinions, listening and acting on this feedback can help to boost customer loyalty and retention.

And with increased loyalty and retention, you can win customers for life — leading to an increase in average order value and positive sentiment towards your brand. So what are you waiting for? Start taking note of your shoppers’ most detailed opinions and consider what new changes you can implement to your products. Learn more about how your brand can collect, display, and amplify your product reviews at Yotpo.com.