(Image sourced from Financial Economy Blog (2017))

In this short article, we will be looking at Customer Feedback in the world of Social Media Marketing and I’ll be giving you 5 Tips on what you should be doing with your customer feedback.

Whether it be positive or negative it is important that we know how to use this feedback to make our company’s Digital Marketing presence better.

In a time where user generated content is so key in the world of Social Media Marketing it’s important that you know how to make the most of your user’s feedback.

That’s where I step in, to make sure that you understand how to utilise customer feedback and how it can take your Social Media Marketing to the next level!

‘GIVE US THE 5 TIPS ALREADY!’

Okay, okay, let’s jump in straight at the deep end, here are 5 Tips on what you should be doing with your customer’s feedback:

1. Listen and Monitor – Use social measurement tools such as; Crimson Hexagon, Facebook Insights, Brandwatch etc. Telio (2016) (Click Here For a deeper insight by brandwatch)
2. Join the Conversation: Rather than stopping at just looking and listening, join in! Engage with your customers through the social media platforms that you use, asking them questions on existing or future products to make them feel involved. Telio (2016)
3. Use Unedited Customer Reviews: Show your potential customers existing reviews including their name and a photo (make sure you check with the customers first!). This gains potential customers trust, think of it as the online equivalent of word of mouth advertising. Roy (2017)
4. Utilise specific platforms tools: Facebook has Facebook Groups, Twitter has Twitter Polls, and Google has Google alerts. They’re there for a reason, use them! The GAIN Team (2017)
5. Keep the customers in the loop: Let your customers now how you’re following up on their feedback. It makes them feel acknowledged and valued and if possible keep it as personal to the customer as possible rather than a generic reply. Tannenbaum (2016)

(For ease of access, each original Author’s name has been hyperlinked to their full article)

(Image sourced from Customer Experience Insight)

Just from these 5 tips it is clear to see that you should be utilising your customer feedback and using it to your advantage. However, it is important to note that you should be using both positive and negative feedback, that’s not to say you should have unedited negative customer reviews on your website. What this does mean though is that rather than ignore negative feedback you should use it as a learning tool to see where you are going wrong.

The Theory

Don’t just take my word on it, author Dave Chaffey has created a Digital Marketing Mix that clearly pins Customer feedback as one of the key points in Social Media Marketing. (see image below)

Model by, Chaffey (2011)

As you can see there is a lot more to the scope of Digital Marketing. However, Social Media Marketing and more specifically Customer Feedback is what I have decided to concentrate on in this article.

As well as creating the Digital Marketing Mix, Chaffey is also an established author. In his co-authored book ‘Digital Marketing’ Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick (2016) (page 327) he talks about the ‘Online voice of customer’ which in his words is:

‘Qualitative assessments of the effectiveness of digital presence based on direct customer feedback. They answer, ‘who and why’ questions about how customers interact with brands online’

Digital Marketing by, Chaffey & Ellis Chadwick (2016)

Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick focus on physical evidence and procedures to attain customer feedback, if you do the same then your Digital Presence will be on the right track.

So, it isn’t an area to be taken lightly to say the least. I have simply scratched the surface of a much bigger area and professionals in the area (such as Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick) go into much further detail.

The take away

In the ever-changing world of digital marketing it is important to stay up to date on all trends especially when it is concerning your customers. By all means please don’t put all of your resources just into customer feedback, although it is crucially important you need to concentrate on other aspects too (remember the 6 channels for digital marketing Chaffey (2011)). However, I hope that this article has given you an insight of Customer Feedback’s importance in the world of digital marketing and that you start implementing some (if not all) of the above tips.

As always thanks for reading,

Haydn

Bibliography

Bannister, K. (2015) Research: How to Mine Social Media for Customer and Product Feedback [Online] Available at <https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/research-how-to-gain-product-feedback-in-hours-not-weeks/> [accessed 20^th November 2017]

Chaffey, D. (2011) Digital marketing channels [Online] Available at <https://www.smartinsights.com/reach/attachment/digital-marketing-channels/> [accessed 20^th November 2017]

Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016) Digital Marketing. 6^th ed, Harlow: Pearson

Financial Economy Blog (2017) How To: Make to the most of customer feedback [Online] Available at <https://financialeconomyblog.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-customer-feedback/> [accessed 22^nd November 2017]

McGovern, M. (2013) No Response? Here’s how to get more customer feedback [Online] Available at <http://www.customerexperienceinsight.com/no-response-8-ways-to-get-more-customer-feedback/> [accessed 22^nd November 2017]

Roy, A. (2017) 7 Tips to Market Your Brand Using Customer Reviews [Online] Available at <http://www.jeffbullas.com/7-tips-market-brand-using-customer-reviews/> [accessed 20^th November 2017]

Tannenbaum, A. (2016) Social Media for Customer Feedback: A Bufferchat Recap [Online] Available at <https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-for-customer-feedback-a-bufferchat-recap> [accessed 20^th November 2017]

Telio, S. (2016) How to Collect Customer Feedback Using Social Media [Online] Available at <https://community.uservoice.com/blog/customer-feedback-social-media/> [accessed 20^th November 2017]

The GAIN Team (2017) 4 Dead Simple Ways to Gather Customer Feedback on Social Media [Online] Available at <https://blog.gainapp.com/gather-customer-feedback-social-media/> [accessed 20^th November 2017]